Emily Boldy - TOXI Travel Award

Graduate student Emily Boldry, member of the Tretyakova lab, received a  TOXI Travel Award to attend the 2014 American Chemical Society fall meeting in San Francisco.

Nick Struntz - AHA Fellowship Renewal

Graduate student Nick Struntz, member of the Harki lab, was awarded a 1-year competitive renewal of his American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship. He will receive an additional $26,000 for his project, "Development of Photochemical DNA Decoys to Study NF-kappaB Expression," which been extended through the end of December, 2015.

Dr. Chengguo Xing - HealthTalk

Professor Chengguo Xing, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, is featured in the HealthTalk story, "The Expert Is In: Liver damage from dietary supplements."

Dr. Dan Harki - Department of Defense Grant

Department of Medicinal Chemistry assistant professor Dan Harki received a $111,842 Department of Defense, Prostate Cancer Research Program grant for his project, "Molecular Profiling of EPI-001: An Inhibitor of Androgen Receptor Signaling with a Disputed Mechanism of Action."

Faculty Receive Collaborative Awards

Three Department of Medicinal Chemistry faculty were recipients of $22,500 awards from the 2014 College of Pharmacy/College of Veterinary Medicine collaborative research program.

• Courtney Aldrich, "Whole Cell Screening Inhibitors Blocking Essential Gcp-YeaZ Interaction"
• Philip Portoghese, "Effect of MCC22, a New Mu Opioid Agonist & Hyperalgesia in Mice"
• Rory Remmel, "Excretion of Antibiotic Metabolite in the Broiler Chick following Hatchery Antibiotic Administration"

Dr. Stephen Hecht – Research Informs Philadelphia Inquirer feature

Professor Stephen Hecht's analysis of smokeless tobacco and oral cancer was referenced in a Philadelphia news story on oral cancer, "Schilling's Claims Draw Attention to Smokeless Tobacco." Dr. Hecht is a Department of Medicinal Chemistry graduate faculty member.

Dr. Elizabeth Amin – Grant-in-Aid

Department of Medicinal Chemistry associate professor Elizabeth Amin was awarded a $30,000 Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship for her project "Computational and Experimental Optimization of Anthrax Toxin Lethal Factor (LF) Inhibitors."

Dr. Courtney Aldrich – Editor-in-Chief of new ACS journal

Courtney Aldrich, associate professor of Medicinal Chemistry, has been named editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society's new, web-only journal ACS Infectious Diseases.  The journal will publish top-notch chemistry-focused infectious disease research. Manuscript submissions will begin September 2014, with the first issue slated for January 2015.

Arnie Groehler - ACS Best Poster Award

Graduate student Arnie Groehler was honored at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco with a Best Graduate Student Poster Award. His poster was ranked third in the Division of Chemical Toxicology. Arnie is a member of professor Natalia Tretyakova's lab.

Dr. Dave Ferguson - new grants

Department of Medicinal Chemistry professor Dave Ferguson was awarded a $30,000 Randy Shaver Cancer Research Fund, with co-PIs from Pharmaceutics and Urologic Surgery, for "An Advanced Vaccine for Treating Bladder Cancer."

He is also co-investigator on a $200,000 AHC Faculty Research Development grant for the project "Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy by Combined Nonsense Mediated Decay Inhibition and Premature Stop Codon Suppression to Enable Tumor Neoantigen Expression."

Grad Students receive CBI Training Grants

Medicinal Chemistry graduate students Sara Coulup and Carter Eiden were awarded 2014 NIH Chemical-Biology Interface Training Grants. CBITG gives first-rate students the opportunity to develop both in their primary area of interest and in a complementary field by cross-discipline research interactions and experiences. Sara is a member of the Georg lab and Carter is in the Aldrich lab; they join Med Chem grads Kim Maize (Finzel lab) and Aniekan Okon (Wagner lab), both 2012 trainees.

Dr. Philip Portoghese develops new pain drug

Distinguished Professor Philip Portoghese describes his breakthrough drug for treating chronic pain in the Inquiry feature "New compound shows promise in treating chronic pain." Inquiry is a new blog exploring University of Minnesota research.

Dr. Elizabeth Amin – Women's Faculty Cabinet

Elizabeth Amin, associate professor, has been selected to serve a three-year term on the Women's Faculty Cabinet, which advises the Provost about the status of women faculty and goals for improvement of their academic careers and workplace.

Dr. Chris Xing – Natural Products Insider TV

Professor Chris Xing was featured in the Natural Products Insider TV story "New Science May Boost Kava Market." Insider TV interviewed Dr. Xing after his presentation of new kava research at the International Conference on the Science of Botanicals.

Dr. Elizabeth Amin – AHC "Every Day" feature

Professor Elizabeth Amin is featured in a video that is part of a new Academic Health Center series, "Every Day," which profiles faculty's interests outside the University. Dr. Amin talks about her work with amateur radio and its relevance to her research.

Grad Students receive AFPE Fellowships

Medicinal Chemistry graduate students David Huang and Kimberly Maize were awarded 2014 American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) Pre-Doctoral Fellowships in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. David is a member of the Georg lab and Kim is in the Finzel lab.

Stephanie Breunig – Summer Research Fellowship

Stephanie Breunig, an undergraduate chemistry major performing research in the Harki laboratory, was awarded a Heisig/Gleysteen summer research fellowship from the Department of Chemistry. The fellowship includes a $4500 summer stipend and $500 for travel to a scientific conference to present research results.

Maggie Olson – First Exceptional Grad Student Award

The faculty of the department of Medicinal Chemistry recently established the Abul-Hajj–Hanna Exceptional Graduate Student Award in Medicinal Chemistry to honor individual excellence among graduate students. A student’s qualifications for the award include quantity and quality of research accomplishments; original research proposal for the oral exam; quality of seminars and colloquia; graduate course grade-point average since entering the program; and service and citizenship in departmental affairs.

 

The award committee has selected Margaret Olson as the first award recipient.  She will receive a $1000.00 prize and will give a research-based departmental seminar during the award event on May 6, 2014. Dan Harki is Maggie's advisor.

 

Med Chem graduate receives highest ACS Award

The American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry awarded the 2014 Robert M. Scarborough Award for Graduate/Post-Graduate Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry to Mike Peterson, former graduate of Robert Fecik, based on his doctoral research here at Minnesota. This award, the highest given to a graduate student or postdoc in medicinal chemistry from ACS, has gone to University graduates two years in a row. Micah Niphakis, former graduate student of Gunda Georg, received the 2013 award.

Dr. Rebecca Cuellar – Distinguished Poster Award

Becca Cuellar, ITDD research assistant professor, was awarded the Distinguished Poster Award for Senior Researcher at the Mayo Clinic Young Investigators' Research Symposium held in Rochester March 22-23, 2014. She presented "Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Retinoic Acid Receptor-Alpha Antagonists for Male Contraception."

Dr. Gunda Georg - Kenneth E. Avis Professorship

Department head and ITDD director Gunda Georg was awarded the 2014 Kenneth E. Avis Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Pharmaceutical Sciences, an annual honor bestowed by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The Avis Distinguished Visiting Professorship is named after Kenneth E. Avis who began UT’s strong history in pharmaceutical research.

In its nearly 25-year history, Dr. Georg is the first woman researcher to hold this prestigious Professorship. She presented her research entitled “Recent Progress in Male Contraception” for the Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture on March 24, 2014 in Memphis.

Maggie Olson - predoctoral fellowship

Maggie Olson was awarded a two-year Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award F31 predoctoral fellowship from the National Cancer Institute for her project, "Chemical Probes of Endogenous Mutation: Small Molecule APOBEC3B Inhibitors." Maggie is a grad student in the Harki lab.

Ferguson manuscript - Most Read Article

A recent publication by Dr. David Ferguson, with Dr. Courtney Aldrich and other department researchers,is the most-read article on the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry website. "Structure-Activity Relationship Analysis of Imidazoquinolines with Toll-like Receptors 7 and 8 Selectivity and Enhanced Cytokine Induction" was published online January 10 and appears in the January 23, 2014 issue of J. Med. Chem.

Dr. Phil Portoghese - The Scientist article

Professor Phil Portoghese is quoted and his research cited in The Scientist article "Pain and progress."

Dr. David Ferguson featured drug expert

The HealthTalk story "With codeine abuse on the rise, it's important to remember regulation can work to curb misuse" included quotes from Professor David Ferguson. He was also a featured guest on Canadian sports radio show "The Timeout," to discuss performance enhancing drugs.

Drs. Chris Xing & Stephen Hecht - Cancer Preventative Research

New research from the labs of Chris Xing and Stephen Hecht has found that consumption of the kava root (Piper methysticum) may prevent development of tobacco smoke-induced lung cancer. In addition, they have identified natural components of the kava plant that appear to have cancer-preventative benefits and developed a patent-pending supplement that avoids liver damage, a rare side effect of currently available kava dietary supplements. The findings are published in the January issue of Cancer Prevention Research, and both KSTP-TV and HealthTalk covered this story.

Dr. Phil Portoghese - GAP funding

Professor Phil Portoghese received $15,000 through the Building New Collaborations in Grants award program (GAP) for his project "Design of Ligands to Inhibit Progression of Neurodegenerative Diseases"

Dr. Tom Shier - Digital Journal story

Professor Thomas Shier is featured in the Digital Journal story "Vets Plus, Inc. and the University of Minnesota Renew Consulting Contract for Veterinary Supplements."

Teachers of the Semester, Fall 2013

PharmD students have chosen two Medicinal Chemistry faculty as Professors of the Semester for Fall 2013. David Ferguson was selected by the Twin Cities class of 2016, and Dan Harki was honored by the Duluth class of 2017.

Dr. Chris Xing - MC2 Award

Associate professor Chris Xing received a $50,000 MC2 award from the Masonic Cancer Center for his project "A Highly Potent Chemopreventive Agent Blocking Tobacco Carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)-induced Lung Tumorigenesis and Mechanisms."

Faculty receive 2014 Seed Grants

Three Medicinal Chemistry professors were awarded $30,000 Seed Grants for 2014. Barry Finzel received the award for "The Cellular Effects of Small Molecule Antagonists of Hyaluronan Binding to CD44," Dan Harki received the award for "Nuclear Export of Androgen Receptor with Light-Controllable DNA Decoys," and Elizabeth Amin received the award for "Identification of Novel Small-Molecule Ricin Toxin A (RTA) Inhibitors as Bioterror Countermeasures."