NOTEWORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Department of Pharmaceutics
NOTEWORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENTS/QUANTITATIVE FEATURES
Scholarly activity in the Department once again exceeded that of previous years as evidenced by the faculty garnering approximately $1.3M in extramural research in the 2009-10 fiscal year (compared to $915,000 in 2008-2009). This quantitative accomplishment is once again unprecedented in the Department’s history. This healthy trend has continued over the last ten years. To put this achievement into perspective, in the 2001-2002 fiscal year, $12,500 was awarded to the Department (in comparison to the $1.3M this fiscal year). Please see Table 1 for an historical funding summary of the Department. The unit was awarded two major projects within the Center of Research Excellence in Natural Products Neuroscience (CORE-NPN) in 2009-2010. This grant is a funded five-year research and training program awarded by the National Center for Research Resources at NIH. Dr. S. N. Murthy and Dr. Soumyajit Majumdar were recipients of the awards (Dr. Stephen Culter, Chair & Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, is PI of CORE-NPN). Dr. S. Narasimha Murthy, just completing his fourth year at UM, continued a three-year NIH grant awarded during his second year after joining the unit. In addition, Dr. Murthy was also awarded another NIH grant, as well as an industry grant. Also, Dr. Murthy, who received the prestigious Global Indus Technovators Award from MIT's IBC for his ongoing study of electrically mediated, non-invasive technologies for drug delivery, diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, was also invited to four annual meetings in India to present his work in reference to his area of expertise. Dr. Soumyajit Majumdar also received his second year of NIH funding (R21) in his field of expertise during this reporting period. Both of these relatively new faculty members are the sole Principal Investigators on the above cited grants. Additional funding was secured via a significant two-year subcontract (second year of funding) from ElSohly Laboratories, Inc. (ELI), which was a collaborative effort between Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, Dr. Soumyajit Majumdar and Dr. Michael Repka (Majumdar & Repka, Co-PIs). In addition, a second consecutive large equipment grant was secured via HRSA funds for the Center for Thermal Pharmaceutical Processing (Repka & Majumdar also Co-PIs). Dr. Sean Jo received notice of a significant award from DoD for cancer treatment during this reporting period. Dr. Repka and Dr. Majumdar also secured two industry grants (2 year awards) from multi-national pharmaceutical companies. Both have a focus on hot-melt extrusion, which was attracted by the existence of CTP2. Needless to say, these extramural funding successes are expected to catalyze more research support and scholarly activities within the coming years and are healthy signs for sustained growth within the unit.
Table 1. Pharmaceutics Extramural Research Funding History
01-02 |
02-03 |
03-04 |
04-05 |
05-06 |
06-07 |
08-09 |
09-10 |
Twenty-two (22) grant proposals were submitted by our unit’s faculty during this reporting period. In addition, one patent application, one research disclosure and one license agreement occurred during the year. Faculty presented 69 papers at regional, national, and international meetings and authored thirty-two (32) papers in prestigious pharmaceutical peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Soumyajit Majumdar, who received his doctorate from the University of Missouri at Kansas City under Ashim K. Mitra, Ph.D., completed his fourth year within the Department. Dr. Majumdar’s excellent training and vast industry experience spearheaded grant funding during this reporting period. His expanding international recognition landed him a prestigious invitation to present at an AAPS conference in Los Angeles in November 2009. He continues to demonstrate his value to the Department and is very well liked and respected by undergraduates in his teaching endeavors. He now directs five graduate student scholars as well as other students and post-docs on the CORE-NPN NIH grant. He also served as the unit’s representative to The University’s Faculty Senate and Assessment Committee.
The emphasis on improving the quality of all departmental undergraduate courses was continued from the previous year. Dr. Bonnie Avery continued to serve on the School’s Curriculum Committee, emphasizing the development of an inter-disciplinary undergraduate educational laboratory (Skills Laboratory), which was implemented in the Fall of 2008. Dr. Avery also served as Past-Chair for the SRDG of AAPS. She supervised five graduate students. Dr. Avery continued her activities in pharmacokinetics and published four manuscripts, which helped balance her contributions to service and teaching. She is collaborating with the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and submitted several new grant proposals.
Dr. Michael Repka, Associate Professor, completed his fifth year as Chair of the Department. Dr. Repka was an invited speaker to an international conference in China in 2009, and spoke at the Expert Council in Hot-Melt Extrusion in Germany in the same year. In addition, he was an organizer and a speaker for a Full Symposium for AAPS 2009 on Hot-Melt Extrusion in Los Angeles. He has also presented at the 7th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in March 2010 in Malta. In addition, Dr. Repka was invited to speak on drug delivery via hot-melt extrusion technology to one academic institution (University of Wisconsin at Madison) and to five multi-national pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, BMS, and Pfizer during this reporting period. Dr. Repka now serves as an Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) member for five prestigious pharmaceutical journals, since he was appointed to the EAB of Current Drug Delivery and Drug Delivery Technology. He has also been invited to serve on the EAB for Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery. The prestigious journal, AAPS PharmSciTech invited Dr. Repka to serve as a Guest Editor in a running Theme issue on oral drug delivery. He also serves as a Delegate to the United States Pharmacopeia Convention 2010 and is an expert witness for several pharmaceutical companies. These activities coupled with the unit’s entire faculty becoming more involved with AAPS and other pharmaceutical associations have helped continue the strong growth and international recognition of the Department.
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