CATALYST SPRING 2015
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
The Team at the Centre of Drug Discovery
INSIDE:
The UICentre
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A Meeting of Minds: Research Day 2015
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Images of Research
11 Features 11
The UICentre The UICentre brings together the resources and manpower to make drug discovery a reality.
In Every Issue 02 From the Dean
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A Meeting of Minds
03 News
Research Day showcases the work of UIC’s brightest researchers.
08 Student News 09 Images of Research
16 Editorial Publisher Jerry L. Bauman, BS ’76, PHARMD, RES ’77 Dean Editor Chris Gummert Assistant Director of Communications Copy Editor Robert Hoff Contributing Editors Sonya Booth Hugh M. Cook Samuel Hostettler Danny Smith Photography Joshua Clark Barry Donald Roberta Dupuis-Devlin
Judy Bolton, PHD Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy
Thomas TenHoeve III, PHD Student Affairs
Janet Engle, PHARMD ’85 Pharmacy Practice
Assistant Deans Debra Agard, PHARMD ’92, MHPE Student Affairs
Glen T. Schumock, PHARMD, MBA, PHD Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes and Policy Vice Dean, Chicago Marieke Schoen, PHARMD ’88
Monica Carney Assistant Dean, Faculty & Staff Affairs Margaret Delaney, MPA Assistant Dean, Budget & Financial Affairs
Vice Dean, Rockford Regional Program David W. Bartels, PHARMD
Andrew Donnelly, BS ’80, MBA, PHARMD ’87 Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs
Executive Associate Dean Janet Engle, PHARMD ’85
Mary Lynn Moody, BS ‘79 Assistant Dean for Business Development
Associate Deans Clara Awe, PHD, EDD Diversity Affairs
Christopher Shoemaker, MED, MBA, CFRE Assistant Dean for Advancement and Alumni Affairs
Graphic Designer Kimberly Hegarty UIC Office of Publications Services
Nicholas Popovich, BS ’68, MS ’71, PHD ’73 Office of Professional Development
College of Pharmacy Administrative Officers
Dale Rush, CGFM Administrative Affairs
Department Heads William Beck, PHD Biopharmaceutical Sciences
Marieke Schoen, PHARMD ’88 Academic Affairs
Contact the Catalyst The Catalyst (MC 874) 833 South Wood Street, Room 184M Chicago, Illinois 60612 Phone: (312) 996-7785 E-mail: pharmacy@uic.edu Submit letters and feedback to the editor at pharmacy@uic.edu. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. All reader correspondence to the magazine and its editorial staff will be treated as assigned for publication unless otherwise specified. For address changes, call (312) 996-0160.
Rosalyn Vellurattil, PHARMD ’04 Academic Affairs
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FROM THE DEAN
The Importance of Research in a College of Pharmacy The UIC College of Pharmacy is a research intensive institution, always ranked (using federal grant metrics) in the top 10 and often in the top 3 colleges of pharmacy in the nation. It is one our distinguishing features that separates us from others and one that we hold dearly; it is a part of our college’s culture. Indeed, our mission statement from 1859 states:
To advance the art of Pharmacy and the collateral sciences; To establish on just principles the relations existing between Apothecaries, Druggists, Physicians and the Public; and to improve the members, their assistants and apprentices, by the cultivation and diffusion of scientific knowledge. In my view, the research mission of colleges of pharmacy is critical and must be maintained despite its expense. Contrary to popular belief, successful research enterprises within universities are generally money losing endeavors. Grants for research simply do not cover the expense of doing the research work; labs, facilities, equipment, and successful research faculty are expensive. But maintaining this part of a college of pharmacy is crucial to our students, to our patients, to the profession of pharmacy, and, frankly, 2
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to society. It is important to our students because they are trained and educated by expert faculty who are making scientific discoveries. Some of these students then decide to become pharmacist-scientists themselves and make independent and important contributions to drug therapy and healthcare. They fill needed jobs in academia and industry. In this way, it is self-perpetuating. It is important to our patients because they directly benefit from the results of our research. Pharmacy faculty have made drug therapy more effective and safer. Breakthroughs in drug discovery, drug disposition (pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics), pharmacogenomics, drug delivery (pharmaceutics), side effects of drugs/drug safety, and the economics of drug therapy have been made by our nation’s research-intensive colleges of pharmacy. And it is important to our profession. Impactful contributions from our faculty and graduates reflect on the profession of pharmacy as a whole. Just as the contributions of physician-scientists aid the public view of the profession of medicine, so does the work of pharmacistscientists, and faculty from colleges of pharmacy have a halo effect on our profession. Pharmacy must be viewed as both a clinical and scientific profession by external stakeholders. Research is also an economic engine for society. Research discoveries lead to start-up companies that lead to jobs. Thus, despite the difficulties of maintaining a thriving research enterprise, the college is deeply committed to doing so. The benefits— to all—are too great. In this issue of The Catalyst, the readers will see just some of our research efforts, this time emphasizing our relatively new drug discovery center, labeled UICentre. This is a campuswide initiative led by the College of Pharmacy and ably directed by Professor Greg Thatcher, Vahlteich Endowed Chair of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. Enjoy.
Jerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, pharmd, fcc, facc Dean and Professor
NEWS
UIC College of Pharmacy to Create MS in Comparative Effectiveness Research by Sam Hostettler The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has been selected as the 2015 Center of Excellence for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Educational Program. UIC will receive $250,000 over a threeyear period to start a master of science degree with a specialization in comparative effectiveness research. UIC joins the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Utah, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the University of Maryland as a CER center. The program is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation. Comparative effectiveness research examines treatment options for patients to see what works best for whom and under what circumstances. Studies compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver healthcare. UIC has significant experience in conducting comparative effectiveness research and patient-centered outcome research. It was the coordinating site for an AHRQ-funded (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness) Center from 2005 to 2013 and housed a Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics from 2006 to 2014. Glen Schumock, professor and head of
the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy at UIC, and Simon Pickard, associate professor in that department, will serve as principal investigators of the new center. Schumock says spending on health care in the United States exceeds that of all other countries, both in terms of total dollars and as a percent of gross domestic product. Expenditures were expected to increase more than 6 percent in 2014, reaching just over $3 billion, or 18.3 percent of GDP. By 2022, total U.S. healthcare expenditures are expected to reach $5 trillion. “Although the U.S. spends more on healthcare and prescription drugs than other countries, data are mixed as to the value it gets for the money spent,” Schumock said. “For example, the U.S. ranks 26th among the 30 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in life expectancy.”
policymakers, he said. Pickard says that randomized, controlled trials have long been the “gold standard” for determining the efficacy of a medical intervention, but such studies often fail to provide the evidence needed to understand if it works in actual practice. Comparative effectiveness research is a relatively new field, he said, and there is a “critical need” for new programs to educate and train new researchers. “We’re excited to start offering this program,” Pickard said. “There are a variety of programs that grant degrees in related fields,” he said, including epidemiology, health economics, health services research, and biostatistics. “But these programs do not cover the entire spectrum of methods and applications unique to comparative effectiveness research.”
The lack of objective, scientifically derived data comparing treatment options makes decisions more complicated and less certain for patients, clinicians, and CATALYST – SPRING 2015 – PHARMALUMNI.UIC.EDU |
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NEWS
Turkish Republic Honors UIC Researcher with Science Prize by Sam Hostettler Hayat Onyuksel has been gone from Turkey for more than 30 years, but she has not been forgotten. Onyuksel, professor of pharmaceutics and bioengineering in the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, was recently awarded “The Special Prize” by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. The award is given to Turkish citizen scientists living outside the country who have made significant international contributions. She was one of two Americans to receive the honor, bestowed by the president of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the newly built presidential palace in the capital city of Ankara. “This award means a great deal to me,” says Onyuksel, a UIC researcher for nearly 30 years. “It is the most prestigious recognition that a scientist receives in Turkey.” Onyuksel was serving on the faculty at Ankara University when she came to UIC in 1985 for a temporary research project. When the project ended, she made the difficult decision to leave her family behind in Turkey and remain in the United States. She felt she could not perform the research she was doing at UIC in her native land. The award confirmed “that my sacrifices and hard work were all worth it,” she says. “I am humbled to see that the country in which I was born and raised still remembers me and appreciates my work,” she says. “I believe that I have contributed to science and Turkey more by doing research in the United States.
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“If not for my outstanding collaborators and graduate students, I would not be able to make the contributions in science that I do. I am very grateful to them.”
Her work has shown that this kind of innovative treatment can significantly improve drug activity and minimize side effects.
Onyuksel received the award for her research on targeted drug delivery in cancer. She uses lipid-based nanocarriers containing drugs that can circulate in the bloodstream for several hours without releasing the contents. Because blood vessels in cancers are naturally “leaky,” the nanocarrier escapes from the bloodstream into the cancerous tissue and releases the drug directly at the site of the tumor, with minimal harm to normal healthy cells.
“Hayat’s work is at the forefront of delivery science,” said William Beck, Onyuksel’s colleague and head of the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences. “It has clinical implications in terms of targeted delivery of drugs, with lower toxicities, to treat cancers as well as other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. My colleagues and I could not be happier for Hayat to receive this outstanding award in recognition of her many scientific accomplishments.
NEWS
Investing in Our Best Three named professorships have been proudly added to the UIC College of Pharmacy. Each of the professorships represents a robust investment in the faculty as well as the research mission of the college. They also serve as a lasting tribute to the person for whom each professorship was named. As granting a faculty member, a named professorship is also one of the college’s highest academic honors. Named professorships are, quite literally, the gift that keeps on giving. Receiving the newly minted professorships are Dr. Richard van Breemen, Dr. Alexander “Shura” Mankin, and Dr. Dan Touchette. Each recipient is a veteran educator and researcher at UIC. Dr. van Breemen has been a professor of medicinal chemistry at UIC for 20 years in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Oberlin College and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He is also currently the director of the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research. Dr. van Breemen received the Matthias C. Lu Professorship, named after one of the most beloved teachers in the history of the UIC College of Pharmacy.
Dr. Lu joined the faculty in 1973 and served for over 30 years. At UIC, Dr. Lu received the Urban Health Program Distinguished Faculty Award in 2005; UIC Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995; UIC Teaching Recognition Program Award in 2001; UIC College of Pharmacy Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1998; and the UIC College of Pharmacy Golden Apple Award in 2000 and 2001. Dr. Lu retired in 2010. Dr. Mankin came to UIC from such disparate institutions as UC Santa Cruz and the University of Moscow. He is a professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy as well as the director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Dr. Mankin was honored with the Alexander Neyfahk Professorship. Dr. Neyfahk was a distinguished former professor.
Dr. Neyfakh received his PhD in 1986 from Moscow University. He joined the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in 1990 and became full professor in 2002. Dr. Neyfakh was the first to introduce modern molecular biology to PharmD students and was the driving force behind the development of the curriculum of the biotechnology track of the graduate program in pharmacognosy. Sadly, he passed away when he was only 47, and yet he made enormous contributions to the development of the center, department, and college.
Dr. Touchette has been an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy for nine years. He has been a core faculty member of the UIC Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomic Research since August 2005. Dr. Touchette also directs the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Practice-Based Research Network. And now Dr. Touchette adds Takeda Professor in Medication Adherence to his list of accolades. Located in Deerfield, Ill., Takeda Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. Dr. Touchette, with Takeda’s support, will study how health outcomes can be improved when patients take the right dose of medicine at the right time. Professorships like these give UIC an edge in recruiting and retaining quality faculty like Drs. van Breemen, Mankin, and Touchette, as well as honoring past faculty members like Drs. Lu and Neyfakh. They also provide an invaluable way for pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with the college.
And the gift keeps on giving.
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NEWS
Basic Life Sciences
Michael Federle Rising Star
Federle has been hooked on science since junior high, when he got his first glimpse of magnified cellular organelles. The direction of his career became clear when he was a graduate student at Emory University.
Federle’s primary research centers on the group of bacteria known as streptococci, responsible for strep throat, meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, endocarditis, erysipelas, and the “flesh-eating” necrotizing fasciitis. His work explores ways to disrupt biofilms— communities of bacteria that live on a surface that are extremely resistant to antibiotics.
“I’ve been interested in microbial cell-tocell communication since the day I held a Petri dish with colonies of glow-in-the-dark bacteria,” Federle says. “It was like gazing at the night sky, full of stars.”
Manipulating bacteria that cause health complications is Federle’s long-term goal. Bacteria enter the body and grow quietly until a switch is flipped, causing docile bacteria to turn rogue and inflict tissue damage.
Federle studies quorum sensing—the way bacteria cells communicate with each other. Eventually, resistance develops to every antibiotic developed to fight bacteria that cause illness. He wants to convince these microorganisms to remain in a nonhostile state.
“If we can manipulate bacteria by understanding the chemical signals they use, then we can interfere with the bacteria’s ability to make people sick,” he says.
Michael Federle didn’t peer into a crystal ball to see his future. It was a microscope.
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“We’ll try to fool the bacteria by artificially stimulating them.”
Federle, associate professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, joined the College of Pharmacy faculty in 2008. Since then he has amassed nearly $4.5 million in funding for his research and published nearly 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2013, he was one of 10 scientists in the United States to receive a five-year grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to study quorum sensing in bacterial pathogens that cause human infectious diseases.
NEWS
UIC Researchers Help Guide New Tuberculosis Drug to Clinical Trials The first new tuberculosis drug candidate since 2009 is entering Phase 1 clinical trials with the help of College of Pharmacy researchers. Scott Franzblau, professor and director of the Institute for Tuberculosis Research, is leading a team that has evaluated more than 2,000 compounds from the antibiotic family of nitroimidazoles to learn whether they have the ability to kill both replicating and dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The
best 100 candidates were further evaluated at UIC in TB-infected mice. For the past three years, UIC has collaborated with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and Auckland University in New Zealand, where these nitroimidazoles were synthesized. TBA-354 is a second generation nitroimidazole, known for being effective against drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis. Based on preclinical studies, TBA-354 is expected to have a combination of safety and efficacy that surpasses Delamanid, developed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical and approved for use in drug-resistant TB in several European and Asian countries, and Pretomanid, which is being tested as a component of other novel
regimens in multiple clinical trials. The collaboration resulted in the publication of six papers published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, one in Organic Biomolecular Chemistry, and one in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.5 million people die each year from TB and more than nine million are diagnosed with the disease. TB is spread by germs through the air from person to person. It usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body, such as the brain, kidneys, or the spine. If left untreated, TB can kill.
UIC Researchers Use Conference to Encourage Middle School Girls to Pursue Careers in Science from the local science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community.
The third Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Chicago conference was a great success. EYH is a nonprofit, national organization that hosts one-day conferences and creates a unique opportunity for the middle school girls to interact with the women
While the EYH has a long history, it is just fledgling in the city of Chicago. The third EYH Chicago conference took place on March 28, 2015, at the UIC College of Pharmacy. During the one-day event, nearly 200 middle school girls attended the keynote lecture presented by three distinguished speakers: Joanna E. Burdette, PhD; Nancy Sacco, PhD; and Nashara Mitchell, JD.
The girls participated in an array of hands-on workshops led by representatives from local STEM institutions, such as Adler Planetarium, Fermilab, Chicago Botanic Garden, and many more. At the same time, the girls’ parents were participating in an interactive program during which they listened to a panel of female researchers and learned how to facilitate their child’s success. The third EYH Chicago conference helped to expose girls to STEM careers, provide them with a positive gender-matched role models, and encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
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STUDENT NEWS
Thao Phan Takes First Place in the Campuswide Student Research Forum’s Life Sciences Category
Thao Pham, a pharmacy graduate student in Biopharmaceutical Sciences, took first place in the 2015 Student Research Forum’s life sciences category. The forum is an annual research competition that is open to all of UIC’s disciplines. The presentations are sorted by category (life sciences, social sciences, art/design/humanities, etc.) and also by the distinction of graduate student or undergraduate. The presenters then showcase their work to attendees and judges alike for a period of three hours. Pham’s presentation was titled, “Protein Kinase C alpha is a Novel Regulator of FOXC2 and p120-catenin in Triple Negative and Endocrine-resistant Breast Cancer.”
Xian Pan Places in ASPET Poster Competition
Xian Pan, a fourth year graduate student working in the lab of Young Jeong, placed third in a poster competition held by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). The competition was held as a part of the ASPET Annual Meeting, which was held in Boston from March 28 to April 1. Pan’s poster, titled “Inducers of Small Heterodimer Partner Expression Lead to Decreased CYP2D6 Expression and Activity,” was exhibited in the predoctoral poster competition.
Pharmacy grad student Thao Pham (center) poses with UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis (left) and Vice Chancellor for Research Mitra Dutta (right.)
Young Jeong (left) and Xian Pan (right) at the ASPET conference in Boston.
AFPE Honors Two UIC Students 8
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The American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) has bestowed honors on UIC predoctoral fellow Michael Mullowney and graduate student Jason Bugno. The mission of the AFPE is to advance and support pharmaceutical sciences education at U.S. schools and colleges of pharmacy. One of the ways they do that is by awarding grants to promising student researchers. Both Mullowney and Bugno were awarded
a $10,000 grant from the AFPE. Mullowney’s research topic was titled, “Antibiotics from Marine- and Freshwater-derived Actinomycete Bacteria That Inhibit DrugResistant M. tuberculosis.” Bugno’s topic was titled, “The Use of Hybrid DendriticLinear Polymeric Nanoparticles for TumorSpecific Accumulation with Tailored Tissue Permeation.”
IMAGES OF RESEARCH
2014 College of Pharmacy Image Competition This past spring, the College of Pharmacy hosted its fourth annual Images of Research competition, assembling a striking portfolio of creative images and photography. Open to students and postdocs, the competition invites submissions of images that depict the depth and breadth of research taking place at COP. College faculty, staff, and students vote for their favorite images, and cash prizes are awarded to the top three entries. Here are the images that received the most votes this year.
First Place ($350)
Lumi-Art Wei Gao and Edyta Grzelak, Institute for Tuberculosis Research The Institute for Tuberculosis Research (ITR) has been making efforts to stop TB. One of the major projects is focused on searching for new TB drug leads from nature. For this purpose, a direct bioautography method was developed using a nonpathogenic M. tuberculosis strain with a luminescence gene from firefly. The developed TLC plates were dipped in bacterial suspension and incubated for 24 hours. The inhibition zones appeared on the TLC plates, indicating the presence of active compounds.
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IMAGES OF RESEARCH
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Second Place ($250)
Honorable Mention
Frozen Karina M. Szymulanska-Ramamurthy, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (24 votes)
Mouse #101 Sue Lee, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (23 votes)
Natural Products Drug Discovery utilizes many techniques that help to isolate and characterize potential drug leads. Isolation of a chemical compound, however, is a time consuming task that often requires application of complex purification procedures. Recrystallization is one method that allows for purification of a solid chemical compound. Successful recrystallization relies on a blend of science and art because to receive satisfactory results researchers must rely on experimentation, observation, imagination, and skill rather than on mathematical and physical predictions. The photograph depicts a vial with crystals that mimic frozen formations of winter snowflakes.
In the past, mice have commonly been used to predict the pharmacokinetics (PK) of drugs using classical methods of drug delivery via I.P. injection or oral gavage. However, other methods of delivery such as hydrogel, which allows a low, consistent dose to be administered noninvasively, represent new challenges to PK prediction. We work on understanding different methods of drug delivery and their effects on PK in mice to better predict dosing in animal models. Pictured is mouse #101 with our current drug delivery methods: I.P. injection, oral gavage, and hydrogel.
| PHARMALUMNI.UIC.EDU – SPRING 2015 – CATALYST View these and images from previous competitions at www.uic.edu/pharmacy/research/Image_Competition.php.
The Team at the Centre of Drug Discovery: The UICentre assembles teams, resources to fuel innovation and human health by Daniel P. Smith Photography by Joshua Clark CATALYST – SPRING 2015 – PHARMALUMNI.UIC.EDU | 11
Greg Thatcher Director, UICentre
T
hough it’s another frigid February morning in Chicago, Greg Thatcher is fired up to talk about UICentre, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s two-year-old drug discovery initiative, and the program’s first big score. “This will work,” effuses Thatcher, the UICentre director and professor of medicinal chemistry at UIC. “This” is the first potential drug aimed at treating sleep apnea, an affliction that affects an estimated 18 million Americans and often leads to chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.
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At present, many patients diagnosed with sleep apnea, a condition in which the systems that regulate breathing malfunction multiple times during sleep, rely on a cumbersome pumping device that provides continuous positive airway pressure to stabilize bedtime breathing. While the device works, compliance is low and the equipment is more band-aid than long-term solution. If all goes according to plan, the UICentre will help transform the treatment of sleep apnea, providing patients a medicinal alternative that will address the root problem and restore quality of life for millions. The process began when University of Chicago physiologist Nanduri Prabhakar
discovered a specific biological target to control sleep disordered breathing. Limited in his ability to advance the research at his home institution, Prabhakar turned to the UICentre for help in making the compound more potent and specific. Thatcher and UICentre assistant director Jason Hickok then assembled a multidisciplinary team of 10 faculty scientists at UIC with expertise ranging from medicinal and organic chemistry to biochemistry and biophysics to design molecules to alleviate apnea. The plan then calls for researchers at the University of Chicago to run animal efficacy studies and, later, for staff at the IIT Research Institute to lead preclinical trials.
Jason Hickok Assistant Director, UICentre Last January, the sleep apnea project received an $8.5 million federal grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to fuel its next five years of research.
UICentre, however, hits where those previous plans missed, Thatcher notes, emerging as a more modest and strategic initiative laser focused on leveraging existing campus resources and collaboration.
“It’s a textbook drug discovery project,” Thatcher says, “and exactly the kind of work we built the UICentre to accomplish.”
“It’s a different way of doing business,” he says.
What is the UICentre? Since his arrival at UIC in 2003, Thatcher engaged in frequent discussions around academic drug discovery. While a number of plans were drafted over the last decade, none of the initiatives generated the necessary funding and support to transition into reality.
Founded in January 2013, UICentre (Collaborative Engagement and Novel Therapeutic Research and Enterprise) is a campuswide, multidisciplinary program incorporating toxicology, informatics, chemistry, and bioavailability at the initial stage of drug discovery. Supported by the Colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC, the program
seeks to create a collaborative, entrepreneurial environment that fosters cutting-edge science and the development of novel therapeutics. By supplying modest seed funding of $20,000–$60,000 and coordinating practical human and technical resources, including intellectual capital, existing infrastructure, and instrumentation, UICentre aims to CATALYST – SPRING 2015 – PHARMALUMNI.UIC.EDU |
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stimulate biomedical discoveries capable of delivering a direct, tangible benefit to society and improving human health. “We start with the idea that there are researchers on campus with the seed of a drug discovery project, and we then pull together the team and resources capable of moving that project to the next level,” Hickok says. “As we see it, many scientists share the same mission—to help and provide lasting knowledge—but that’s hard to do alone, so we augment, add value, and push progress toward realistic goals.” Thatcher says UICentre functions much like a brokerage, he and Hickok assembling the internal expertise and campus resources to spur progress. “We’re focused on collaborative engagement,” Thatcher says. “When we have faculty interested in projects, we build teams around them with multiple PIs and comprehensive skill sets.” While a few of the nation’s 80 or so academic drug discovery centers have nine-figure endowments and replicate much of the infrastructure and approaches used in the pharmaceutical industry and other institutional drug discovery initiatives are service oriented, largely providing core staff and facilities, UICentre is neither a carbon copy of industry nor a service center. Rather, UICentre’s innovative model employs current campus resources, banking on the idea that the invested collaboration of multidisciplinary teams can earn results, even on an annual budget in the neighborhood of $500,000. 14
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“For us, it’s about being smart and clever because we have to turn around a lot of value for a little investment,” says Hickok, who doubles as UICentre’s resident biologist. And there’s much UICentre can leverage at UIC, a campus that features the nation’s largest college of medicine, a top-ranked college of pharmacy, and accomplished science departments. Yet more, UIC sits prominently among one of the nation’s largest concentrations of hospitals and in the backyard of pharmaceutical industry giants like AbbVie, Takeda, and Baxter. “When you put all these pieces together, it’s a no-brainer for UIC to have an academic drug discovery center,” Thatcher says, noting that UICentre operates under the umbrella of the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), a unit with a broad clinical mission to translate medical advances into the community.
Embracing a plan, executing a mission Given the healthcare landscape’s recent and radical shifts, an organized unit like the UICentre is needed and necessary in today’s world. Over the last decade, drug development in the United States has endured a transformation, Thatcher says,
as large pharmaceutical companies have increased R&D budgets for decreasing return and look to partner preclinical drug discovery with academia in an effort to mitigate risk and investment. The drug discovery and development process is estimated to cost, on average, $1.3 billion per drug, a hefty price tag for time-consuming endeavors littered with failure and dead ends. “As large pharmaceutical corporations are finding it harder and harder to get the necessary return on investment, academic drug discovery is playing a greater role,” Thatcher confirms.
Though lacking the funding and history of drug discovery centers at institutions such as Harvard and MIT, Thatcher is energized by UICentre’s early progress and current projects targeting breast cancer, depression, alcoholism, lupus, and pulmonary arterial hypertension, as well as two team projects launching later this year: one for new biomarker-linked drug targets for cancer therapy and another focused on epigenetic modulators of addiction and reward. According to Thatcher, UICentre’s immediate objective is to obtain grant funding and create a self-sustainable program over the next five years. To that end, UICentre support led to the submission of grants totaling $15.5 million in 2014. Long term, the hope is to secure patents and to commercialize ideas, all in the name of improving medical outcomes.
“Initially, we have to demonstrate early-stage success so we can, in the next five years, work toward moving treatments closer to patients’ hands,” Thatcher says. “That’s the critical first step in this pipeline.” The early success of the sleep apnea project, however, inspires optimism for UICentre’s future and hope that the UIC-based program can emerge as a major player in academic drug discovery. “This is exactly what we envisioned when we created UICentre,” Thatcher says of the sleep apnea project. “It’s on the path to going all the way and shows us what is possible.”
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RESEARCH DAY 2015
A Meeting of the Minds The 6th Annual UIC College of Pharmacy Research Day was held on February 27, 2015. Research Day offers researchers of all calibers a chance to present their findings in a clear, concise fashion—a valuable skill they will employ again and again over their careers. This year, nearly 100 students presented posters to our 50-plus judges and competed for $35,000 in scholarships and awards. The day also features a keynote speaker (this year was Dr. Barry Carter, PharmD, FCCP, FAHA, FASH, FAPHA) and presentation of the Alumnus of the Year award, Vahlteich Awards, and a new award called the Retzky Philanthropic Leadership Award.
Photography by Josh Clark
University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System Cancer Center Prize, 1st Place: Thao ND Pham, Bethany White, and Debra Tonetti, “Protein Kinase C (PKC ) is a Novel Regulator of FOXC2 and p120-catenin in Triple Negative and Endocrine-Resistant Breast Cancer.” University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System Cancer Center Prize, 2nd Place: Tareisha Dunlap, Shuai Wang, Charlotte Simmler, Guido Pauli, Birgit Dietz, and Judy L. Bolton, “Licochalcone A from Glycyrrhiza inflata Modulates P450 1B1-mediated Estrogen Oxidative Metabolism in MCF-10A Cells.” Innovate @ UIC Innovation Award, 1st Place: Rasika Phasalkar, Joo-Won Nam, Shao-Nong Chen, James McAlpine, Ariene Leme, Cristina Vidal, Ana Bedran-Russo, and Guido Pauli, “Dimeric and Trimeric Proanthocyanidins from Grapes: A Promising Source for Dental Biomaterials.” 16
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Innovate @ UIC Innovation Award, 2nd Place: Atul Jain and Terry Moore, “A Scaffold-hopping Approach to Discovery of Keap1/Nrf2 Inhibitors.” UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science Multidisciplinary Team Science Award: Xiaoyu Hu, F. Huang, M. Szymusiak, Y. Liu, and Z. Jim Wang, “Curcumin Attentuate Opioid Tolerance, Dependence, and Hyperalgesia by Inhibiting CaMKII Activity.” AAPS Student Choice Award: Wei-Lun Chen, Joanna Burdette, and Steven Swanson, “Silvestrol Induces Autophagy and Apoptosis in Human Melanoma Cells.” Award for Excellence in Research, Biology Prize, 1st Place: F. Sezen Meydan, S. Karthikeyan, D. Klepacki, N. Vazquez-Laslop, and Alexander Mankin,“Programmed Frameshifting Modulates the Expression of Bacterial Cu(I)-Transporter.”
RESEARCH DAY 2015
Award for Excellence in Research, Biology Prize, 2nd Place: Tina Mistry, Shahila Mehboob, Lena Truong, and Michael E. Johnson, “Mode of Action of Novel Benzimidazole-based FabI Inhibitors in Staphylococcus aureus.” Award for Excellence in Research, Chemistry Prize, 1st Place: Ja Hye Myung, Ashley Cha, Kevin Tam, Andrew Wang, and Seungpyo Hong, “Clinical Validation of UiChipT for Circulating Tumor Cell Detection from Head and Neck Cancer Patient Blood.” Award for Excellence in Research, Chemistry Prize, 2nd Place: Jason Buhrman, Jamie Rayahin, Yu Zhang, Mary Tang, and Richard Gemeinhart, “Recombinant Protein Immobilization and ControlledRelease Mediated by Versatile, Non-Covalent Protein Anchor.” Award for Excellence in Research, Clinical, Social, and Applied Sciences, 1st Place: Ellie Jhun, Y. Yao, R. Molokie, A. K. Mack, D. J. Wilkie, and Jim Z. Wang, “Sickle Cell Pain Genetics and the Monoamine Neurotransmitter System.”
Award for Excellence in Research, Clinical, Social, and Applied Sciences, 2nd Place: Beenish Manzoor, J. Duarte, J. Lee, W. Galanter, S. Walton, N. Galanter, J. Krishnan, J. Bauman, L. Cavallari, and Edith Nutescu, “The Impact of Race on the Association Between a Novel Genotype-Guided Personalized Warfarin Service and Clinical Outcomes in an Ethnically Diverse Population.” Vahlteich Awards: Gregory S. Calip, PharmD, MPH, PhD Jeremy J. Johnson, PharmD, PhD
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RESEARCH DAY 2015
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RESEARCH DAY 2015
Retzky Philanthropic Leadership Award This year’s research day saw the unveiling of a new award, the Retzky Philanthropic Leadership Award. The award is named after Herb and Carol Retzky (pictured below) who made the largest single financial contribution to the UIC College of Pharmacy in our long history at $3.5 million. Herb is a 1946 graduate of the college. He and his wife Carol both worked in their own independent pharmacy for many years. Their contribution has promoted many positive changes in the college, and the Retzky Philanthropic Leadership Award aims to shine a light on the positive contributions of our many philanthropic partners. The inaugural recipient of award is Al Mancini. Many faculty and students know Al from his work in the compounding lab with Paul Pluta, but before that he enjoyed a career at Watson Pharmaceuticals as director of pharmaceutical technology. He also spent a combined 28 years at Searle, Monsanto, Pharmacia, and Pfizer as director of pharmaceutical technology. In 2014, when Watson Pharmaceuticals shut down their Chicagoland facility, Al went to great lengths to secure the lab equipment that Watson was going to discard and arranged to have it donated to the college. As a result of Mancini’s tireless efforts, the college was the beneficiary of $150,000 worth of lab equipment.
Al Mancini, BS ’76 Retzky Philanthropic Leadership Award Winner CATALYST – SPRING 2015 – PHARMALUMNI.UIC.EDU |
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RESEARCH DAY 2015
2015 Alumnus of the Year
Sarfaraz K. Niazi, PHD ’74 2015 Alumnus of the Year
Each year, the UIC College of Pharmacy recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves through their research and service and who embody the highest values of our institution. The college is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2015 Alumnus of the Year Award is Dr. Sarfaraz Niazi. Dr. Sarfaraz Niazi received his PhD from the college and began his career here as an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences. In 1988, he joined the international division of Abbott Laboratories and became tenured as Volwiler Fellow before leaving the company to start a consulting business in the then emerging field of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. In 2003, Dr. Niazi established his own biotechnology manufacturing company, Therapeutic Proteins International, LLC (TPI) with the goal of making life-saving biological 20
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drugs more affordable. Located in Chicago, TPI is exclusively focused on developing and manufacturing biosimilar recombinant protein products with nine currently in its development pipeline. With a fully integrated facility, TPI’s aim is to fulfill the vision of providing low-cost versions of off-patent biologics, using disposable bioreactors and other proprietary systems. To learn more about the company, visit www.theraproteins.com. Dr. Niazi has published over 100-refereed research articles and abstracts and authored several “first in the field” books, including the textbooks in biopharmaceutics, clinical pharmacokinetics, recombinant manufacturing, and disposable bioprocessing. He is a prolific inventor with patents relating to new drugs and delivery systems, bioprocessing, biosimilarity demonstration, and varied mechanical and energy designs. Dr. Niazi continues to serve on the faculty of
several academic institutions worldwide and has provided extensive support to several U.S. legislations on biological drugs. Among his many awards is the Star of Distinction from the government of Pakistan for Dr. Niazi’s lifetime contributions to promoting technology in developing countries. His father received an equivalent award from the government of India for his contributions to literature, making them the only father and son team to have received these high accolades in South Asia. His nontechnical literary writings span the vast area of poetry, philosophy, rhetoric, irony, and the modern dilemma. Dr. Niazi also hosts a radio show on Voice of America and is an avid photographer, a guitarist, and a music composer. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
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