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SPECIAL COURSE: July 15-18, 2008

Basic Pharmacokinetic Concepts for the Pharmaceutical Scientist

The "Basic Pharmacokinetic Concepts for the Pharmaceutical Scientist" course will again be held at the College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on July 15-18, 2008.  This course will be valuable for the academic or industrial scientist seeking a basic understanding of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics to either further their own work, or to more effectively interact with scientists involved in pharmacokinetic and drug delivery research.  Concepts developed in this course are essential in the evaluation of traditional dosage forms and innovative medical delivery systems and devices.

The overall goal of the course will be to present fundamental pharmacokinetic concepts in a manner that will allow participants without a specific pharmacokinetic background to apply these principles in their work.  This 3- to 4-day course will deal with the important pharmacokinetic principles that describe drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination.  The course faculty, Professors William Elmquist, Ronald Sawchuk and Cheryl Zimmerman, will present lectures and workshops with the idea of practical application of fundamental concepts.

To learn more about this course and to get registration information, please go to the program's web site at http://ce.pharmacy.umn.edu/kinetics.  A copy of the brochure can be downloaded.

Paroma Chakravarty is a 2008-09 recipient of the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota Graduate School for her thesis research on phase transformation in pharmaceutical systems comprising multiple hydrate phases: thermodynamics, kinetics, and the role of crystal structure. Her advisor is Dr. Raj Suryanarayanan. [May 2008]

Pharmaceutics Ph.D. student Sisir Bhattacharya received a grant from Merck Pharmaceuticals for a graduate fellowship in drug development.  His advisor is Dr. Raj Suryanarayanan. [Winter 2008]

Pharmaceutics alumnus Richard C. Brundage, Pharm.D., Ph.D. (1996), received an award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate and Professional Education from the University of Minnesota on April 28, 2008.

Assistant Professor Carolyn A. Fairbanks was awarded a 2-year NIH grant to study chronic pain.  She is Co-I on a $200,000 Faculty Development Grant from the Academic Health Center entitled "Intrathecal Delivery of Gene Therapeutics for the Treatment of Chronic Pain." [March 2008]

Professor Ronald J. Sawchuk received a grant from Alcon Research for testing the penetration of moxifloxacin in middle ear using transtympanic membrane delivery formulations, Phase I.  He and Assistant Professor Belinda Cheung are Co-PIs on another grant from Alcon Research to study the development of an acute otitis media middle ear microdialysis model with implanted tympanostomy tube. [Winter 2008]

Professor Henning Schroeder received three grants from Bayer Healthcare LLC:

• Tissue-protective protein heme oxygenase-1 as a novel therapeutic target for aspirin investigations in transgenic model systems.
• Tissue protective protein heme oxygenase-1 as a novel therapeutic target for aspirin. Comparison with other NSAIDs in transgenic model systems.
• Effect of pantothenol and pantothenic acid on cytotoxicity induced by high-dose aspirin and salicylate treatment. [Winter 2008]

Pharmaceutics Ph.D. student Prakash Sundaramurthi received recognition at the 2007 AAPS Graduate Student Symposium in Analysis and Pharmaceutical Quality for his research on "Selective Crystallization of Succinic Acid Buffer During Freezing and Freeze-Drying -- Quantification by Synchrotron X-ray Diffractometry", sponsored by UCB Pharma.  His advisor is Dr. Raj Suryanarayanan.

Professor Raj G. Suryanarayanan was recognized in December 2007 by Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India with an Outstanding Alumnus Award.  He received a grant from Alkermes, Inc. to study phase transformations of vivitrol and risperdal consta, and a two-year grant from Pfizer to study utilization in situ X-ray diffraction in lyophilized formulation development. [March 2008]

Dr. Manthena Varma received the Most Cited Paper Award from the European Journal of Pharmaceutics Sciences.  The paper, "Enhanced oral paclitaxel absorption with vitamin E-TPGS: Effect on solubility and permeability in vitro, in situ and in vivo" (vol. 25, 2005), was authored by Varma and R. Panchagnula.  Dr. Varma is completing a postdoctoral appointment in the lab of Prof. Cheryl Zimmerman.

Professors Cheryl L. Zimmerman and Timothy S. Wiedmann were recognized as Top Reviewers at the 2007 AAPS Editorial Advisory Board Meeting. [Winter 2008]

Several Pharmaceutics graduate students at the U of MN received special recognition at the 2007 AAPS Meeting in San Diego, California:

Sisir Bhattacharya: AAPS Graduate Student Symposium in Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutical Technology, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. "Effect of Plasticizer and Anti-plasticizer on Relaxation Processes in Amorphous Sucrose Measured by Dielectric Spectroscopy." His advisor is Dr. Raj Suryanarayanan.

Naveed Shaik: AAPS Graduate Student Symposium in Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Drug Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Research, sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company. “P-gp-mediated Efflux of Abacavir Limits Cellular Accumulation and Brain Distribution.” His advisor is Dr. William Elmquist.

Prakash Sundaramurthi: AAPS Graduate Student Symposium in Analysis and Pharmaceutical Quality, sponsored by UCB Pharma. "Selective Crystallization of Succinic Acid Buffer During Freezing and Freeze-Drying -- Quantification by Synchrotron X-ray Diffractometry." His advisor is Dr. Raj Suryanarayanan. [November 2007]