Dr. Carston (Rick) Wagner - new AAAS Fellow

Professor Carston Wagner was elected as a Fellow of the Association by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Council.

Ran Dai - 2012-13 Bighley Grad Fellowship

Graduate student Ran Dai from Professor Barry Finzel's lab has been awarded a College of Pharmacy Bighley Fellowship award for 2012-13.

Dr. Michael Walters - Role Model for Young Scientists

ITDD Lead & Probe Discovery Director Mike Walters was the November featured speaker at the Young Scientist Roundtable at Wayzata Central Middle School, a free program for students K-12 to learn more about science. He presented "From urea to lipitor: The art and science of molecular construction."

Nick Struntz - American Heart Association Fellowship

Nick Struntz, a fourth year grad student in the Harki lab, was awarded an American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship for his project "Development of photochemically regulated DNA decoys to control NF-κB activity." Beginning January 1, 2013, he will receive $52,000 over two years.

Amit Gangar - Dissertation Fellowship honor

Med Chem grad student Amit Gangar in the Wagner lab was honored as one of the top fifteen of 137 University of Minnesota Dissertation Fellows for 2012-13. Of three fellows in the College of Pharmacy, he was selected to present his research on "Self-assembled nanostructures for the cellular delivery of small molecules, DNA and proteins for the treatment of cancer" in a November 6 seminar.

Dr. Jon Hawkinson joins ITDD

Jon Hawkinson joined the faculty of the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development on November 12 as the new Associate Program Director, High Throughput Screening. He is a former vice president of research and development at Omneuron, Inc., and former senior director in lead discovery and optimization at Elan Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hawkinson replaces Derek Hook, who retired in August 2012.

Dr. Gunda Georg - UO1 Grant

Dr. Gunda Georg, Medicinal Chemistry Head and Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development Director, received a UO1 grant for the project "Drug Discovery & Synthesis of Contraceptive Agents." The grant is for $4.7 million over five years.