The Department of Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Congratulations to the class of 2009!!

(Left) David Grainger, (Center) Julie Jay, (Right) Carol Lim	(Left) Anagha Vaidya
(Left) Rongzou Xu, (Center) David Grainger, (Right) Mei Ou	(Left) Shawn Owen, (Right) David Grainger
(Left) J. Rian Davis, (Right) Carol Lim

AFPE Pre-doctoral Fellowship Awards

Congratulations to Andy Dixon and Kuangshi Wu, they were awarded an AFPE Pre-doctoral Fellowships for the twelve-month academic year beginning September 1, 2009!

Dr. Jeffrey Fox Award Winner

Congratulations to Shawn Owen this years Fox Award winner. The Fox Award is given annually to a Utah Pharamceutics graduate student in honor of Dr. Jeffrey Fox ­ for his dedication and service to the department. Dr. Fox will be remembered by faculty colleagues and many former undergraduate and graduate students as an extremely devoted and caring professor. He was a warm and decent person quick to share his vast knowledge in the field of pharmaceutics and help those who asked him for help. The award seeks to recognize an outstanding graduate student based on the recommendation of his or her peers. The recipient is selected not only based on academic merit but also on service to the Department the University and to fellow students. Thanks to Shawn Owen for exemplifying the Fox spirit.

Graduate Program

The Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry graduate program at the University of Utah emphasizes education and training at the interface of physical/synthetic organic chemistry, applied mathematics, and modern cell and molecular biology. Graduate students learn to apply fundamental concepts in these areas to many specialized areas of research in modern drug delivery:

• Gene medicine: novel therapeutic gene delivery and targeting methods
• Improving biomaterials performance in medical applications, including implantable devices and diagnostics
• Design and characterization of novel drug delivery systems using new biomaterials (polymers, peptides, nanosystems) and new drug forms (e.g., transgenes, proteins, peptides) to build and control system design, drug release and stability
• Innovative drug delivery systems that combine new targeting, imaging, and triggered release features to improve therapy
• Cell-based therapies for metabolic disease
• Basic research in the kinetics and mechanisms of drug metabolism in the body
• Studies of drug transport mechanisms into and through biological membranes (e.g., skin, GI tract, mouth/nose, lung or cell membranes and cell organelles) and synthetic polymer delivery devices
• Basic studies of the physical and chemical properties of drugs and bioactive molecules and the influence of chemical structure on those properties