Med Chem grads plan, participate in CBITG Symposium

More than 100 graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members from more than ten departments attended the annual National Institutes of Health Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Grant (CBITG) Symposium in May.

The symposium was planned and hosted by current CBITG trainees, including department of medicinal chemistry students Sara Coulup (Georg lab) and Carter Eiden (Aldrich lab).

A variety of speakers from fields that bridge chemistry and biology research presented a range of topics. Kim Maize, grad student in the Finzel lab, presented "Ligand-Induced Structural Changes in Anthrax Lethal Factor." In addition, the symposium featured a poster session, where the department was well-represented by graduate students Joe Buonomo and Carter Eiden (Aldrich lab), Denise Casemore (Xing lab),  Sara Coulup, David Huang, and Andi Wisniewski (Georg lab), Arnie Groehler (Tretyakova lab),  Elbek Kurbanov (Amin lab), Cody Lensing (Haskell-Luevano lab), Aniekan Okon (Wagner lab), and Maggie Olson and John Widen (Harki lab).

Mark Distefano, department of chemistry professor and medicinal chemistry graduate faculty member, is director of CBITG. The mission of the training grant is to provide students with interdisciplinary training so that they can tackle complex research problems involving a combination of chemical and biological methods.

New faculty: Dr. Sunil David

Dr. Sunil David will join the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in August. He is known for his work in adjuvant vaccine development, infectious disease, immunology, and inflammatory disease processes. Researchers from his group at the University of Kansas will join him in his new lab in the Cancer & Cardiovascular Research Building.

Dr. Chenggu Xing - NCI Grant

Professor Chengguo (Chris) Xing received $1,738,500 from the National Cancer Institute for his research project, "Dihydromethysticin (DHM) for Lung Cancer Chemoprevention."

Med Chem professors honored

Professor Chris Xing was named professor of the year and professor of fall semester 2014 by the PharmD Twin Cities class of 2016. The PharmD Duluth class of 2018 named professor David Ferguson their professor of fall semester 2014 (tied with Jon Schommer).

Adam Zarth - Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

Graduate student Adama Zarth, member of Stephen Hecht's lab, was awarded a 2015-16 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.

Dr. Philip Portoghese among top pharmacy professors

Distinguished Professor Phil Portoghese was named one of the top 25 pharmacy professors by Medical Technology Schools.

Dr. Barry Finzel - USenate Representative

Professor Barry Finzel has been nominated to serve a three-year term as a USenate representative for the College of Pharmacy.