Faculty News & Notes

Editor’s Note: Faculty Notes are offered to Interactions readers for two reasons: (1) to provide insight into the impressive scope of teaching and research endeavors in which College of Pharmacy faculty are engaged; and (2) as a means for alumni and friends to keep up with the activities of College basic and clinical sciences faculty. The email addresses of College faculty and alumni are appended at the end of each update to facilitate communication between Interactions readers and the individuals whose activities are cited. DG

Clinical Assistant Professor Imad Btaiche was a co-author of two clinical science papers, “Effects of Lipid Administration on Liver Apoptotic Signals in a Mouse Model of Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN),” which appeared in Pediatric Surgery International 2004; and “Nutrients that May Optimize Drug Effects,” which appeared in the Handbook of Drug- Nutrient Interactions, first edition, The Humana Press Inc; 2004:195-216. The second article was written with Clinical Assistant Professor Michael D. Kraft, PharmD’99. Email: imadb@med.umich.edu, mdkraft@med.umich.edu.

At the end of August, James Coward stepped down from his positions as chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and director of the Medicinal Chemistry Training Program. He was succeeded by Professor Ronald Woodard. Coward chaired the department from the time it received official Regents’ designation as a department in July 2001. He also administered the program from January 1998 to June 2001, when it transitioned from program, to division, to department. Coward will return to being a full-time professor following a short sabbatical.

“Jim performed admirably as the department’s first chair during an important transitional phase, and his commitment to the College is very much appreciated,” Dean Ascione remarks. “Ron’s service as associate chair for professional studies within his department, his numerous service commitments to the College, and his commitment to teaching, as demonstrated by his having received the College’s 2001-2002 Teaching Excellence Award, make him an excellent choice for this position.”

In early July, Coward spoke on the topic, “The Design of Potent Inhibitors of ATP-Dependent Ligases: Synthetic and Biochemical Investigations of Organophosphorous Mimics of Tetrahedral Intermediates,” as an invited lecturer at the International Conference on Phosphorus Chemistry in Birmingham, England. E-mail: rww@umich.edu, jkcoward@umich.edu.

John C. Drach, professor of medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy and professor of biologic and materials sciences in the School of Dentistry, and Leroy B. Townsend, Albert B. Prescott Professor Emeritus of Medicinal Chemistry, were co-authors of three recently published articles resulting from collaborations with scientists outside the U-M. The three articles, which appeared in the May 2004, Vol. 48, No. 5 issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, include: “Mechanism of Action of the Ribopyranoside Benzimidazole GW275175X against Human Cytomegalovirus,” co-authored with colleagues from GlaxoSmithKline; “Activity of Benzimidazole D- and L- Ribonucleosides in Animal Models of Cytomegalovirus Infections,” coauthored with colleagues from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; and “Rhesus Cytomegalovirus Is Similar to Human Cytomegalovirus in Susceptibility to Benzimidazole Nucleosides,” co-authored with colleagues from the University of California, Davis. Email: jcdrach@umich.edu, ltownsen@umich.edu.

Associate Professor of Pharmacy Steve Erickson co-authored the article, “Relationship between Symptoms and Health-related Quality of Life in Treated Hypertensive Patients,” which appeared in Pharmacotherapy 2004; 24:344-350. Erickson, former Pfizer Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Fellow Jeffrey Ellis, and James Stevenson, associate dean for clinical sciences and director of pharmacy services at University of Michigan Health System (UMH), also co-authored the article, “Sub-optimal Statin Adherence and Discontinuation in Primary and Secondary Prevention Populations: Should We Target Patients with the Most to Gain?” which appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine 2004; 19:638-645.

In early May, Erickson, current Pfizer Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Fellow Brian De Smet, PharmD’03, and Professor of Social and Administrative Sciences Duane Kirking delivered the poster presentation, “Predictors of Self-reported Adherence in Patients with Asthma,” during the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Annual Meeting in Arlington, Va.

Stevenson also coauthored the article, “Altering Meperidine Prescribing Patterns in a University Teaching Hospital,” which appeared in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety 2004; 30:277-28. In addition, he and UMH medication safety coordinator John Mitchell, PharmD’72, wrote two case studies in JCAHO’s 2004 book, Case Study In: A Guide to JCAHO’s Medication Management Standards. The title of the articles they wrote are: “Reducing the Use of Non-Approved Abbreviations” and “Controlling High Alert Medications.”

This summer, Kirking was named to the Medicare Model Guidelines Expert Committee. This Committee, comprised of experts in therapeutics and drug benefit design, was created by the U.S. Pharmacopeia to develop the drug classification system for the new Medicare Drug Benefit program as required in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.

In September, Associate Professor Caroline Gaither began a three-year appointment to succeed Kirking as chair of the Department of Social and Administrative Sciences (SAS). Kirking, who was the first chair of the department, will be taking a leave of absence to pursue personal interests beginning in January 2005.

“Duane accomplished a great deal as SAS Department chair, and his commitment to the College was outstanding,” said Dean Frank J. Ascione, BSPharm’69, PharmD’73, PhD’81, in announcing the leadership transition. “Caroline’s involvement with and service to the College and University make her an ideal candidate for this position.” E-mail: serick@umich.edu, jimsteve@umich.edu, bdesmet@umich.edu, johnfm@umich.edu, dkirking@umich.edu, gaitherc@umich.edu, fascione@umich.edu.

Assistant Professor of Social and Administrative Sciences David Nau was elected cochair of the Michigan Medication Safety Coalition. (Grant Brown, BSPharm’80, PharmD’83, president of Brown’s Community Pharmacy in Jackson, Mich., is the other co-chair.) The coalition was formed in 2003 with the goal of improving the safety of medication use in ambulatory settings and is a collaborative effort of the Michigan Pharmacists Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state’s three colleges of pharmacy, and community pharmacists from across Michigan. According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Sentinel Event Statistics, as of June 29, 2004, medication errors accounted for 11.1 percent of the total 2,552 sentinel events reviewed by the commission since January 1995. This puts medication error events in fourth place (out of 20) behind patient suicide, op/post-op complications, and wrong-site surgery. E-mail: dnau@umich.edu, granthb@aol.com.

Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Ara Paul has been appointed to a three-year term on the Board of Grants of the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) effective January 2005. In 2004, he was also appointed to a three-year term on the AFPE Board of Directors where he serves as a co-chair of the Board’s endowment committee. Paul had been a member of the Board of Grants for two, three-year terms and, after a hiatus of two years, was appointed for another three years. In all, he has been a consultant to the AFPE Board of Directors for nine years. E-mail: arapaul@umich.edu.

Randolph Regal, BSPharm’83, PharmD’84, was promoted from clinical instructor to clini- cal assistant professor, effective Sept. 1. Regal and Clinical Assistant Professor Daryl DePestel, PharmD’99, were two of the co-authors of the article, “Incidence of Carbapenem-associated Allergic-type Reactions among Patients with Versus Patients without a Reported Penicillin Allergy,” published in Clinical Infectious Disease 2004; 38:1102-1107. Regal was also a coauthor of a letter titled, “Possible Drug Interactions among Quinolones,” that appeared in American Family Physician, 2004; 69:489. Among Regal’s recent presentations were “Bacterial Resistance: When One Cell Betters a Billion,” delivered at the Promedica Health System Infectious Disease Symposium in Perrysburg, Ohio; and “Everything a Consultant Pharmacist Would Ever Want to Know about Antibiotic Use in the Elderly,” delivered at the Omnicare Regional Pharmacy Consultant’s Meeting in Livonia, Mich. E-mail: reregal@med.umich.edu, daryldd@umich.edu.

Clinical Adjunct Professor Sheldon J. Rich, BSPharm’81, was the coauthor of several recent publications including the articles, “Advancements in the Treatment of Psoriasis: Role of Biologic Agents,” which appeared in the July/August 2004 issue, Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy; and “Meeting the Challenge of Incorporating Injectable Biologics into Managed Care: Multiple Sclerosis and Psoriasis: Program Overview,” “Stepped-Care Approach to Treating MS: A Managed Care Treatment Algorithm,” and “Considerations for Assessing the Cost of Biologic Agents in the Treatment of Psoriasis,” all three of which appeared in the June 2004 supplement to the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy. E-mail: SJRAssociates@aol.com.

In early September, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Gus Rosania gave the invited lecture, “Supertargeted Chemistry and Subcellular Drug Transport: In Search of a Common Thread in Paul Ehrlich’s Chemical and Biological Legacy,” as part of the Paul Ehrlich 150th Birthday Celebration in Nuremberg, Germany. Ehrlich, one of the greatest chemists in history and one of the first recipients of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, is broadly recognized as the father of chemotherapy. He discovered the first chemotherapeutic agent against syphilis (Salvarsan), and his seminal work eventually led to the discovery of the sulfa antibiotics, followed by penicillin. Ehrlich’s name is often invoked in discussions of the modern pharmaceutical industry. “Being invited by the German chemistry community to give a lecture in honor of Paul Ehrlich was a great honor,” Rosania remarks. At the Society of Biomolecular Screening (SBS) 10th Annual Conference, held Sept. 11-15 in Orlando, Fla., Rosania spoke on the “In Vitro and In Vivo Bioimaging in Drug Discovery.” SBS is the largest association of high-throughput screening scientists in the U.S. In June, Rosania lectured on “Vesicle Shedding and Breast Cancer: Insights into a Potential Anticancer Drug Resistance Mechanism,” at a seminar sponsored by the University of Miami Medical School’s Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. Also in June, Rosania received the Premio Colombia Exterior a la Exelencia Award recognizing outstanding Colombian-born professionals working in the U.S. Rosania’s co-authored article, “An Exploratory Chemoinformatic Analysis of Anticancer Drug Targeting,” is slated to appear in Molecular Pharmaceutics, Vol. 1, No. 4 (2004). E-mail: grosania@umich.edu.

David Sherman, John Gideon Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and a research professor in the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) at the U-M, has been appointed head of the Center for Chemical Genomics (CCG), a core collaboratory jointly sponsored by the College of Pharmacy for LSI scientists and other U-M researchers. The purpose of CCG is to develop molecular tools that will help researchers view cellular systems more precisely, with the goal of translating this understanding into new and better drugs, as well as other applications. Sherman’s own research focuses on isolating naturally occurring chemicals in marine microorganisms to find potential cancer and anti-infective drugs. The new Center will build upon the existing synthetic and combinatorial chemistry collaborations between the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and the Department of Chemistry. (Most of the College’s medicinal chemistry faculty hold joint appointments in both departments.)

“David’s labs will be housed in the Life Sciences Institute, but he will retain his appointment in the College and will continue to be actively engaged in teaching and mentoring in our professional and graduate programs,” Dean Ascione notes. “We are currently interviewing candidates for the Vahlteich Chair. That individual will also be located in the Life Sciences Institute. Our College will thus have two representatives in the Institute who can provide us with additional leadership in the life sciences and add to our broad range of interdisciplinary research and education activities.” E-mail: davidhs@umich.edu.

David E. Smith, chair and professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, gave two invited presentations — one, in July, to researchers in Hoffmann-La Roche’s Department of Pharmaceutical Development and Medical Pharmacology in Nutley, N.J.; the other, in September, to researchers in Rutgers University’s School of Pharmacy in Piscataway. Both lectures were on the same topic: “Role and Relevance of PEPT2 in the Brain and Kidney.” E-mail: smithb@umich.edu.

Deborah Wagner, BSPharm’76, PharmD’82, was promoted to clinical associate professor of pharmacy, effective Sept. 1. Wagner gave two invited lectures at the Seventh Practical Updates in Anesthesiology 2004 CME program in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Her topics included “PONV: Where the Consensus Guidelines Take Us” and “Beyond the Black Box... Uncommon Effects of Common Anesthetic Agents.” She also contributed to the 14th edition of the Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs Appendix I, on the topic of pregnancy and lactation risk categories for nonprescription medications and nutritional supplements. Wagner was also an author or co-author of six juried publications focusing on post-operative nausea and vomiting, and the treatment of pain in pediatric patients. E-mail: debbiew@med.umich.edu.

A grant application entitled, “A Novel Approach for Simultaneous Imaging and Protein Transduction Therapy for Breast Cancer,” submitted by the research team of Albert B. Prescott Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Victor C. Yang, was one of 159 applications selected from a pool of 1,290 applications to receive the 2004 Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Concept Award.

In July, Yang gave the invited lecture, “A Novel Protein Transduction Domain Peptide-mediated Cancer Therapy,” at the 10th SCBA International Symposium held in Beijing, China. Yang was also one of just three U.S.-Chinese scientists appointed to a three-year term as an advisory committee member to the Center of Nanomedicine Research at Taiwan’s National Research Institute. E-mail: vcyang@umich.edu.