NEWS/CURRENT EVENTS

Invited International Presentation

Dr. Michael A. Repka—Dr. Repka has been invited to provide a keynote presentation at the APV Experts’ Workshop on Hot-melt extrusion and its use in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical dosage forms in Ludwigshafen, Germany on March 4-5, 2008.  He will present a lecture on “Extrusion of PEO films and protection of sensitive actives during extrusion”.

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Two new Pharmaceutics’ Faculty members joined the Department in the Summer of 2006.  These new, however experienced faculty are Dr. S. N. Murthy and Dr. Sean Jo.  Biosketches are included below:

S. Narasimha Murthy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Dr. Murthy obtained his Masters and Ph.D in Pharmaceutics from Bangalore University, India. He did his postdoctoral research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo NY in the department of Biophysics, 2002 through 2005.  He also has worked as Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ohio Northern University.
Dr. Murthy has been working on transdermal drug delivery since his Masters. He was trained in electrically mediated delivery of drugs at Roswell. He has published 30 research papers and presented over 40 papers in national and international conferences. He is also serving as a manuscript reviewer for 10 journals.
Currently his research focuses on electrically mediated transdermal delivery of drugs and macromolecules. His ongoing projects also include “Transcutaneous sampling of drugs”.  The long-term objective of his research is to develop noninvasive techniques for drug delivery, drug sampling and therapy. 

Seongbong Jo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor  
  
Dr. Seongbong Jo received his Ph.D. in 1998 at Purdue University. During his Ph.D., he studied industrial and physical pharmacy. He spent three years in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University as a postdoc. He has also worked at small biotechnology companies (Desmogen, Inc. in Houston, Texas and Macromed, Inc. in Sandy, Utah). Before joining the faculty at the University of Mississippi, he has worked at the Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery for polymeric gene and protein delivery. His research interests lie in smart polymeric drug delivery systems, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and gene delivery.

Ms. Deborah King joined the Department in March 2006 as the new Senior Secretary for the unit.  Ms. King has extensive experience and has already helped move the Department toward its goals.

The Department of Pharmaceutics announced that Dr. Michael A. Repka was selected to lead the unit as Chair on July 1, 2005.  Dr. Repka also received promotion and tenure during the last year.

Dr. Bonnie Avery was selected the School of Pharmacy’s Outstanding Service Award for the fiscal year 2005-2006.

Dr. Soumyajit Majumdar received the honor of Faculty Research Fellow 2006 by The University of Mississippi’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Dr. Christy Wyandt was promoted to Full Professor in the Department during the last fiscal year.

RECENT GRADUATES

The Department was pleased to graduate five Ph.D. scholars within the 2005-2006 fiscal year.  These new doctoral graduates included:

Praveen Kumar Mididoddi, Ph.D. received his doctoral in Pharmaceutics in 2006 and is employed with Spherics, Inc. in Mansfield, MA. His dissertation was entitled “Hot-Melt Extruded Drug Delivery Systems for Onychomycosis and Other Fungal Infections”, and his advisor was Dr. Michael A. Repka.

Asish Kumar Dutta received his Ph.D. in 2005.  He is employed by Othera Pharmaceuticals Inc. The title of his dissertation was “Physicochemical Characterization of NPC 1161C, an 8-Aminoquinoline Antimalarial Drug and its Inclusion Complexes with Cyclodextrins in Solution State”.  His dissertation director was Dr. Christy M. Wyandt.

Sreekhar Cheboyina also received his Ph.D. in the Fall of 2005 and the title of his dissertation was “A Novel Freeze Pelletization Technique:  Formulation, Characterization and Evaluation of Matrix Pellets”.  He is employed by Tyco Healthcare in St. Louis. His advisor was Dr. Christy M. Wyandt.

Manish Munjal, Ph.D. received his doctoral degree in May 2006.  His dissertation was entitled “Characterization of Hot-Melt Polymeric Matrices for Oral Tran mucosal Delivery of ?9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Pro-drugs”.  He is employed in California and his dissertation director was Dr. Michael A. Repka.

Parag P. Budukh, Ph. D., received his doctoral in Pharmaceutics in the Summer of 2006.  The title of his dissertation was “Application of Isothermal Titration Calorimetry to the Determination of Functional Stability of Proteins in Solution”.  His dissertation director was Dr. Christy M. Wyandt.

Parag P. Budukh, Ph.D. was inducted into the 2006 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and student leadership.

Tarsha Latron Bond is scheduled to receive her Masters in Pharmaceutics in the Fall of 2006.  The title of her thesis is “Evaluation of the Stability of Horse Chestnut (Aesculus Hippocastanum) tablet Formulations”.  Her advisor is Dr. Bonnie A. Avery.

INTERNSHIPS

Sri Venkata Tumuluri—Venkat completed his internship at the Food and Drug Administration, St. Louis, Missouri, in the Summer of 2006.  His research work was on process analytical techniques.

Sridhar Thumma—Sridhar completed his internship in the Summer of 2006 at Pfizer.  Sridhar gained invaluable experience in preformulation research and received an exemplary review by his summer supervisor at the multi-national pharmaceutical company.

Sunil Kumar Battu (Pharmaceutics Graduate Student) —Sunil completed his internship in the Summer of 2007 at Hercules Inc., Aqualon Division, Wilmington, DE.   Sunil gained vast knowledge in oral solid dosage forms. He worked on projects involving development of controlled release tablets and moisture barrier coating systems during his internship.  His mentor was Dr. Thomas Durig, Ph.D. during the internship.