uic pharmacist, winter 2012

Pharmacist

Winter 2012 ￭ Volume 35, Number 1

Institute for Tuberculosis Research hunts a predator

Also Inside ➟�Bacteria chit-chat➟�Welcome, Class of 2015!

Happy Holidays

One of this season's true joys is to thank you for your friendship and good will. In this spirit, we wish

you a prosperous New Year.

pharmalumni.uic.edu

Pharmacist

Winter 2012 ￭ Volume 35, Number 1

Table of Contents

Cover“Infection Day” by Dirim Arslan, winner of first place in COP’s Images of Research Competition. See page 14 for details.

In Every Issue03 Dean’s Message

05 News Flash

07 Lab Notes

10 Rising Stars

16 Faculty Fanfare

18 Brilliant Futures

22 The Rockford Files

40 Gallery

42 Class Notes

46 Obituaries

48 Over the Counter

50 In the Loop

In This IssueInto the World of Quorum Sensing 24Michael Federle and his team eavesdrop on bacteria.

Tracking a Killer 28Researchers at the UIC Institute for Tuberculosis Research stalk a deadly slayer.

Reunion 2011 33Time stands still as the College celebrates history and raises a glass to the future.

White Coats 2011 38Welcome, Class of 2015!

A Publication for the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends

UIC Pharmacist | Winter 2012 | pharmalumni.uic.edu | 1

24

28

38

PublisherJerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, pharmd

Dean

EditorJessica A. CanlasAssistant Director of Communications

Copy EditorRob HoffUIC Office of Publications Services

Contributing EditorsSonya BoothHugh M. CookSamuel Hostettler

PhotographyJoshua ClarkBarry DonaldRoberta Dupuis-DevlinKathryn MarchettiBen Stickan

DesignerKimberly HegartyUIC Office of Publications Services

College of PharmacyAdministrative Officers

Department HeadsWilliam Beck, phd

Biopharmaceutical Sciences

Judy Bolton, phd

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Nicholas Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73Pharmacy Administration

Janet Engle, pharmd ’85Pharmacy Practice

Vice Dean, RockfordRegional ProgramDavid W. Bartels, pharmd

Executive Associate DeanJanet Engle, pharmd ’85

Associate DeansClara Awe, phd, edd

Diversity Affairs

James Bono, mha

Business Development and Administrative Affairs

Marieke Schoen, pharmd ’88Academic Affairs

Thomas TenHoeve III, phd

Student Affairs

Assistant DeansDebra Agard, pharmd ’92, mhpe

Student Affairs

Suzanne Rabi, pharmd ’04Academic Affairs

UIC Pharmacist (MC 874)833 South Wood Street, Room 184MChicago, Illinois 60612Phone: (312) 996-7240Fax: (312) 413-1910E-mail: [email protected]

©2011. All rights reserved.

UIC Pharmacist would like to hear from you, and we welcome your letters:UIC Pharmacist (MC 874)833 South Wood Street, Room 184MChicago, Illinois 60612

Phone: (312) 996-7785E-mail: [email protected]

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. All reader correspondence to the magazine and its editorial staff willbe treated as assigned for publication unless otherwisespecified.

editorialcredits

UIC Pharmacist:

I am deeply saddened to read of the passing of Dr. Ralph Morris and Herb Carlin (UIC Pharmacist, Summer 2011).

I was an undergraduate pharmacy student at UIC from 1962 to 1966 and was very fortunate to know both of these outstanding pharmaceutical innovators. As pharmacy director, Mr. Carlin provided a strong sense of professionalism to the students and underscored the importance of pharmacists as part of the healthcare team. He was certainly a visionary.

Dr. Morris was one of the significant people in my life, influencing my future direction in the profession of pharmacy. As most students in the ’60s, I initially intended to work in retail. In 1964, Dr. Morris offered me a position assisting him with some of his research. It was my first exposure to research and with his and Dr. Siegel’s formulation knowledge, I decided to pursue a PhD in R&D. The rest is history as I did receive that advanced degree and, for the next 40 years, worked in the pharmaceutical industry and served as a pharmaceutical development consultant. It is interesting how external influences affect one’s life, and, certainly, Dr. Morris was one of those individuals.

The profession of pharmacy is indebted to Dr. Morris and Mr. Carlin for their many contributions.

Jeff Rudolph, bs ’66

In Memoriam

In Box

| UIC Pharmacist | Winter 2012 | pharmalumni.uic.edu2

UIC PHARMACY ONLINE

facebook.com/UICCollegeofPharmacyConnect with alumni, students, and faculty. Find out what’s going on at the College and on UIC’s campus, and post your updates.

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find at issuu.com/uicpharmacyRead the full-text issue of your favorite alumni magazine online!

pharmalumni.uic.eduVisit our online home for the COP Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs! View our calendar and register for events online.

twitter.com/uicpharmalumniFollow our feed to keep up with COP happenings and pharmacy and healthcare industry news.

linkd.in/uicpharmNetwork with the best in the business —COP alumni making their mark in the field, award-winning students, and faculty advancing the practice. Find job listings and post your company’s openings.

I was honored to be asked by our chancellor to serve as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs (VCAA) and provost of UIC for about nine months during 2011. Many are not familiar with this position and ask me to contrast it with being dean. The two positions in a university are compared below:

VCAA/Provost Dean

Reportto: Chancellor Provost

Directreports: Vice Provosts and Deans Associate Deans and (e.g., Medicine, Business, etc) Department Heads Scopeofjob: All academic affairs, all budget Still trying to and space at UIC figure that out Curricularworry: Math 101 Clerkships

Moneyworry: Will the State be able to pay us? Will UIC be able pay us?

Commonspeech: Welcoming remarks Welcoming Remarks

Linktopharmacy: What’s pharmacy? Education, research, and practice

In all, it was a wonderful experience, and I certainly learned a great deal. It was interesting and rewarding to work directly with Chancellor Allen-Meares and President Hogan during these particular times in higher education. In turn, our college (for better or worse) has become quite visible within the University of Illinois system! I must thank Steve Swanson for leading the college (with the capable assistance of Marieke Schoen and Jan Engle) during my absence. I am quite happy to be back home in the College of Pharmacy. What I missed in my time away can be summarized in the list below:

1. Our pharmacy students and their zeal for the profession2. Our exceptional faculty and staff 3. Our loyal alumni and pharmacists in Illinois4. Professional issues in pharmacy5. The interesting temperature variations and water leaks in our building

Well done and done—on to issues in the College. We have great plans to renovate parts of the College, embark on curricular revision, invest in student-centered needs such as career counseling, and consider a new strategic plan! Please let us know if you would like to be engaged in our activities.

Happy Homecoming

From the Dean


From the Dean

I recently had the opportunity to tour a redesigned pharmacy. I have been critical of the physical layout of many pharmacies for a variety of reasons, including that the patient rarely sees the pharmacist who seems to be buried somewhere behind the counter or on the phone and they simply aren’t private. I’ve unwittingly and uncomfortably learned of my neighbor’s medications (and disorders) at our local pharmacy as I waited in line to drop off refills—that should absolutely not happen. But this pharmacy was different. It was modernly aesthetic and exuded a heathcare environment rather than a predominantly commercial one. There was a triage person at a desk who directed patients to areas (new Rx? Refill? OTC?). The pharmacist was at a desk in a white coat—not in the pharmacy—and, in fact, never touched the prescription until the patient handed it to her for counseling and checking (by video). There was a nurse practitioner clinic attached and the pharmacist and nurse appeared to actually interact. The rest of the store had a healthcare theme—healthy snacks, diabetes care, etc. I was impressed and the owners were quite proud. But as I was leaving, I saw it—the display of cigarettes behind the checkout counter.

Major buzz kill.

In October of 2008, the city of San Francisco passed legislation that prohibits the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies. Just before the law passed, the mayor

of San Francisco said, “Pharmacies should be places where people go to get better, not where people go to get cancer.” Pretty good point, eh? Boston, along with a few smaller cities, followed suit. In Illinois, legislation was proposed in 2009 but died a quick and silent death. Can you imagine other healthcare settings and practitioners selling cigarettes? “Gee, I just went to the dentist for a crown and picked up a pack of Merit Ultralights on the way out of the office.” Some will say that pharmacies will lose revenue and customer traffic and they are probably right. But there is a moral line here. Pharmacies don’t sell guns in Illinois (I must admit I haven’t looked into states such as Texas or Arizona), and there is more than likely healthy profit here to be had with firearms. If we really want pharmacies to be viewed as promoting good health and wellness, and if we really want to be viewed as healthcare professionals who can bill for their services to patients, then we should lose the tobacco products—voluntarily. Some pharmacies offer smoking cessation programs and sell cigarettes at the checkout counter—sort of like giving a patient metoprolol and isoproterenol at the same time. Time for pharmacists to give up the habit—quit selling cigarettes.

Pharmacies: Put out the cigarettes


Jerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, pharmd, fccp, facc

Dean and Professor

News Flash


College to develop programs for improving patient safety

The College of Pharmacy has received a $4.25 million

federal grant to develop programs for safer medication use,

including tools for detecting drug risks, training physicians,

preventing medication errors, and making drug information

easier to understand.

“Patients are not as safe as they should be,” says Bruce

Lambert, professor of pharmacy administration and

director of UIC’s Center for Education and Research on

Therapeutics (CERTS), which will manage the program.

“Medication errors and inappropriate use of medicines,

by health professionals and patients, cause a great deal

of harm.”

The center will develop, test, and distribute tools and

training materials in four areas: statistical methods for large-

scale studies of comparative drug safety and effectiveness,

opioid prescribing and dosing for acute pain; methods for

preventing and detecting drug name confusion errors; and

plain-language drug information.

The grant is a continuation of a study that began in 2007,

when UIC was named one of 10 new CERTS organizations

throughout the nation. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare

Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, UIC was tasked to design and

test systems to optimize drug choice, drug monitoring, and

drug safety.

The new grant is one of only six that were awarded in the

current round of funding and the only center of its kind

headquartered in a college of pharmacy.

The CERTS program was authorized by Congress in 1997

to examine the benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness

of therapeutic products and to educate patients and

caregivers.

The mission of CERTS is to conduct research and provide

education that will advance the optimal use of drugs,

medical devices, and biological products; increase

awareness of the benefits and risks of therapeutics; and

improve quality while cutting the costs of care.

UIC will continue to host the center and will be assisted by

Rush University Medical Center; Northwestern University;

University of Chicago; the Brigham and Women’s Hospital,

Boston; the Institute for Safe Medication Practices,

Horsham, Pennsylvania; and the National Patient Safety

Foundation, Boston.

by Sam Hostettler

• Think beyond drugs: Consider nondrug therapies

such as diet, exercise, or physical therapy; look

for and treat underlying causes rather than just

masking symptoms with drugs; emphasize

prevention rather than treatment.

• Practice strategic prescribing: Defer drug

treatment if drugs can be safely started after a trial

of nondrug therapy; avoid frequent drug switching;

be circumspect about unproven drug uses; start

treatment with only one new drug at a time.

• Watch for adverse effects: Suspect drug reactions

when patients report problems; be aware of

withdrawal syndromes; educate patients about

side effects so they can anticipate and report

reactions.

• Exercise caution regarding new drugs: Seek out

unbiased information sources; wait until drugs

have proven safe on the market; be skeptical of

markers such as improved laboratory-test values

rather than true clinical benefits; avoid stretching

to include patients or diseases different from those

in the clinical trials; avoid seduction by molecular

studies that have no proven outcome benefits;

beware of reporting that highlights positive trials

and hides those that fail to show benefit.

• Work with patients for a shared agenda: Do not

automatically yield to patient requests for drugs;

consider nonadherence before adding additional

drugs; avoid restarting previously unsuccessful

treatments; discontinue any medications that are

not needed or not working; and respect patients’

own reservations about drugs.

• Consider long-term, broader impacts: Weigh

short-term benefits against long-term outcomes

and ecologic impacts; recognize that improved

prescribing and better monitoring may outweigh

marginal benefits of new drugs.

The 24 principles of conservative prescribing:

News Flash

According to a new study from the College of Pharmacy, lives and money could

be saved if a more cautious approach were taken by medical professionals who

prescribe drugs.

The study appears in the online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine as

part of the journal’s “Less is More” series.

Several studies over the past decade have concluded that the use of many new

and frequently prescribed medications was either harmful or not beneficial to

patients, says Bruce Lambert, coauthor of the paper and professor of pharmacy

administration.

Using existing research as a guide, 24 principles were developed that can help

prescribers avoid excessive and harmful prescribing, says Lambert, who directs

UIC’s Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics.

“None of these principles are particularly novel, nor should they be terribly

controversial,” he says. “But taken together, they represent a radical shift in the

way clinicians think about and prescribe drugs.”

The radical shift is known as “conservative prescribing,” and if adopted by

every prescriber, could save many lives and dollars, Lambert says.

Physicians need to move away from the mindset that leads them to heavily

prescribe the “latest and greatest” new drugs, to one where “fewer and more

time tested is best,” says Gordon Schiff, associate professor of medicine at

Harvard University and a coauthor of the report. Medical and pharmacy schools

should not solely teach the pharmacology of drugs, but principles that would

make practitioners better and more cautious prescribers and users of drugs,

he says.

The UIC Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics is one of 14 such

centers in the United States to study how consumers and clinicians make

critical treatment decisions about therapeutic products and interventions. The

program is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Other coauthors of the study are William Galanter, associate professor of clinical

medicine; Amy Lodolce, clinical pharmacist, pharmacy practice; and Michael

Koronkowski, clinical assistant professor, pharmacy practice.

by Sam Hostettler

Conservative prescribing could save lives, money


Lab Notes

Lycopene, a red pigment that gives tomatoes and certain

other fruits and vegetables their color, could help prevent

prostate cancer, especially in African-American men,

according to research at the College.

Lycopene is a potent antioxidant, and some studies have

shown that diets rich in tomatoes may lower the risk of

certain cancers, especially those of the prostate, lung, and

stomach.

“We’re not setting out to treat cancer, but to prevent it,

and we’re hoping to do so with lycopene,” says Richard

van Breemen, professor of medicinal chemistry and lead

researcher on the study, published in the journal Cancer

Prevention Research.

According to Van Breemen, the new study was the first of its

kind to look solely at African-American men. Patients aged

50 to 83 who had a physical abnormality in their prostate

were recruited from Chicago’s Jesse Brown VA Medical

Center and the University of Illinois Hospital. The men were

scheduled for a prostate biopsy due to the abnormality and

an elevated PSA, or prostate specific antigen level.

Since the biopsies were scheduled three to four weeks

in advance, it gave Van Breemen and his coworkers the

opportunity to do a 21-day study without interfering with the

patients’ care.

Each day, half of the 105 participants received two gel

capsules containing 30 milligrams of lycopene, while the

other half received placebo capsules that contained only

soybean oil. The lycopene approximated the amount that can

be ingested daily by eating foods rich in tomato sauce, such

as spaghetti and pizza, Van Breemen says. The researchers

wanted to see if lycopene would rise in the blood and

prostate tissue and if it could lower markers of oxidative

stress—a factor in many diseases, such as cancer and

Alzheimer’s, and in the body’s normal aging process.

Oxidative stress injures cells within the body, while

antioxidants help cells cope against the damage, Van

Breemen says.

After receiving lycopene or placebo for three weeks, all

subjects underwent needle biopsies to diagnose BPH

(benign prostatic hyperplasia, or enlarged prostate) or

prostate cancer. Two additional biopsies were taken to

measure lycopene and DNA oxidation, Van Breemen says.

The pathology indicated that 51 men had prostate cancer

while 65 had BPH.

Men who received lycopene showed “a significant increase”

of the antioxidant in the blood, Van Breemen says, compared

to the placebo control group.

The research was funded through a grant from the National

Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health. Van

Breemen presented the research at the 16th International

Symposium on Carotenoids in Krakow, Poland, this past July.

Lycopene may help prevent prostate cancer in African Americansby Sam Hostettler

The potent antioxidant lycopene, found in tomatoes, could lower the risk of prostate cancer, especially for African American men, says Richard van Breemen, professor of medicinal chemistry.

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Lab Notes

The Mass Spectrometry, Metabolomics, and Proteomics Facility

(MMPF), headed by Academic Director Richard van Breemen,

professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, is a

research core at UIC’s Research Resources Center (RRC). It

facilitates the analysis of a wide variety of molecules ranging

from low-molecular-weight volatile compounds to proteins. It

provides investigators access to many instruments optimized

for use in proteomics, metabolomics, biomarker discovery,

and other quantitative studies.

While some comprehensive research centers have access

to just two to three mass spectrometers, the MMPF shared

resource at UIC has 14 mass spectrometers, representing

almost every type of analyzer (see inset below).

1 hi-res hybrid line ion trap-

OrbiTrap Velos LC-MS/SS

w/ ETD

1 single quadrupole LC-MS

1 hi-res hyb linear ion

trap-Fourier Transf ICR

LC-MS/MS w/ECD

1 single quadrupole SFC-M

1 hi-res Qq-TOF tandem

LC-MS-MS with ion

mobility

3 triple quadrupole

LC-MS-MS

1 hi-res IT-TOF LC-MS/MS 1 quadrupole ion trap LC-

MS/MS

1 hi-res MALDI-TOF 1 linear ion trap LC-MS/MS

1 hi-res MALDI-TOF/TOF 1 hi-res magnetic sector

GC-MS

This MMPF is also maintained at the state of the art, so

advanced that the resource has already begun retiring some

of its older instruments. Five have been retired in the last few

years and replaced by new models with superior performance

and new capabilities.

One of the most valuable features of the RRC, whose function

is to maintain and support high-tech scientific equipment for

use by UIC research faculty and staff, is the fact that it has

skilled professionals on board to help with the use of research

resources. They offer training to users, or they can assist

researchers at various stages in their work. RRC specialists are

capable of doing a one-time analysis or can handle samples

from start to finish. Researchers may also use the instruments

unassisted, which can be very economical. According to Van

Breemen, “The cost of an assisted analysis can be double that

of a do-it-yourself approach.”

The MMPF was transformed from modest origins to a cutting-

edge, multiuse lab and shared resource because of a Van

Breemen’s and the RRC’s vision. After arriving on campus in

1994, Van Breemen began to acquire mass spectrometers.

The RRC had also accumulated some mass spectrometers

through grants. Joining forces, the two combined their shared

instruments into one resource with a coordinated approach

to instrument acquisition. The economy of scale produced

by this merger was a tremendous advantage, and the MMPF

has since excelled and has continued to grow and maintain its

cutting-edge capacity.

“The MMPF is an essential part of discovery and development

of new therapeutic agents from the lab to the clinic,” says Van

Breemen.

Shared mass spectrometry facility an asset to campus researchers by Mary Keen


Lab NotesLab Notes

Recently funded research

• Gregory Thatcher, professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, received five-year, R01 funding from the NIH National Cancer Institute for his project, “Biointeractions of Antiestrogens with Nitric Oxide.”

• Larisa Cavallari, associate professor, pharmacy practice, and adjunct associate professor, biopharmaceutical sciences, received a subcontract from University of Chicago for her National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–funded project, “Comprehensive Studies of Novel SNPs Affecting Warfarin Dose in African Americans.”

• Hyunwoo Lee, phd ’03, research assistant professor, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, received an NIH R56 Bridge Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for his project, “Peptide-Based Quorum Sensing Controlling Virulence in Bacillus anthracis.”

• Stephanie Crawford (PI), associate professor, pharmacy administration, and Daniel Touchette, associate professor, pharmacy administration, received $310,000 from the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, Inc. for the first known empirical study to evaluate face-to-face and telephonic medication therapy management (MTM) intervention in community-based settings. Study partners include UIC; SUPERVALU (Jewel-Osco) Pharmacies; Competitive Health Analytics (CHA, Inc., subsidiary of Humana); and HumanaRxMentor, which is also providing in-kind support for project activities.

• Maria Barbolina, assistant professor, biopharmaceutical sciences, received an NIH R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Her project, “Role of the Fractaline Signaling in EOC,” began August 1 and will continue for two years. She also received funding from the American Cancer Society’s Illinois Division for her project, “Function of Lymphotactin Receptor-Ligand Interaction in Ovarian Carcinoma.”

• Michael Federle, assistant professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, received an NIH R01 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His project, “Mechanistic Dissection of Pheromone-Dependent Regulation

of Group A Streptococcal Virulence,” began July 1 and will continue for five years.

• Douglas Thomas, assistant professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, received an NIH R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. His four-year project, “The Role of Dinitrosyliron Complexes in Cancer Etiology,” began July 1.

• Brian Murphy, assistant professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, and affiliate of the Institute for Tuberculosis Research, received a Research Starter Grant from the American Society of Pharmacognosy for his proposal, “Fermentation of Marine Actinomycetes to Produce Novel Ovarian Cancer Drug Leads.”

• Pavel Petukhov, associate professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, received funding for his project, “Mapping the Binding Site of HDAC2 for the Design of Novel HDAC Inhibitors Lacking Zinc Binding Group.” Funding is provided by an affiliate of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). The ADDF catalyzes and funds drug discovery and drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

• Professor Richard van Breemen, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, was awarded $600,000 for “Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer for Biomedical Research.” This NIH NCRR–funded, high-resolution mass spectrometer will be located in the Chicago Biomedical Consortium/UIC RRC Proteomics and Informatics Services Facility and serve researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and UIC.

• Hyun-Young Jeong, pharmd ’01, phd ’04, assistant professor, pharmacy practice, received an NIH R01 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Her five-year project, “Altered Drug Metabolism in Pregnancy,” received funding of nearly $1.8 million.


APhA-ASP in pictures

Chicago�MarathonAPhA-ASP members Andrea Pierce, P3; Ginnie Kim, P2; Mike Kenes, P3;

Cathy Palladino, P3; Jane Janik, P3; and Farah Barada, P2, volunteered

alongside other health-professions students, as well as licensed attending

physicians, residents, EMTs, RNs, DPMs, PTs, and ATCs. Together they

served 48,000 runners as part of the medical team for the 34th Chicago

Marathon. Prior to the race, students attended a training session and

assisted in making 20,000 ice bags for the runners. During the race,

students stationed at the finish line triaged runners for runner’s collapse,

altered mental status, and assistance to medical tents.

APM�OCC�OP�HeartDuring American Pharmacists Month in October, the APhA-ASP Operation

Heart team, including Jane Janik, P3; Dominic Paguio, P1; and Lianna

Serbas, P1, conducted blood-pressure screenings and educated patients

about cardiovascular disease at UIC’s Outpatient Care Center.

APM�OCC�OP�ImmunizationDuring American Pharmacists Month in October, the APhA-ASP Operation

Immunization team, including Alex Goncharenko, P2, and Amy Secord,

P2, educated UIC Outpatient Care Center patients on the pneumococcal,

influenza, and zostavax vaccines.

APM�Rockford�BillboardAPhA-ASP designed and purchased a billboard in Machesney Park, Illinois,

near Rockford, in honor of American Pharmacists Month this past October.

The billboard displayed towards both northbound and southbound traffic.

All photos courtesy of Cathy Palladino

Rising Stars


APha-ASP�named�UIC�Org�of�the�YearAt the Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership

Awards ceremony this past spring, more than 40 COP

students were recognized. Among those were Class

of 2011 members Carolyn Sharpe, Khyati Patel, Daniel

Wojenski, and Ben Le who received University of

Illinois Alumni Association Awards. Samantha Keca,

a prospective 2015 graduate, earned the Jefferson

Award for Public Service, the highest student award

conferred at our university. Finally, APhA-ASP was

awarded the UIC Organization of the Year, which is a

first for any COP organization.

COP�shines�at�ISPOR�At the 16th Annual International Meeting of the

International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and

Outcomes Research, held this past May in Baltimore,

Maryland, Sapna V. Rao, ms ’11, phd ’11, and doctoral

candidates Fang-Ju Lin; Olaitan Ojo, pharmd ’01;

Vardhaman Patel; Shengsheng Yu, ms ’09; and Lin

Zhan, along with Assistant Professor Daniel Touchette,

were recognized as scientific poster finalists for

their project titled “A Decision Modeling Approach

to Evaluate the Cost-Effectiveness of Prasugrel vs.

Clopidogrel in Patients with Planned Precutaneous

Coronary Intervention.” Lin was also recognized as a

scientific poster finalist for her project titled “Impact

of Cognitive Impairment on Functioning, Medical

Resource Utilization, Adherence, and Health-Related

Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia.”

Berberich�named�Ouststanding�StudentChristina Berberich, P4, was one of 34 pharmacy

students named Outstanding Student Chapter

Member of the Year by the National Community

Pharmacists Association Foundation. Berberich was

nominated by her peers and was honored at the

foundation’s 113th Annual Convention and Trade

Exposition in October.

Kenes�and�Schultz�win�Granat�Scholarship

Mike Kenes and Neil Schultz, both P3s, were selected

as recipients of the Alan Granat Memorial Scholarship Award

sponsored by the Illinois Pharmacists Association (IPhA)

Foundation. Established as a memorial tribute to Alan Granat,

who served as executive director of IPhA from 1979 until his

death in 1989, the award is presented annually to pharmacists

and/or pharmacy students who have exhibited a commitment

to pharmacy and community, as evidenced by membership

and participation in pharmacy organizations and community

involvement.

An active member of the American Pharmacist Association-

Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), Kenes began

his involvement as the APhA P1 liaison his first year and is now

APhA vice president of professional affairs in his third year.

A staunch advocate for the profession, Kenes recently had

the privilege of completing a highly sought-after internship in

Alaska for the second year in a row.

Neil Schultz, also an active APhA-ASP member, served as

IPhA liaison during his P2 year and is now legislative liaison for

the group. As a student, he cocreated the “Law in 60 Seconds”

campaign with his chapter and is committed to advancing the

role of the pharmacist in modern healthcare.

Rising Stars

SNPhA�stands�out�at�national�conferenceAt this year’s Student National Pharmaceutical Association

(SNPhA) Conference, UIC’s chapter placed in the top three

in competition for the Rite Aid Chapter Excellence Award.

In addition, Nicole Avant was awarded the SNPhA-Kroger

Scholarship, and Brianne Parra received the SNPhA-Wilbert

Bluitt Endowed Scholarship. Shirley Yu was appointed to a

National Executive Board position as a Region 3 facilitator.

Finally, UIC’s chapter won third place in the National Scrapbook

Competition.


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Rising Stars


At the 16th Annual International

Meeting of the International Society for

Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes

Research, held this past May in Baltimore,

Sapna V. Rao, ms ’11; Shengsheng Yu,

ms ’09, phd ’11; and doctoral candidates

Fang-Ju Lin, Olaitan Ojo, pharmd ’01,

Vardhaman Patel, and Lin Zhan; along

with Assistant Professor Daniel Touchette,

were recognized as scientific poster

finalists for their project titled “A Decision

Modeling Approach to Evaluate the Cost-

effectiveness of Prasugrel vs. Clopidogrel

in Patients with Planned Precutaneous

Coronary Intervention.”

Lin was also recognized as a scientific

poster finalist for her project titled “Impact

of Cognitive Impairment on Functioning,

Medical Resource Utilization, Adherence

and Health-Related Quality of Life in

Patients with Schizophrenia.”

Other student poster presentations

included “FDA Regulations and

Antidepressant Utilization” by Chris

Campbell, pharmd ’11, with Associate

Professor A. Simon Pickard and Professor

Glen Schumock; “Economic Analysis of

Alvimopan for Prevention and Management

of Postoperative Ileus” by F. Yoojung

Yang, pharmacy administration fellow, with

Touchette and Clinical Assistant Professor

William Galanter. Yu, partnering with Lin,

Galanter, and Professor Bruce Lambert,

also offered her podium presentation,

“Evaluation of Clinical Laboratory-

Pharmacy Linkage Decision Support in the

Use of Potassium Supplements.”

UIC triumphs at ISPORAlbert Ethelbert Ebert was a graduate of what is now the UIC College of

Pharmacy and, in my opinion, was one of the greatest pharmacists of all time. He devoted his life to organized pharmacy and strived for the best interests of his fellow pharmacists. He was not only a pharmacist, but also a scientist, educator, and powerful leader in American pharmacy, having served as both the vice president and president of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He was a universal contributor to pharmacy, and his ideas became guiding principles for the uniform and ethical practice of the profession.

Each year, the Phi Chapter of the Rho Chi Society at UIC hosts the well-attended Albert Ebert Memorial Lecture, which focuses on the future of the profession, in April. This year, the Phi Chapter was very fortunate to welcome guest speaker William Fitzsimmons, bs ’83, pharmd, ms, senior vice president of U.S. Development at Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc. After completing his bachelor’s in pharmacy at UIC, Fitzsimmons went on to earn his PharmD from Virginia Commonwealth University and his master’s in clinical research design and statistical analysis from the University of Michigan. He is a registered pharmacist in Illinois and has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. A member of the American Society of Transplantation, Fitzsimmons is also chairman of the board of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization and sits on the Dean’s National Advisory Board for the College.

Fitzsimmons’ talk, “Working Towards Better Patient Care: Personalized Medicine and the Pharmacist,” focused on using diagnostic tests to

design medication regimens, the intervariability patients may have to specific medications, and what may lie in the near future for clinicians in terms of choosing therapies for patients. Afterward, attendees were invited to a Q&A luncheon with Fitzsimmons.

Overall, the 39th Annual Albert Ebert Memorial Lecture was a great success. The lecture would not have been possible without the hard work of the entire Rho Chi executive board, the Office of Advancement at the College of Pharmacy, and

Fitzsimmons, who serves as motivation for all of us students to strive to not only succeed for ourselves, but also for our profession. On behalf of the Phi Chapter of the Rho Chi Society, we look forward to seeing you at the 40th Annual Ebert Lecture on March 30, 2012. See back cover for details.

Astellas VP speaks at annual Ebert Lectureby Alex Kantorovich

Alex Kantorovich, P4, Rho Chi President; Bill Fitzsimmons, bs ’83; Dean Jerry Bauman; and Rho Chi Advisor Patricia West-Theilke, pharmd ’97, attended this year’s Ebert Lecture.

Rising Stars


Doctoral candidate Ying He has, for the second consecutive

year, been awarded the National Biotechnology

Conference’s Biotechnology Graduate Student Award from

the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

He received the award and presented her research on

understanding mechanisms of chronic pain in cancer

patients at the organization’s annual meeting in San

Francisco this past May.

“Pain is not merely a symptom, and it is hard to treat,”

she says. “When a tumor grows and metastasizes to the

bone and other tissues, it causes pain. In addition, many

chemotherapy drugs cause pain by themselves.”

He is studying how paclitaxel, a potent, naturally occurring

antineoplastic drug used in cancer chemotherapy

treatments, causes pain in patients. Pain can force a patient

to halt treatment and can last for years, even after therapy

has stopped.

Little has been accomplished to prevent or reduce paclitaxel-

induced neurotoxicity, which occurs when exposure alters

the normal activity of the nervous system and causes

damage. Early research in animal models suggested cell

death might be responsible for the persistent pain, even

when the drug was administered in low doses.

“This raises the possibility that cellular signaling pathways

leading to paclitaxel-induced pain may be independent of

cell death or the destruction of axons, the building blocks

of the nervous system,” she says.

“Ying’s work is highly innovative and novel and may

one day lead to rational design of new therapies for the

prevention or treatment of paclitaxel-induced peripheral

neuropathy,” says Z. Jim Wang, UIC associate professor

of pharmacology and pharmaceutics, who serves as her

adviser.

In 2010, He won the Biotechnology Graduate Student

Award for research detailing the role of microRNAs in

opioid tolerance in the regulation of central nervous system

receptors. Her work is funded in part by grants from the

National Institutes of Health. A native of China, she has

been at UIC for five years and was a university fellow for

two of those years. She received both her undergraduate

and master’s degree from Zhejiang University.

The Biotechnology Graduate Student Award is sponsored

by Eli Lilly and Company.

Ying He repeats as winner of national award for best biotech study by Sam Hostettler

Rising Stars


Last� spring,� the� College� hosted� its� first-ever� Images� of� Research�competition,�assembling�a�portfolio�of� the�most� innovative�and�creative�images�to�convey�the�variety�and�profundity�of�research�taking�place�at�COP.�The�contest�was�open�to�all�students�and�postdocs�in�the�College,�and�case�prizes�were�awarded�to�the�top�three�entries.�All�College�faculty,�staff,�and�students�were� invited� to�vote�online� for� their� favorite� images.�Below�is�a�gallery�of�competitors�who�received�the�most�votes.

Imaging Research

First�PlaceDirim Arslan, Biopharmaceutical Sciences

“Infection Day”

It was the day for another experiment that was planned

weeks ahead, which also happened to be the same day of

the 2011 Chicago blizzard. What is normally a 10-minute

walk to the COP took more than 45 minutes under severe

weather conditions. This picture was captured right

before arriving at the COP behind the frozen doors of the

Clinical Sciences North Building (old U of I Hospital). And

the experiment—it was a success!

Second�PlaceMy Nguyen and Misuk Bae, Biopharmaceutical

Sciences “A Crack of Dawn”

The sunrise-like image is isolated E. coli colonies

grown on an agar plate after being transformed with

red fluorescence protein (RFP) plasmid. The research is

focused on designing hydrogel microparticles. We choose

RFP plasmid as a model polynucleic acid to evaluate

the transfection efficiency of hydrogel microparticles.

The picture was taken under LED light bulbs in a COP

research laboratory. The RFP plasmid was a generous

gift from Professor William Beck.

Third�PlaceHiten Gutka, Pharmacognosy (Biotech)

“Crystals—Unraveling the Secrets of Life”

I study the enzymes important to the metabolic pathways

of pathogenic bacteria. Insight into the structure and

function of such important proteins forms the basis for

developing new drugs. Structural characterization of

proteins is performed by X-ray crystallography. Crystals

of a phosphatase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis are

captured here. These crystals were grown following

standard crystallization technique (hanging drop vapor

diffusion) and images captured on a microscope.

Honorable�MentionSuzanne Quartuccio, Medicinal Chemistry

“Damage”

Immortalized mouse oviduct epithelial cells were plated

into an 8-well chamber slide, treated with hydrogen

peroxide, fixed, and analyzed using immunofluorescence

for epithelial cell marker cytokeratin 8, DNA damage marker

phospho-Histone H2A.X, and DAPI nuclear counterstain.

This image was captured as part of a project to determine

the cell type of origin of serous ovarian cancer, the most

lethal gynecological malignancy facing U.S. women.

Honorable�MentionJa Myung, Biopharmaceutical Sciences

“Nano-rock Hits Nanowires”

To enhance the electronic and photonic properties

of silicon, numerous efforts have been devoted to

developing new silicon nanostructures. Through a metal-

assisted chemical etching method, a vertical array of

uniform silicon nanowires was obtained. During surface

characterization using a scanning electron microscope,

we found a dust particle on top of the nanowires, which

looks like a meteor hitting a forest.

Honorable�MentionAndrew Newsome, Pharmacognosy

“Natural Blue Martini”

A blue pigment extracted from a marine Streptomyces

species was dissolved in a martini. The pigment

tautomerizes to red in the acidity of lime juice. The

compound is nontoxic and potentially beneficial. My goal

is to discover and characterize natural pigments from

microorganisms and to evaluate their potential use as

natural coloring agents.

Rising Stars


Faculty Fanfare

Doel� Soejarto, professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, was

named the 2012 Distinguished Economic Botanist by the Society for Economic Botany.

This annual award recognizes outstanding accomplishment pertinent to the goals of

the society. The Society for Economic Botany was established in 1959 to foster and

encourage scientific research, education, and related activities on the past, present,

and future uses of plants and the relationship between plants and people and to make

the results of such research available to the scientific community and the general public

through meetings and publications.

Hats off to Faculty

Isaac�Cha, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice in Rockford, was

awarded the Golden Apple for outstanding clinical instruction in the M2 year by the UIC

College of Medicine at Rockford Class of 2011.

The Class of 2011 awarded Clinical Assistant Professor and Clinical Pharmacist

Sheila�Allen, pharmd ’03 (center left), and Brad�Cannon, pharmd ’94,

Preceptor of the Year and Golden Apple for their commitment to students. Both show

off their honors with Class of 2011 president and vice president Amy Madhiwala and

Dan Wojenski. More recently, Allen was also awarded the Illinois Council of Health-

System Pharmacists New Practitioner Leadership Award. She was recognized at the

organization’s annual meeting in September.

Charles�McPherson, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice,

was named a 2011–12 Academic Leadership Fellow by the American Association of

Colleges of Pharmacy. Now in its eighth year with more than 200 alumni, this yearlong

program is designed to develop the nation’s most promising pharmacy faculty for roles

as future leaders in academic pharmacy and higher education.

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Faculty FanfareBolton named ACS fellow

Judy Bolton, professor and head of the Department

of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, was

recently selected as and ACS fellow for her “outstanding

achievements in and contributions to science, the

profession, and the American Chemical Society.”

Fellows, of which there were 231 this year, are chosen

from academia, industry, and government. They were

recognized at an induction ceremony during the society’s

242nd National Meeting and Exposition in Denver.

As a physical organic chemist, Bolton conducts research

on how botanical dietary supplements can safely prevent

diseases. Bolton has received numerous grants throughout

her career, most of which related to three projects funded

by the National Institutes of Health involving breast cancer

and menopause.

Bolton has also published more than 100 papers in scientific

journals and written more than five book chapters.

The American Chemical Society began naming fellows

in 2008 to honor distinguished scientists who have

demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in chemistry

and made important contributions to the organization. It is

the world’s largest scientific society.

by Sam Hostettler

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Join us for this competition and lecture sabbatical, which will feature

our students presenting nearly 75 scientific posters for our faculty,

alumni judges, and guest speakers. This year’s guest speakers is William Fenical, distinguished professor of oceanography and pharmaceutical science at the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine,

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

Find out what last year’s participants had to say about the event:

bit.ly/COPResearchDay2012

College of Pharmacy Research Days

March 8–9, 2012

Interested in judging? Please contact Ben Stickan at

(312) 636-7491 or [email protected].

Brilliant Futures

A�native of Lithuania, Therese Kirklys, bs ’77, came to the United States in 1949 at age nine after having fled her home to escape the

threat of violence and persecution during World War II. Before arriving in the United States, Kirklys and her family traveled through the rubble of Europe, living a survivalist, nomadic lifestyle for one year before transferring through three different displaced persons camps in Germany for the next four years. She, her two brothers, and her parents then boarded a British military ship for Boston.

“When we arrived in Boston, the Red Cross gave us delicious powdered-sugar donuts,” Kirklys recalls. “I remember taking one—it was so good, and the lady handing them out told me I could take as many as I wanted.

“We knew then we had arrived in America.”

Shortly afterward, the family got on a train headed for Chicago where two other family members had already settled. When Kirklys began attending elementary school, she couldn’t speak, read or write English. “I liked math the best because English was not needed,” she recalls. “I always liked science and math much more than other subjects.”

After high school and two years in junior college, Kirklys decided to pursue her love of science and

enroll in pharmacy school. With two young children in preschool, she struggled to balance her life as a parent and student. With the help of neighbor friends who also had young children, Kirklys was able to secure care for her children, which afforded her time to attend class in the evenings, after the children went to bed. On the weekends, she offered cleaning services to a local Montessori preschool, which allowed her to enroll her younger son, tuition-free.

“I studied very, very hard because I really wanted to be a pharmacist,” says Kirklys. “The College of

Alumna establishes scholarship for working mothersBy Jessica Canlas


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Brilliant Futures

Pharmacy helped me achieve my American dream, and I would like to see someone else get the same opportunity.”

For that reason, Kirklys is establishing, through an IRA transfer, a scholarship that will eventually total $3,000 for a female student who also happens to be a mom. Kirklys stipulates that the gift is not strictly need-based, but is intended for the woman who may be struggling with other life challenges while trying to complete her education.

“There are a lot of other easier lifestyles than trying to go to school while looking after young children,” says Kirklys. “If a woman is doing that, then chances are that she feels the need to achieve something on her own—that’s why my scholarship is set up the way it is.”

Today, Kirklys is enjoying retirement after a long career of working in various pharmacy settings and

establishing her own pharmacy placement and consulting business, Pharmstaff, which she sold in 2002 after 20 years. During that time, she was able to witness as her sons, John Kirklys, pharmd ’90, and Andrew Kirklys, pharmd ’94, followed in their mother’s footsteps and chose pharmacy as their profession.

“The education in the College of Pharmacy is the best anyone could have,” Kirklys says. “It’s limitless in terms of what it can be applied to. I’ve seen alumni in politics, finance, business—careers of all kinds.

“So no matter how much of a struggle it is, students should stick to it. It may open doors for them that they may not even see now.”

UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2011 | pharmalumni.uic.edu | 1

Use your IRA to support the College of Pharmacy

Did you know that you have two options for using your IRA to make a gift to the College of Pharmacy?

• Name the College as a beneficiary of your IRA. It’s simple, and it’s tax-efficient, because your heirs will owe income tax if you leave them your pretax IRA contributions.

• If you are over 70 ½, you can make a charitable IRA rollover to the College of Pharmacy during 2011. The direct rollover can satisfy up to $100,000 of your required minimum distribution, and you owe no tax on the withdrawal (it’s at least as good as a charitable deduction, and, for many taxpayers, it’s better).

Interested? Please contact Chris Shoemaker, (312) 996-3376 or [email protected].

Bequests • Charitable Gift Annuities • Charitable Lead Trusts • Retirement Plan Gifts

Where do you want your contribution to the College to go?

Alumni and friends of the UIC College of Pharmacy are welcome to direct support to its intended purpose: students, faculty, research, clinical care, infrastructure, and more. Please join the College’s family of generous donors by contributing to one of the gift funds listed below.

Office of the Dean❏ Dean’s Fund❏ Annual Fund❏ Student Affairs ❏ Continuing Education❏ Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden

Scholarships and Awards❏ Zora Kosanovich Memorial Scholarship❏ Dan Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship Fund❏ Conrad Blomquist Memorial Scholarship❏ Diversity Scholarship ❏ PAPA Foundation Skorczewski Award❏ Cipolle-Sula Memorial Scholarship❏ William B. & Marietta C. Day Scholarship❏ Frederick P. Siegel Scholarship❏ David Langerman Scholarship❏ College of Pharmacy Scholarships❏ Edward S. and Josephine E. Mika Award❏ Urban Health Program Pharmacy Scholarship❏ Sesquicentennial Leadership Award❏ Paul Sang Memorial Scholarship❏ Jesse E. Stewart Memorial Fellowship❏ Stoller-Zeman Scholarship❏ I. B. Crystal Memorial Award❏ Rho Pi Phi Pharmacy Fraternity Award❏ Kappa Psi Scholarship❏ Phi Delta Chi Memorial Award❏ Charles L. Bell Scholarship for Excellence in

Medicinal Chemistry

Rockford❏ Rockford Annual Fund❏ Rockford Dean’s Fund❏ Rockford Facilities ❏ Rural Pharmacy Education Program❏ Rockford Scholarship

Clinical❏ Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Fund❏ Ambulatory Care Residency❏ Herbert M. Emig Award Clinical Pharmacy

Department of Pharmacy Practice❏ Pharmacy Practice Fund❏ Pharmacy Practice Residency Program ❏ Pharmacy Practice Laboratory❏ Pharmacogenomics Support Fund

Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy❏ Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of

Pharmacognosy Fund❏ Pharmacognosy & Pharmacology Fund

Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences❏ Compounding Lab Renovation Fund

Departments, Centers and Institutes❏ Department of Pharmacy Administration❏ Drug Information Center Fund❏ Institute for Tuberculosis Research Fund❏ Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research Fund

Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechonology❏ Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Fund❏ Alexander Neyfakh Memorial Fund

Research❏ Research Day❏ David J. Riback Scholars Fund

Please detach this page and include it with your check made payable to the University of Illinois Foundation. Please note that 100% of your gift will be directed to the College of Pharmacy fund of your choice. Please mail your contribution to Chris Shoemaker, Director of Advancement, UIC College of Pharmacy (MC 874), 833 South Wood Street, Chicago, Illinois 60612-7230. Questions? Contact Chris at (312) 996-3376 or [email protected]. Thank you for your generosity!

Brilliant Futures


Brilliant Futures

Amount Contributed Annuity Rate Charitable Deduction Annual Annuity Tax-free portion Ordinary Income

Age 50 alumnus (single)… first payment deferred until age 60

$25,000.00 7% $5,381.75 $1,750.00 $794.50 $955.50

Age 50 alumnus (joint)… first payment deferred until age 60

$25,000.00 6.3% $3,290.25 $1,575.00 $733.95 $841.05

Age 60 alumnus (single)

$25,000.00 4.8% $6,489.75 $1,200.00 $768.00 $432.00


$25,000.00 5.3% $7,332.50 $1,325.00 $887.75 $437.25


$25,000.00 5.8% $8,758.25 $1,450.00 $1,020.80 $429.20

Age 60 alumnus (joint) $25,000.00 4.3% $4,974.25 $1,075.00 $676.17 $398.83



Charitable Gift Annuities

How it works1. You transfer cash or appreciated securities which you have owned for at

least one year to the University of Illinois Foundation.2. UIF pays you, or up to two annuitants you name, a guaranteed fixed

income for life.3. The residual value passes to the College after the death of the

annuitant(s).

The Benefits1. You receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your gift.2. The annuity payments are guaranteed for life. 3. The annuity payments are treated as part ordinary income and part

tax-free income and part capital gains if you have used appreciated securities for your gift.

4. You have the satisfaction of making a significant gift to the College that benefits you now and the College later.

Bequests - Charitable Gift Annuities - Charitable Remainder Trusts - Retirement Plan Gifts

*These calculations are for purposes of illustration only and should not be considered legal, tax, accounting, or other professional advice. Actual benefits will vary depending upon the date of the gift.

For more information as well as personalized consulting about this or other planned giving strategies, please contact Lynn Bennett, CFP, at (312) 413-3394 or [email protected].

cGIFT

ANNUITYccDONOR

1 Gift

3 Remainder to UIF for the College

2 Income Tax DeductionGuaranteed Income

*Illustration of a few Charitable Gift Annuity Options as of July 2011



The Rockford Files

Meet the White Coats

Seven�COP�alumni� joined�Regional�Vice�Dean�Dave�Bartels� in�welcoming�the�Class�of�2015�at�Rockford’s�second-ever�White�Coat�ceremony�held�on�August�17.�Of�the�54�students�matriculating�at�Rockford,�eight�have�been�admitted�to�the�campus’s�Rural�Pharmacy�Education�program,�which�trains�future�pharmacists�for�practice�in�medically�underserved�rural�areas�of�the�state.

Photos by Dan Pollack

Alumni�Coat�PresentersBob Heyman, bs ’52Que Huynh Mohring, pharmd ’98Scott Meyers, bs ’76Rojean Olmstead, bs ’72Steve Scalzo, bs ’75Chris Schriever, pharmd ’99Allison Schriever, pharmd ’99, led the Class of 2015 in reciting the Pledge of Professionalism.

Want to see more photos? Visit our complete online gallery of both White Coat ceremonies at flickr.com/uicpharmacy. Download photos in a variety of file sizes and order your own prints!

Volunteer to coat a student in 2012! Contact Deb Fox at [email protected] or 312-996-0160.

Rockford Files

Regional Vice Dean Dave Bartels offers his first official address to the Class of 2015.

Jim and Virginia Bono, benefactors of the James D. and Virginia M. Bono Rural Pharmacy Scholarship, congratulate Janelle Knutti, one of the first two recipients of the award.

P2 Nicole Sinsabaugh was last year’s recipient of the Bono Scholarship, which is awarded each year to P1 students who express interest in rural practice.

Scott Meyers, bs ’76, executive vice president of the Illinois Council of Healthy-System Pharmacists, volunteered as a “coater” for both the Class of 2015 and 2014.


I almost didn’t even attend the White Coat ceremony. After all, making my family drive four hours roundtrip on a work night to watch me put on a white lab coat, which they have only seen me do hundreds of times over the past few years, hardly seemed worth it. However, when I went into the reception room a feeling came over me. Maybe it was the shrimp cocktail or the miniquiche (how exciting!), but whatever it was, I made a 180 and was begging my parents to hurry up—and not just because I thought the spring rolls were starting to run low.

The reception came to an end, and I took my seat in the auditorium. I was no longer near the food so what was this feeling that I had? Could it be relief? Graduating with my bachelor of science, completing the PCAT (twice, oops), finishing pharmacy school applications, getting an interview and then accepted into my first-choice school are all things to be relieved about. But then again, thinking about the four tough years ahead of me brings more stress than any of that. Then Dr. Bartels mentioned the history of the White Coat and a little about UIC COP. That’s when it hit me. I felt proud. Proud to be part of one of the oldest and best pharmacy schools in the nation. Proud to be able to carry on the tradition of the White Coat. Proud to know I am going to be making a difference in someone else’s life. Proud of all the hard work I have and will put in. And most of all, I felt proud to have the family that I do because without them I would be nothing.

So to all my classmates, remember to never take for granted what you have and remember to keep your head up (especially when you get your first loan bills) because when we look back, it will all be worth it. Cheers!

A coat of any other color would not be so white

Colleen Urbanski, before. Colleen Urbanski, after.

by Colleen Urbanski, Class of 2015

P1 Colleen Urbanski takes pride in this rite of passage

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Into the world of quorum sensing

As bacteria communicate with one another, Dr. Michael Federle and his team of researchers continue eavesdropping on the conversationsby Daniel P. Smith


Bacterial communication is studied by visualizing glow-in-the-dark bacteria, which is a result of genes expressing luciferase (an enzyme similar to that found in fireflies). Glowing bacterial colonies in the image appear as green, while red colonies indicate those that remain dark. The colonies in the lower right sector of the Petri dish are mutants with a broken communication circuit, thus they cannot glow.

It’s no joke and he’s no comedian, but Michael Federle is out to fool bacteria.

“We’re losing the war with bacteria. Every antibiotic we’ve come up with has some level of resistance,” confesses Federle, an assistant professor in the UIC College of Pharmacy.

In spite of the challenge, Federle is waging a new war.

Through misdirection, clever science, and out-of-the-box thinking, Federle’s out to convince sickness-causing bacteria to remain in a nonhostile state. With that, the bacteria and the body will both lead happy lives.

“It’s a more intelligent warfare against bacteria and a more sustainable treatment,” Federle says.

Earlier this year, Federle secured a five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to continue his lab’s work on quorum sensing, loosely defined as the means in which bacteria communicate with one another. Much like hormones in the human body or pheromones in insects, bacteria secrete chemical molecules that build up in the local environment and can be measured by other recipient bacteria, thereby creating a primitive method of communication.

During the course of the grant, Federle’s lab will receive $250,000 each year to pay for four to five lab researchers as well as necessary materials. UIC receives additional funds as a result of Federle’s research.

“This funding is absolutely critical to keeping the science alive and moving forward,” says Federle, whose project is titled “Mechanistic Dissection of Pheromone-Dependent Regulation of Group A Streptococcal Virulence.”

One man’s quOrum-sensing jOurney

Though scientists have studied the signaling between cells for decades—now labeled as quorum sensing—few have accepted the idea that bacteria cells could be so sophisticated.

“Even though people suspect quorum sensing is a telling component, few understand,” says Dr. Alexander Mankin, associate director of UIC’s Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. “The answer lies in basic science.”

Fortunately, the winds are shifting.In the late 1960s, two separate U.S.-

based discoveries sparked the idea that bacteria might be coordinating with one another. For nearly three decades, however, the research failed to capture mainstream imaginations. In the late 1990s, the science returned in earnest. Labs across the globe began placing a renewed focus on the concept and exploring its merits as well as its possibilities.

In the twenty-first century, the investigation into bacterial communication has only intensified and accelerated. Federle and his team stand as part of this new guard, eager to advance both the science and its potential for the medical world.

“We’ll develop something in the long term,” Federle predicts with equal parts confidence and determination.

After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Federle tackled graduate work at Emory University and, later, a six-year postdoctoral stint at Princeton University. There, at the Ivy League campus, Federle studied under MacArthur Foundation genius grant recipient Bonnie Bassler, who thrust Federle into the quorum-sensing world. His research in those university labs provided the groundwork for his career’s single-minded mission.

It was Bassler, in fact, who first exposed Federle to quorum sensing as a young graduate student. At a seminar, Bassler showed an image of glow-in-the-dark bacteria contained in flasks. As the bacteria communicated with one another and reached a high enough density, they began glowing. The oft-cited historical example was Federle’s first exposure to cell-to-cell communication.

“I thought it was amazing that these simple organisms had the ability to interact

and coordinate with one another,” Federle says. “It was like science fiction.”

He has yet to look back.When the Wisconsin native met with

UIC officials in 2007 to discuss joining the faculty ranks, he pitched himself with quorum sensing.

“There was a solid amount of research happening here . . . and I thought I had unique position to show how we could move quorum sensing into an area of bacteria that hadn’t fully been explored,” says Federle, who arrived on the UIC campus in May 2008.

That same year, the National Institutes of Health, of which he is a former fellow, had awarded Federle a career development honor, a prize that carried his first three years of research at UIC.

For the opening 18 months, however, Federle endured a lab stint as uneventful as it was frustrating. No one had discovered a mechanism for how streptococci, the bacteria that causes strep throat, communicate with one another. Federle’s early work produced to a plethora of dead ends and near misses.

“It was definitely a rough start,” Federle confesses. “When you’re given a position and grant money, you have pressure to produce results and only so much time. Some self-doubt did creep in.”

In December 2009, however, the Federle-led team encountered a breakthrough. The team discovered brand new signaling pathways among streptococci.

“All of these quorum-sensing pathways follow a central dogma,” Federle explains. “Our discovery was rooted in what’s understood by other quorum-sensing systems and other bacteria, but for this important pathogenic bacterium, the streptococci, this was an unrealized pathway.”

With that, Federle’s lab opened the door to exploring how dozens of bacteria communicate with one another.

“It was satisfying to know that we established a foothold,” Federle says. “Once you hit that first one, you can branch out


to discover new layers and complexities in biology.”

The positive momentum delivered credibility and substance, optimism and opportunity.

After initially applying for the NIH grant in 2010, Federle resubmitted his application in February 2011. On July 1, he received official word of the honor.

“It’s a relief to know I can keep the lab team I’ve assembled together and satisfying as a scientist to know that other people recognize the importance of this work,” he says.

With that, his quorum-sensing work continues uninterrupted, a reality Federle’s

colleagues applaud.“[Dr. Federle] is such an eager scientist

who deeply enjoys what he’s pursuing and is enthusiastic about working with colleagues,” Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology director Dr. Michael Johnson says. “He’s an ideal faculty member—mentoring young scientists, bringing in funding in a competitive environment, and researching fundamental questions.”

implicatiOns fOr the pharmaceutical WOrld

Johnson terms quorum sensing “one of the frontiers in terms of scientific investigation” and cites Federle’s work as a fundamental inquiry into a complex scientific landscape.

“What he’s doing is developing the basic scientific foundations for understanding the mechanisms of biofilm formation,” Johnson says of Federle’s work. “It’s important because a number of his

results might have the potential to spur the development of new therapies.”

Biofilms, communities of bacteria that live on a surface, are extremely resistant to antibiotics. Federle’s research explores ways to disrupt biofilms.

“If we can interfere with this quorum-sensing process, we might be able to disrupt the ability of these bacteria to make biofilms and subsequently become more sensitive to antibiotics,” he says.

Mankin believes Federle’s work will lead to a deeper understanding of diseases and, subsequently, how the medical world combats those ailments.

“We need to understand how bacteria communicate with one another in the basic, fundamental sense because then we can start asking the larger questions,” Mankin says.

Federle’s long-term goal remains to manipulate bacteria that carry health complications. Bacteria enter the body and grow quietly until reaching a certain


⬆ Loner Bacteria (behave as individuals, survive alone)

⬆ Members of a Group (coordinate behaviors, work as a group)

“If we can manipulate bacteria by understanding the chemical signals they use, then we can interfere with the bacteria’s ability to make people sick,” says Michael Federle, assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy and the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

1965–1970: evidence for cell-to-cell communication emerges in studies on Streptococcus pneumoniae by Alexandar Tomasz (1965) and independently in studies on marine bioluminescent bacteria by J. W. Hastings (1970). 1980s: structural elucidation of acylated homoserine lactones as signals for Gram-negative bacteria and peptides as signals for Gram-positive bacteria. 1980s–90s: realization that bacterial pathogens, like pseudomonas and staphylococcus use quorum sensing to regulate virulence factors. 2000s: expansion of the number of species known to quorum sense and expansion in varieties of molecules. Interspecies signal, common to more than half of know bacterial species, identified. Late 2000s to present: development of quorum-sensing antagonists to block signaling.

Brick-by-Brick: Quorum-sensing developments thru the years

• Strategies and compounds developed to interfere with quorum sensing are actively being studied at Princeton University, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, New York University, and University of Indiana among others.

• Understanding how bacteria communicate with the host is currently being researched at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Loyola University, and Northwestern University.

• Modeling of communication networks continues at the University of Texas at Austin, Sandia National Laboratories, and Sloan Kettering Institute.

Current quorum-sensing research

population density to inflict damage, but quorum sensing can help ward off this illness-breeding form of bodily terrorism.

“If we can manipulate bacteria by understanding the chemical signals they use, then we can interfere with the bacteria’s ability to make people sick,” Federle explains. “We’ll try to fool the bacteria by artificially stimulating them.”

While so much of the focus has remained on combating “bad” bacteria, Federle says it remains equally critical that scientists research the communication pathways among “good” bacteria.

“With such findings,” he says, “we will be better able to battle the bad bacteria.”

With only 10 percent of grant applicants receiving funding, Federle understands the position and responsibility he now inherits as a grant recipient in a tight funding climate. Eager to put the organization’s money to good use, he’ll continue the process of discovering new signaling pathways among bacteria.

In the coming years, Federle believes his team will more fully understand how bacteria circuitry works. With that, the groundwork will be laid to interfere with bacteria in the body’s disease process; the team can then turn its attention to inhibitors.

“We’ll work to find the system that allows us to eavesdrop on bacteria’s communication,” Federle says. “If we can interfere with their coordination, we’ll lessen their strength. Ultimately, the hope is to arrive at new alternatives to antibiotics or, at the least, the foundations for that.”

Federle takes a deep breath and pauses, contemplating the challenging task ahead—the time, energy, and brainpower he and his team must devote to the effort. It’s an exhausting battle fraught with obstacles and seemingly countless experiments, yet he remains undeterred.

“We’re only scratching the surface of what we’re trying to understand, but we’ll get there,” Federle says. “I know we’ll get there.”


Federle’s team: Lauren Mashburn-Warren, postdoctoral fellow; Breah LaSarre, doctoral candidate; Brian Farris, doctoral candidate; Chaitanya Aggarwal, doctoral candidate; and Juan Jimenez, doctoral candidate. Postdoctoral fellows Jenny Chang and George Chlipala, not pictured, complete the group.

Tracking a Killer

The deadly disease tuberculosis is alive and all too well in many regions of the world. Scott Franzblau, director of UIC’s Institute for Tuberculosis Research, is hot on its trail. by John Gregerson


Tuberculosis is still lurking, though few Americans realize it.

In fact, one-third of the world’s population is infected with the potentially fatal bacteria, but only when it becomes active do people fall ill.

In poverty-stricken regions, more and more people are falling ill, says Scott Franzblau, director of the UIC College of Pharmacy Institute for Tuberculosis Research (ITR). Worse, he says, some strains have grown increasingly resistant to conventional treatments, such as rifampicin and isoniazid.

“A former colleague from my days of researching leprosy treatments once said to me, ‘We didn’t eradicate tuberculosis, just tuberculosis researchers,’” says Franzblau.

Franzblau is an exception, having worked to develop more effective treatments for the disease since 1990, when outbreaks of a multidrug-resistant (MDR) strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis began to surface in New York, particularly among patients whose immune systems were compromised by HIV infection.

All but five of the 39 patients, the majority of whom were prison inmates, died shortly after diagnosis.

Fearing the potential for future outbreaks, the U.S. National Institutes of Health mobilized to identify candidate treatments for MDR-TB. At the time, Franzblau was with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s National Hansen’s Disease Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was concluding research on leprosy. “We were winding up,” he recalls. “We’d identified new drugs to treat the disease. We’d reduced drug-testing times from a year to a few weeks. Because the bacteria that cause leprosy and TB share the same genus, one day I received a call from someone at NIH

asking, ‘How many TB compounds can you test for $400,000?’ I replied, ‘As many as you can send.’ The money was there. The interest was there. So, I spent the next 11 years in Louisiana testing compounds that NIH solicited drug companies and university chemists to send me.”

In 1994, Franzblau, who holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of Arizona, was named chief of Hansen’s pharmacology research department. By 2000, he’d decided he wanted to work more closely with researchers interested in drug discovery.

So, Franzblau, who was raised in New Jersey and whose research has taken him to regions as far as Japan and the Philippines, headed north to Chicago, where today he and his colleagues at ITR perform research in collaboration with members of UIC’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy.

They have their work cut out for them. Despite the emergence of curative therapies for TB during the past century, particularly in the decades following World War II, MDR-TB has since assumed epidemic proportions due to widespread HIV infection among the world’s poorest populations, including those living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Franzblau explains that once TB disappeared from industrialized regions—the same regions that developed treatments to combat it—science turned its attention elsewhere, allowing the disease to fester in poorer regions. Infections have since spread to other regions as a result of HIV-TB coinfection and growing drug-resistance to the disease.

In 2006, a new strain known as extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR- TB) emerged in South Africa in a rural hospital in Tugela Ferry, where 53 patients were diagnosed with the

disease. All but one died, with a median of only 16 days from sputum specimen collection to death. XDR-TB has since been documented on six continents.

Today, TB is the number one killer among people with AIDS, and Franzblau does not see conditions improving until science not only develops new treatments for drug-resistant strains, but significantly reduces the time required to complete a course of treatment.

“The problem,” says Franzblau, “is that TB treatment requires six months, but patients often find they feel better after just a month or so, and once they feel better, many discontinue treatment—circumstances that can allow a single strain to acquire spontaneous mutations and become resistant to drug treatment.”

The probability of mutation is so great that physicians must treat patients with three drugs rather than one. “With most bacterial infections, we treat patients with a single drug for two weeks and we’re done,” says Franzblau. “We treat TB with multiple drugs for six months because the disease is a statistical game. If you treat the patient with just one drug, there’s a greater probability of encountering bacterial resistance. You significantly reduce that probability if you prescribe two drugs. And just to cover ourselves, we prescribe three or four.”

Current drug regimens for TB are complex, involving combinations of isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide for the initial two months, followed by rifampin and isoniazid for an additional four months.

ITR and other organizations are seeking to reduce treatment times, so that patients are more likely to complete their drug regimens—a trend that could significantly curb spontaneous mutations among TB strains. “We could


make a huge dent in TB if we were able to reduce treatment time from six months to two months,” Franzblau says.

To do so, researchers first must develop more efficient methods of treating nonreplicating persistent (NRP) bacteria, which are similar to the latent bacteria that exist among asymptomatic carriers of the disease, and which are believed to account for antimicrobial tolerance in many bacterial strains.

“Some types of TB bacteria appear to be actively growing while others appear to be breaking down,” Franzblau elaborates. “Then there are NRP bacteria, or persisters, which appear to exist in only small percentages—perhaps as little as 1 percent—in the human body. The problem is that persisters are hard to kill because they really don’t do anything. You can’t interrupt their metabolism because they aren’t metabolizing. We believe that’s why six months is required to complete a course of treatment. The Holy Grail of TB research is to identify drugs that kill

persister bacteria more efficiently.”ITR already has significantly

reduced the amount of time and labor required to test potential treatments for NRP M. tuberculosis, which requires three weeks to form mature colonies in agar-based media.

The test, which requires10 days, uses low oxygen-adapted M. tuberculosis into which a bioluminescent luciferase gene has been inserted. Continued light production after exposure to a candidate treatment denotes failure of the compound to destroy the TB sample, while discontinuance of light production denotes success in destroying it. The procedure, known as a low oxygen recovery assay (LORA), is the only high-throughput-compatible assay for detection of activity against NRP M. tuberculosis.

“What Scott did was develop an assay that many believed was impossible,” says Khisi Mdluli, a research project leader with the New York City–based TB Alliance (see

sidebar), an organization that operates with support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop better, faster-acting, and more affordable drugs to fight TB.

Mdluli, who has more than 15 years of drug-discovery expertise, particularly in assay development and high-throughput screening, says the assay plays a significant role in Alliance efforts to target NRP M. tuberculosis. “Other institutions can perform high-throughput screenings, but only UIC can perform them for compounds that target nonreplicating TB bacteria.”

The program, and others like it, mark a departure of sorts for ITR, which placed greater emphasis on studying vaccines than treating infections prior to Franzblau’s arrival.

Vaccines have proven problematic, Franzblau says. Although one known as BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guerin, is administered in regions with a high incidence of the disease to prevent childhood tuberculosis, including

ITR’s state-of-the-art facilities include a biosafety level-3 containment lab, one of only a handful in the world used in the study of TB.

“[TB has] been the world’s number one bacterial killer for centuries. The good news is that it doesn’t live in water or soil. It’s passed from person to person, and that means we have the potential to eliminate it,” says Scott Franzblau, director of the Institute for Tuberculosis Research.


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tuberculous meningitis, it generally isn’t used in the United States due to low risk for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as well the variable efficacy of the vaccine against adult pulmonary TB.

The BCG vaccine also interferes with tuberculin skin-test reactivity. “If someone is vaccinated, he can later yield a false positive when tested for TB,” says Franzblau. “The tuberculin skin test can’t always distinguish between exposure to TB and the vaccine.”

Today, ITR focuses on identifying new methods of treating infected populations, an endeavor that involves large-scale screening of both natural and synthetic compounds. To support its efforts, the institute has assumed an industrial orientation to drug discovery, having consolidated all of the required components, including medicinal chemistry, natural products chemistry,

microbiology, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology, under a single roof.

ITR’s facilities also house all the requisite technology for drug discovery. “When I arrived here, we didn’t have a biosafety level-3 containment lab,” says Franzblau. His first order of business, he says, was to build one.

The 650-sq.-ft. lab, which employs negative airflow, is equipped with three class II biological safety cabinets; two microplate multilabel readers; a colorimeter; electroporator; HEPA-filtered CO2 incubators; a reach-in incubator with an orbital shaker; refrigerated tabletop centrifuge; microcentrifuge; phase-contrast/fluorescence microscope; inhalation exposure system; tissue homogenizer; cell disrupter; and cup-horn ultrasonicator. A 485-sq.-ft. biosafety

level-2 lab is used for cell culture and microbiology.

“Few institutions have a level-3 containment lab and only a few of those that do use them for the study of TB,” says Mdluli, who says ITR tests thousands of candidate compounds for the TB Alliance.

Other facilities include a 686-sq.-ft. medicinal chemistry lab and a 762-sq.-ft. ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) lab, in addition to shared analytical resources, such as mass-spectrometry instrumentation and robotics, both available from the UIC Research Resources Center.

ITR’s programs and facilities have attracted researchers from around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, China, El Salvador, Germany, India, Iran, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand,


Estimated Numbers of New TB Cases

• Someone in the world is newly infected every second.• 5–10% of those infected will develop active disease.• 9 million new cases* (active) are found each year. • TB is responsible for 1.7 million deaths** every year.

* The number continues to increase.** #1 among all bacterial species.

One-third of the world’s population is latently infected with Tuberculosis.

It usually affects the lungs but can also affect almost any organ or tissue.

Most people’s immune systems are able to kill the bacillus or at least effectively contain the infection after very limited growth (latent TB infection), but in 5–10% of individuals, the infection progresses, resulting in active disease with the destruction of lung tissue, fever, weight loss, etc.

If untreated, active TB can be fatal and/or result in transmission to others.

TB is a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a slow-growing bacterium that is transmitted from person to person by coughing or sneezing.

(Source: WHO Report 2007)

What is Tuberculosis (TB)?

A collaborative effort Khisi Mdluli, a research project leader with the New York City–based TB Alliance, says there are only three U.S. institutions equipped to perform the advanced research and testing required to develop more effective treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis. “There is Colorado State University, Johns Hopkins University, and the [Institute for Tuberculosis Research] at UIC,” says Mdluli, an expert in the microbiology, molecular biology, and biochemistry of M. tuberculosis. “UIC does especially well with the early part of drug discovery, from screening individual compounds to animal modeling. It has the unique ability to perform several assays under a single roof, whether they involve mammalian cells, TB bacteria, or an altogether different disease.”

ITR and the TB Alliance have collaborated for years to accelerate the development of new treatment combinations for both drug-sensitive (DS) and multidrug-resistant TB. Under the arrangement, ITR screens compounds supplied by the alliance, and then reports back on those that appear to be the most promising. The alliance then refines the compounds before resubmitting them to ITR for further testing. Once they are refined, ITR administers individual compounds to TB-infected mice. Those that show the most promise are then forwarded to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where they are tested in combination with other compounds.

Like ITR, the alliance places particular emphasis on nonreplicating persistent (NRP) bacteria, which are believed to account for antimicrobial tolerance in many bacterial strains.

As part of an initiative it launched with the Critical Path Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the alliance currently oversees a group called the Drugs Coalition, whose members include leading pharmaceutical developers that allow their TB drug candidates to be tested in combination with one another early in the development process. Compound selection is based on a program the alliance oversees in partnership with ITR and Johns Hopkins University.

“We’re currently working with a number of compounds supplied by Abbott Laboratories, some of which look very promising,” says Mdluli. “So we’re going to continue to work with those compounds and refine them and see where they take us.”

and Vietnam. In addition to faculty, affiliate faculty, and adjunct faculty, the institute is staffed with BS, MS, and PhD staff scientists, as well as graduate students and support staff—some 25 members in all.

These days, they are placing particular emphasis on the potential of actinomycetes—filamentous or rod-shaped microorganisms found in soil—to discover drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis. “A lot of organisms exist in soil, but we can only grow about 1 percent of them,” says Franzblau. “The actinomycetes are not only abundant, but they demonstrate great metabolic capability. They can generate unusual molecules that may have therapeutic value. Streptomycin derives from actinomycetes. So does tetracycline and rifampin; the latter is the best of the current treatments we have for TB. My feeling is that some actinomycete-based compounds that were ineffective in killing E. coli, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus may still be active against TB. Now that we know that the drug susceptibility of M. tuberculosis is very different from other bacteria, it makes sense to screen new compounds directly against virulent strains of this species instead of relying upon nonvirulent surrogates.”

Thus far, ITR has completed screening 90,000 actinomycete fermention extracts from the Extract Collection of Useful Microorganisms (ECUM) at Myongji University in South Korea. A small number of them were prioritized on the basis of potency, selective toxicity, spectrum of activity, and lack of cross resistance with TB strains resistant to other compounds.

“We’ve isolated a cyclic peptide we believe has potential,” says Franzblau. “The problem is that it doesn’t build to sufficient levels in the lung or do so for the amount of time sufficient to be of value, so we may have to tweak it. The goal is to make it more stable. We’ve since identified other peptides that may have different molecular targets, so this has emerged as a very hot area for us.”

He knows he is tracking a killer that has eluded science for thousands of years. “It’s always been there,” he says. “It’s been the world’s number one bacterial killer for centuries. The good news is that it doesn’t live in water or soil. It’s passed from person to person, and that means we have the potential to eliminate it.”


UIC Pharmacist | Spring 2011 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy | 25

Reunion 2011Held on October 15 at Hamburger University in Oak Brook, the UIC College of Pharmacy Reunion 2011 brought together nearly 200 alumni, students, faculty, and staff in a joint event that incorporated the student fall formal. Graduates and current students raised glasses to celebrate the College’s history, honor its recent achievements and toast its bright future.

Photography by Joshua Clark


1956

1961

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1981

Class Photos

1971


The College of Pharmacy Alumni Associaton woud like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support of the 2011 Pharmacy Alumni Reunion. Without their beneficence, this celebration would not have been possible.

Jewel-Osco PharmacyIllinois Pharmacists AssociationIllinois Council of Health-System PharmacistsUniversity of Illinois Alumni AssociationUIC College of Pharmacy

1991

1996

2001

2006


The College of Pharmacy Alumni Associaton woud like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support of the 2011 Pharmacy Alumni Reunion. Without their beneficence, this celebration would not have been possible.

Jewel-Osco PharmacyIllinois Pharmacists AssociationIllinois Council of Health-System PharmacistsUniversity of Illinois Alumni AssociationUIC College of Pharmacy

Each year, the College of Pharmacy Alumni Association recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding graduates at Reunion. The following individuals represent the College’s legacy of excellence.

Honoring Excellence


2011�Jesse�Stewart�Service�AwardHaresh�Khakhkhar,�pharmd�’91The Jesse Stewart Service Award is named in honor of a former

faculty member and recognizes a person who has been generous

in their service to the profession, the community, and/or the

College. Haresh Khakhkhar, pharmd ’91, has exemplified these

qualities over the course of his 22-year career.

For the past 17 years, independent pharmacy owner Khakhkhar

has operated Rishi Pharmacy in Chicago’s low-income Austin

neighborhood. Khakhkhar works closely with Circle Family

Healthcare Network and its provider, Federal Health Clinic, to offer

pharmaceutical services to the surrounding community, which is an

underserved area in terms of medical and pharmaceutical services,

focusing on issues relevant to diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and

2011�Alumnus�of�the�YearAnthony�Burda,�bs�’78�One of the highest honors given to an alumnus by the College of

Pharmacy, the Alumnus of the Year Award recognizes a graduate

who stands as an innovator, exhibits leadership, and has contributed

significantly to the pharmacy profession. Anthony Burda receives

this year’s top honor in recognition of an exceptional career.

Tony Burda is the chief specialist of the Illinois Poison Center, a

program administered by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare

Council. He is a certified specialist in poison information and a

diplomat of the American Board of Applied Toxicology. He has

academic appointments at the UIC College of Pharmacy, Rush

University Medical Center, Midwestern University Chicago College

of Pharmacy, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of

Pharmacy, and Toxikon Consortium. A preceptor, Burda works

with students and residents completing toxicology rotations

at the Illinois Poison Center. He has authored or coauthored 43

peer-reviewed publications, 19 book chapters, 133 non-peer-

reviewed publications, and 40 abstracts and poster presentations.

Considered an expert in his field, Burda has been quoted in the

media on toxicology-related matters and currently contributes to

a number of blog postings on the Illinois Poison Center Web site.

He is a member of the editorial board of KeePosted, the Illinois

Council of Health-System Pharmacists’ official newsletter, and

serves on the pharmacy subcommittee of the Chicago Department

of Public Health Disaster Preparedness.

Burda is a recipient of the August W. Christmann Award; the Eugene

J-M.A. Thonar, PhD, Award; the National Federation of the Blind

of Illinois Gwendolyn Williams Service Award; and the Phi Delta

Chi Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition, the Illinois Poison

Center and Metropolitan Healthcare Council were recognized by

the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Emergency

Medical Services for Children with the Ron W. Lee, MD, Excellence

in Pediatric Care Award in the community service category.

2011�Rising�Star�AwardMegan�E.�Wagner, pharmd�’05�The Rising Star Award recognizes alumni who have graduated

within the last 10 years and have distinguished themselves in

their career while showing great promise for the future. Megan

Drinnan Wagner receives this year’s Rising Star honor for her

exceptional work that has already gained her notable recognition.

Wagner received her bachelor’s degree in biology from UIUC

in 2001. She then received her PharmD from UIC in 2005 and

completed a community pharmacy practice residency in 2006

with UIC and SUPERVALU (Jewel-Osco).

In 2006, Wagner began as a staff pharmacist with SUPERVALU

and took on an additional role as a clinical specialist pharmacist

with dedicated time for providing comprehensive and targeted

medication therapy management and chronic condition

management services to patients in the community pharmacy

setting. In 2008, SUPERVALU added a fourth community pharmacy

residency site in Lombard, Illinois, affiliated with Midwestern

University, and Wagner became the primary preceptor for the

new site. Later that year, she also temporarily served as primary

preceptor for the community practice residency affiliated with

UIC in Chicago and then transitioned into the primary preceptor

for this site the following residency year.

Wagner has been in her current position with SUPERVALU for

about two and a half years. She serves as primary preceptor for

the PGY1 Community Practice Residency Program affiliated with

UIC. Her practice site is located at Roosevelt Road and Ashland

Avenue in Chicago. She also continues in her role as a clinical

specialist pharmacist. Furthermore, Wagner holds a leadership

Honoring Excellence


geriatric and pediatric service. He also provides pharmaceutical

services to an assisted living facility of 350 senior residents in

Austin.

Khakhkhar was previously a board member at the Austin Cook

County Health Center and currently serves as a board member

for the Association of Indian Pharmacists in America-Illinois.

Khakhkhar and his wife, Sejal, currently reside in Orland Park.

Their son, Rish (20), is a second-year premed student at

Northwestern University, and their daughter, Shivani (16), is a

junior at Sandburg High School.

role with Jewel-Osco as a clinical programs district point person, in

which she provides education, training, and support to as many as

70 pharmacy teams engaged in the delivery of clinical services—

both those that occur as part of the pharmacy’s workflow and

those that are appointment based. She has also worked on several

additional projects, including implementing a residency preceptor

development series, developing proposals for transitions of care

programs involving community pharmacists, conducting a pilot

weight-management program for corporate office associates, and

authoring a white paper on the pharmacist’s role in the patient-

centered medical home that was distributed to key Senate and

congressional leaders, among others.

Wagner serves on several professional pharmacy workgroups,

including the NCPDP MTM Workgroup and the PQA MTM and Care

Transitions Workgroup, and is a member of the Illinois Pharmacists

Association’s Editorial Advisory Committee. She serves as an

abstract reviewer of resident research projects submitted for

presentation at the American Pharmacists Association Annual

Meeting and is a member of the IPhA, APhA, and the American

College of Clinical Pharmacy. Wagner enjoys returning to campus

each year as a guest lecturer in several courses. She currently lives

in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago with her very supportive

husband of four years, Matt Wagner, who earned his PharmD at

UIC in 2003.

White Coats in the Big City

On�August�18,�UIC’s�next�class�of�future�pharmacist�and�pharmaceutical�industry�researchers�were�welcomed�into�pharmacy�school�at�the�Chicago�campus�before�an�audience�of�proud�friends�and� family.�Seven�alumni� volunteers� joined�Dean�Bauman�and�Regional� Vice�Dean�Bartels�in�presenting�the�Class�of�2015�with�their�new�white�coats.

Photos by Barry Donald

White Coats Chicago


Find images from Rockford’s White Coat Ceremony on page 22. For even more photos, visit our complete online gallery of both White Coat ceremonies at flickr.com/uicpharmacy. Download photos in a variety of file sizes and order your own prints!

White Coats Chicago

Alumni�Coat�PresentersDonna Gibble, bs ’80

David Gibble, bs ’81

Michael Harris, bs ’70

Dennis Bryan, bs ’74

Bob Heyman, bs ’52

Sharon Park, pharmd ’04

Shawn McGhee-Paratore, pharmd ’09

About�the�Class�of�2015Enrollment in Chicago: 163

Enrollment in Rockford: 54

Women: 120

Men: 97

Average age: 24

Average GPA: 3.56

Average PCAT composite: 72nd percentile

Regional Vice Dean Dave Bartels and Dean Jerry Bauman joined alumni volunteers in coating students.

Alumni David and Donna Gibble enjoyed the privilege of coating their future fellow alumna and daughter, Elizabeth Gibble.

Alumnus Bob Heyman volunteered for both White Coat ceremonies in Chicago and Rockford.

Find images from Rockford’s White Coat Ceremony on page 22. For even more photos, visit our complete online gallery of both White Coat ceremonies at flickr.com/uicpharmacy. Download photos in a variety of file sizes and order your own prints!


Volunteer to coat a student in 2012! Contact Deb Fox at [email protected] or 312-996-0160.

A diverse giftPaul Rattana (right), Walgreens district pharmacy supervisor, visited the College in October to present Walgreens’ annual $10,000 gift to Clara Awe, associate dean for diversity and director of the Urban Health Program, and Dean Bauman. While $2,000 of the donation will go toward COP’s Diversity Scholarship, the remaining $8,000 will be put toward College diversity initiatives.

Fore!Robert DiDomenico, pharmd ’96; Dean Bauman; Adam Bress, pharmacy practice fellow; and Sarah Hanigan, pharmacy practice resident, hit the greens for UIC APhA-ASP’s seventh annual golf outing.

Gallery

Infectious reunionAlumni and friends of the College’s infectious-disease group gathered for a reunion in September at Carmichael’s in Chicago. Attendees included Larry Danziger, professor, pharmacy practice; Madie Nixon, program coordinator, pharmacy practice; former faculty member Richard Hutchinson and wife Karen Hutchinson; Donna Kraus, associate professor, pharmacy practice; and Keith Rodvold, professor, pharmacy practice.


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On TargetIn the Capturing the Growing Pharmacy Market Student Scholarship Competition hosted at the College in October, student teams of four were challenged to develop a formal business presentation on how Target Pharmacy might continue to differentiate itself and increase market share amidst an aging population that requires more medication. P3s Amata Sok, Kristen Karlsen, Jennifer Mourafetis, and Soojin Jun took the prize with their presentation, “Health on Target.” Each team member will each receive a $1,000 scholarship at Honors Convocation in April.

Gallery

Forensics farewellBob Gaensslen, former director and professor of forensic sciences, retired after 15 years of service to the College of Pharmacy this past August. Earlier in the year, nearly 100 alumni and friends of the forensic sciences program joined current students in honoring Gaensslen as the recipient of the College of Pharmacy’s Distinguished Service Award in a reception at the 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Annual Meeting in Chicago.

COP is the balmRon Koch, associate professor, biopharmaceutical sciences, along with student volunteers Aishi Chua, P3; Alex Orr, P4; and Prachi Shah, P4, presented an exhibit at this year’s University of Illinois Foundation Day at UIC Expo in September. Prior to the event, the group crafted a custom formulation of lip balm in several different flavors for guests. At the event, students spoke with visitors about compounding as a component of the COP curriculum and as a potential career choice. The Expo, with a guest list including high-level donors and campus dignitaries, was followed by a dinner during which presentations highlighted the benefits of giving to the university.

Successful networkingIn September, more than 120 students, faculty, and alumni assembled at Weber Grill in Schaumburg to network and learn from alumni experiences in hospital, community, and industry settings.


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1951 George Nechuta, bs, of Western Springs, has been retired from practicing pharmacy for 25 years. During his career, he worked as a pharmacist for Walgreens for 10 years before establishing his own independent pharmacy, Lyons Pharmacy, in Lyons, which he operated for 25 years. A Chicago native, Nechuta lived in the Douglas Park neighborhood and attended Farragut High School, where he takes pride in a record of perfect attendance—one which he repeated at UIC. A widower, Nechuta was married for 53 years and has two children. He has lived in the same house in Western Springs for 55 years.

1951 William Schaal, bs, of Washington, retired from practicing pharmacy in April 2010. He resides with his wife, Gladys.

1960 Charles Kormendy, ms, of Frankfurt, Germany, recently published his autobiography, Milestones on the Road Behind Me, in which he recounts

memories from his time at the College of Pharmacy. Since then, Kormendy has held a number of positions in the

pharmaceutical industry, both in the United States and Germany, and established his own pharmaceutical business-development consulting company as well. In 2006, he received an honorary on the 50th anniversary of his graduation from Pasmanaeum University in Budapest, Hungary, where he was born. Kormendy retired in 2007 and enjoys several hobbies, including writing, reading, photography, and golf.

1961 Roger Arthur Nelson, bs, of Chesterton, Indiana, recently retired for the second time after 50 years behind the counter. During his career, Nelson held a variety of titles, including pharmacy district manager, hospital outpatient pharmacy director, and pharmacist at a low-income clinic. Nelson says, “Never a dull moment in a pharmacist’s life! Might still be working if the old back had not told me, ‘That’s all, Folks.’ ’’ 1965 Lawrence Capek, bs, of Reno, Nevada, retired as vice president of business development at Northern Arizona Healthcare in Flagstaff, Arizona, a position he held for 25 years, in January 2011.

1979 David Kilarski, bs, of Hudson, Ohio, assumed the position of CEO of FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a private, nongovernmental, not-for-profit healthcare network in Pinehurst, North Carolina, on November 1. Most recently, Kilarski was president and CEO for two health-system hospitals in Ohio with the Cleveland Clinic Health System. He has more than 20 years of health executive experience, including leadership roles in community hospitals, academic medical centers, and multihospital systems. Prior to moving into an executive level position in 1989, Kilarski served in pharmacy leadership positions for hospitals in Illinois and Texas. In Ohio, Kilarski was instrumental in leading two Cleveland Clinic hospitals to achieve national recognition. While at Cleveland Clinic, Kilarski had responsibility for health-system hospitals with combined net operating revenue of $330 million and 2,500 full-time employees. 1980 David Holdford, bs, of Richmond, Virginia, is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University

School of Pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia. In 2010, he edited and authored Introduction to Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Practice, published by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. He also authored Leadership and Advocacy for Pharmacy and coauthored Marketing for Pharmacists: Providing and Promoting Professional Services, both published by American Pharmacists Association Publications. He resides with his wife, Diane.

1980 Mark Siska, bs, of Rochester, Minnesota, received the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Pharmacy Practice Section Award for Informatics and Technology in 2010. The award recognized Siska for his participation in volunteer activities that helped advance health-system pharmacy and his sustained contribution to his group. Siska is assistant director of informatics and technology in pharmacy services at the Mayo Clinic.

1981 Macy (Mui) Chan, bs, of Winter Springs, Florida, works as a clinical pharmacist at Florida Hospital in Orlando. Her daughter, Stacey, earned her DMD in May from the University of Pennsylvania. Her son, Jay, is in his third year of medical school at the University of Florida. Her youngest, Victor, is a high school sophomore in the Seminole High School International Baccalaureate program. Husband, Pedro, enjoys his work in a medical office.

1983 Mark Mandel, bs, of Schaumburg, is coowner of Mark Drugs in Roselle. Housed in a 12,000-square-foot facility, Mark Drugs specializes in compounding and offers nutrition and dietician services, a massage therapy program, natural medicines, and durable equipment.

Class Notes


Patients and patrons may also visit the store’s museum of antique health devices. Mandel initially planned to study medicine until he was inspired by a pharmacist who assisted in his recovery from a back injury. With a focus on women’s health issues, Mark Drugs also features a mastectomy boutique.

1984 Shirley Felder, bs, of Crystal Lake, is MTM pharmacist at Centegra-Woodstock Hospital in Woodstock.

1993 Agnes Rimando, phd, of Oxford, Mississippi, is a research chemist in the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In June, she presented the Centennial Lecture, “Journey in Pharmacy Research: Challenges & Opportunities,” during the Centennial Week Celebration at the University of the Philippines College of Pharmacy, where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

1996 Shahnam Sharareh, pharmd, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, is a partner in the law firm of Fox Rothschild in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico and a JD from the University of Baltimore.

1996 Supakit Wongwiwatthananukit, pharmd, of Hilo, Hawaii, is an associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Pharmacy.

1997 Ned Milenkovich, pharmd, of Chicago, is a drug and pharmacy attorney and member at the legal firm McDoanld Hopkins. He is a member of the Illinois State Pharmacy Board and serves on the College of Pharmacy’s Alumni Board.

1998 Charisse Johnson, pharmd, ms ’03, is an assistant professor and director of experiential education at the

Chicago State University College of Pharmacy. Possessing formal teaching experiences in both didactic

and experiential arenas with student pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, Johnson has served in various capacities as a guest speaker, course instructor, and graduate teaching assistant lecturing on topics such as regulatory policy, patient safety, and the pharmacist’s role in community health. Prior to joining Chicago State University, she was professional affairs manager at the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. She also has practice experience in community and health-systems pharmacies. Johnson has served as a board member for both the National Pharmaceutical Association and Chicago Pharmacists Association. She is also a member of the Rho Chi Honor Society, Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Fraternity, and Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity. She has received a number of awards and accolades, the most recent being the UIC College of Pharmacy Sister Margaret Wright Graduate Award, the UIC College of Pharmacy Urban Health Program Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Young Pharmacists Award from the National Pharmaceutical Association.

1999 Kwong-Wing Chui, pharmd, of Chicago, received the 2010 Foundation Award from former Mayor Richard M. Daley. The award recognized Chui for more than 10 years of outstanding community

service to senior citizens. Chui is a pharmacy manager with Walgreens.

2001 Dina Qato, pharmd, phd ’10 sph, of Mokena, is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. She is also a research associate with the Chicago Core on Biomarkers in Population-based Aging Research with the Center on Aging affiliated with the National Opinion Research Center and University of Chicago.

2005 Marco Barajas, pharmd, of Plainfield.

2005 Gina Lemke, res, of Two Harbors, Minnesota, is director of

pharmacy at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota, where she oversees the hospital pharmacy, its

Wilderness Tele-Pharmacy Services, Northland Pharmacy, and St. Luke’s Infusion Therapy Pharmacy. Earlier this year, she was elected to the Minnesota Society of Health System Pharmacists board of directors.

2006 Ben Blodgett, pharmd, of La Quinta, California, his wife, Karen,

and their children, Sahara and Jacob, vacationed in Santa Barbara over the summer.

Class Notes


Class Notes

2006 Akinwale Onamade, pharmd, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, is a

pharmacist with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He and his two sons, Wale Jr.

(left) and Emmanuel (right), attended the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Pilot Air Show in West Virginia this past spring.

2006 Hongjun Yin, phd, of Brooklyn, New York, is an asistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he is also graduate program director of the pharmacy administration and drug regulatory affairs programs. His research focus is applying advanced statistical

modeling to solve practice problems, e.g., analyzing healthcare costs and utilization databases to examine in-patient cost variations. Yin’s research interests include drug utilization, medication errors, health economics, health-outcome measurement, health-policy evaluation, drug regulatory issues, medical sociology, and gerontology pharmacy practice. He has published manuscripts on pharmaceutical marketing, pharmacoepidemiology, and long-term care policy. In his leisure time, Yin enjoys listening to music; playing sports; reading; and spending time with his wife, Lori Wang, his two children, Carly and Stanley, and friends.

2007 Hui Li, pharmd, of Seattle, Washington, works as a pharmacist for Walgreens. He and his wife, Emily Susan Schlesinger, were married in July.

2008 Joseph Jorgenson, pharmd, of Maplewood, Minnesota, is the owner of the independent pharmacy White Bear Health Mart in White Bear Lake,

Minnesota. White Bear Health Mart strives to add value to the community through a focus on pharmaceutical care and customer service. Jorgenson resides with his wife, Tara.

2009 Todd Chermak, phd, of Lake Forest, holds the position of divisional vice president with Abbott Nutrition Regulatory Affairs. Chermak has been employed with Abbott for 17 years, having previously been employed in its global pharmaceutical research and development, pharmaceutical products group and pharmaceutical products division, and led the organization responsible for more than 300 products in more than 100 countries. He also globalized the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls function to better align with the needs of the pharmaceutical products group. Chermak joined Abbott as an intern and holds a master’s in engineering management from Northwestern University. He resides with his wife, Debbie.

On to bigger and betterPharmacy Administration Professor and Head Nick Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73, of Chicago (front row center) takes pride in sending off his Class of 2011 advisees. Of the group, seven are now pursuing pharmacy practice residencies, eight are practicing community pharmacy, one is enrolled in a graduate degree program, one has gone on to become a U.S. Navy pharmacist, and one is undecided. “I am so proud of each of them,” says Dr. Popovich. Front row: Kimberly Kauzlarich, Sharon Chae, Epiphanus Igwe, Luciana Bang. Middle row: Chintan Patel, Jennifer Powe, Inna Nabokova-Turner, Kathleen Tsai, Carly Bates, Hina Choudhary, Lamar Quinn, Lucero Lozoya, Ed Kim. Back row: Carolyn Sharpe, Jennifer Samp, Michael Mearis, Joshua Weight, Daerin Park.


Class Notes

At age 15, Richard Morimoto, ’72 las, ms ’74 pharm, decided he needed access to an electron microscope and traveled from his home in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood to UIC in order to locate one.

“I walked the corridors of the Science and Engineering Laboratories knocking on doors until, amazingly enough, a professor by the name of Howard Buhse answered,” Morimoto recalls. “Professor Buhse did two things, both of which were quite wonderful. First, he allowed me in and, second, he left me alone. That generosity of spirit—and who knows why he did it—made a huge difference in my life.”

For as long as he could remember, the 15-year-old had been fascinated with science, and upon graduating from high school a year later, Morimoto knew he wanted to study biology. He also knew he wanted to attend UIC. In typical fashion, Morimoto completed his undergraduate degree a year early. He was 19.

Today, Morimoto is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology with Northwestern University’s Department of Molecular Biosciences and director of the university’s Rice Institute of Medical Research. He has published more than 200 research papers and is a leading expert on the principles that underlie cellular quality control—in particular, the circumstances that account for misfolded proteins and the resulting impact on protein homeostasis, cellular function, and the adaptation and survival of organisms.

“It’s really one of the most exciting fields in all of science because it enhances our understanding

of genes and their influence on aging and disease,” Morimoto says.

The misfolded proteins he and his colleagues study at “Morimoto Lab” result from numerous circumstances, including aging, and are linked to a variety of ailments, ranging from Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease to Alzheimer’s disease, cystic fibrosis, familial ALS, and amyloidosis.

Morimoto’s mission is to develop therapies that prevent misfolding, as both a researcher and founder of Prostostasis Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based enterprise named after the proteins that regulate folding. Treatments are based on Morimoto’s research, as well as work conducted by cofounders Andrew Dillin of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, and Jeffery Kelly of the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California.

In October, he was honored by the University of Illinois Alumni Association with its Alumni Achievement Award.

Morimoto and his wife, Joyce, a school teacher, also develop programs that make university science more accessible to school children. The initiative is a fitting tribute to Buhse, who is now acting chair of UIC’s Department of Biology.

“I saw him just a month ago,” says Morimoto. “We still see each other with [great] frequency.”—John Gregerson

This article originally appeared in the fall 2011 issue of UIC Alumni Magazine.

Richard�Morimoto’s�research�on�misfolded�proteins�may�lead�to�treatments�for�such�diseases�as�Alzheimer’s�and�Parkinson’s

Scientific Mind

Love is in the COP

On a brilliant, sunny Easter weekend, Surasak Jim Vasavanont, pharmd ’08, surprised Maribelle Regala, pharmd ’07, with a proposal of marriage in the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden, located adjacent to the College of Pharmacy. Faculty members, pharmacy students, and hospital employees joined the conspiracy cloaking the event in secrecy. Fellow alumni flew in from as far as Cleveland, Ohio, to witness the event.

The Atkins Garden, named for the late Dorothy Bradley Atkins, bs ’45, was established in 2002 thanks to the generosity of her husband, Robert Atkins, md ’45. The garden was built in honor of Dorothy’s memory, her life as a pharmacist, and her interest in medicinal plants. The couple met at UIC when they were students.

The “engagement bench” pictured in the photos was later donated to the College and mounted with a plaque to commemorate its significance. Says Vasavont, “[The bench] is for students and alumni to enjoy, but, more importantly, to bear witness that, even more than 70 years later, romance and love can still be found on the corner of Polk and Wood.”

Fellow alumni Jim Vasavonont and Maribelle Regala became engaged in the College’s Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden before an audience of family and friends.


Obituaries

Norman R. Farnsworth, distinguished professor of

pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago,

died September 10. He was 81.

Farnsworth, who directed UIC’s Program for Collaborative

Research, was a pioneer who spent more than 50 years

studying the medicinal properties of natural plant products.

Farnsworth served on the UIC faculty for more than 40 years

and as head of pharmacognosy for 12 years. Jerry Bauman,

dean of the UIC College of Pharmacy, said Farnsworth’s

recruitment from the University of Pittsburgh brought a “culture

of sophisticated research” that has persisted.

“We are consistently rated one of the top five research colleges

of pharmacy in the United States, and that can be traced back

to Norm,” Bauman says. “When he came to UIC, it transformed

us from being predominantly a teaching-oriented institution to

one making major scientific contributions that complement our

educational programs. Norm had the ability to recruit extremely

talented colleagues and get them to work collaboratively

toward common research and scientific goals.”

In 1982, Farnsworth became director of UIC’s Program for

Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, an

internationally renowned center for the study of biologically

active natural products. The center was established to unite

faculty within the University of Illinois system in the biomedical

and pharmaceutical sciences.

Under Farnsworth’s direction, UIC’s Department of Medicinal

Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in 1999 became one of six

research centers established by the National Institutes of

Health to study dietary supplements. Investigations at the UIC/

NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research focus

on products that may improve women’s health and quality

of life, specifically in the areas of menopause, premenstrual

syndrome, and persistent urinary tract infections.

Along with the NIH, Farnsworth’s research was funded by the

National Science Foundation, the World Health Organization,

the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and industry and private

donations. His research led to more than 500 scientific

publications and reviews.

Farnsworth continued to play a pivotal role in the field of

pharmacognosy until his death. He was a longtime member of the

World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on Traditional

Medicine and was director of the WHO Collaborating Center for

Traditional Medicine Program at the UIC College of Pharmacy.

He also served as editor-in-chief of the Natural Products Alert

Database (NAPRALERT), a system he established in 1975.

NAPRALERT is a collection of more than 150,000 scientific

articles available online and serves as an important resource

for scientists.

Throughout his distinguished career, Farnsworth was the

recipient of numerous awards. In 2005, he was awarded the

Research Achievement Award from the American Society

Medicinal Plant Researcher Norman Farnsworth,

1930–2011by Sam Hostettler


Alumni

1952 Raymond H. Kramer, of El Cajon, California, August 13. A Batavia native, Kramer attended Marmion Academy in Aurora and went on to become a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving during the Korean War. Upon his return, he married Nancy Davies of Wheaton and practiced pharmacy in Lake Zurich. The couple and their three sons moved to San Diego, California, in 1963. Kramer purchased Lake Pharmacy in La Mesa, California, in 1965, which he operated for nearly 30 years. After Davies’s death in 1983, Kramer married Mary Scott of San Diego, and the couple moved to El Cajon, where he was employed as a pharmacist for the County of San Diego until his retirement in 2007. A San Diego Chargers season-ticket holder, Kramer was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing. He was a longtime member of the La Mesa Lions Club of which he served as president from 1978 to 1979.

1958 Sterling Eugene Ivy, bs, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, June 4. A World War II veteran, Ivy owned and operated Ivy Drugs in eastern Independence, Missouri, for 30 years.

1958 John W. Moore, bs, of Englewood, April 18. Moore, who spent his retirement years in Costa Rica, was married to Waltraud Moore, bs ’61.

1961 Richard Budny, bs, of The Villages, Florida, October 8. A native of Lombard, Budny established Budny Pharmacy in Chicago, which he later moved to Villa Park. Later on in his career, he became president of the Elmhurst Drug Company. A member of the Villa Park Rotary Club from 1973 to 2005, Budny served as Rotary District governor from 1983 to 1984. Upon retirement, he and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Florida, where he enjoyed playing golf.

1962 Steven Feinerman, bs, of Highland Park, June 26. Feinerman had been a pharmacist and partner at Parkway Drugs in Glencoe since 1981. He had previously served as president of the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce and was a preceptor for UIC College of Pharmacy students.

1966 Sigute Mikrut, bs, of Lake Bluff, April 17.

1970 Norman Cohen, bs, of Morton Grove, April 2011.

1972 Peter Kenney, bs, of Olympia Fields, May 10, 2009.

Roger Liberatore, bs, of Orland Park, July 12. Liberatore worked as a pharmacist for 38 years and was an avid fisherman who belonged to the Chicago-area Fish Tales Fishing Club.

1977 Candace (Mangel) Simkins, bs, May 24. During her career, Simpkins worked as a clinical pharmacist in orthopedics.

Obituaries

of Pharmacognosy. The following year he received the North

American Menopausal Society/Enzymatic Therapy Botanicals

Research Award for his contributions to understanding the role

of botanical therapies in the health of peri- and postmenopausal

women.

In 2010, Farnsworth and 18 other research scientists who serve

on the PDQ Complementary and Alternative Medicine Editorial

Board were selected to receive a Merit Award from the NIH.

Farnsworth also served on the National Research Council’s

Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring

Carcinogens, on President Bill Clinton’s Commission on Dietary

Supplements Labels, and as the first vice president and second

president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

Farnsworth was born in Massachusetts and was a veteran of

the Korean War, drafted into the Army infantry at 18 in 1949.

Seriously wounded the following winter, he was awarded the

Korean Ribbon with Four Battle Stars, the Combat Medical

Badge, and the Bronze Star with a “V” device.

Farnsworth received a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts

College of Pharmacy and a doctorate from the University of

Pittsburgh. He also holds three honorary doctorates and three

honorary professorships in the United States and abroad.

Farnsworth is survived by his wife, Priscilla; one brother, Bruce;

and nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be directed

to the University of Illinois Foundation/UIC College of Pharmacy

for the Norman R. Farnsworth Endowed Professorship in

medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy.


Over the Counter

Ever wondered where the abbreviation came from?Here’s an artistic interpretation from one of our alumni.

The history of℞

Send us your thoughts about Rx: [email protected].


49

See if your employer sponsors a matching gift program and make your contribution go even further! Learn more by visiting www.uif.uillinois.edu/matching.

If you’re a College of Pharmacy alumni, chances are, you’ve heard of Dr. Siegel.A two-time graduate of the College, Dr. Siegel served as a faculty member for nearly 35 years. During his tenure, he was voted Teacher of the Year 15 times and was the recipient of nine Golden Apple Awards in recognition of excellence in instruction.

Since then, Dr. Siegel has come to represent the highest caliber of pharmacy education and is one of the most beloved professors in the College’s history. Recognized as a national expert on bringing a concept to final dosage form, Dr. Siegel aided numerous industries as a product development consultant and still actively consults at 80 years of age. For these and countless other accomplishments, the College honored Dr. Siegel with its Legacy Award in 2009.

Thanks to you, the College is now able ensure Dr. Siegel’s lasting legacy with a fully endowed $25,000 scholarship in his name. “Dr. Siegel was instrumental in my pharmacy education, and without his teaching, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” —Andrea Wendrow, bs ’86

“I gave because Dr. Siegel was such a wonderful teacher and mentor.”—Anne Keating, pharmd ’92

Don’t let your generosity end there. Please consider a $250 gift to the Frederick P. Siegel Scholarship to increase your level of support for quality pharmacy education. Your gift, combined with those of other alumni, will continue to honor a master educator who impacted the lives of more than three decades of COP graduates.

“Dr. Siegel was one of my most wonderful and cherished teachers at UIC COP and still a mentor to me today in my field of cosmetic chemistry.”—Eugene Frank, bs ’60, ms ’71

“To Dr. Siegel: Thanks for the excellent memories from my time at the UIC College of Pharmacy.”—Larry Jacobucci, bs ’77

“A fine man and a great professor. Loved going to his class.”—Ronald Symusiak, bs ’72

Give your gift today. Visit pharmgiving.uic.edu.

Support the

Siegel Scholarship


For the full calendar of events, visit the College of Pharmacy Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs online at events.pharmacy.uic.edu.. Questions? Contact Deb Fox at (312) 996-0160 or [email protected].

UIC College of Pharmacy (MC 874)833 South Wood StreetChicago, Illinois 60612

IN THELOOP

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDChicago, IllinoisPermit No. 4860

January 11ARIZONA ALUMNI DINNER6–8 p.m.Ruth’s Chris Steak House2201 East Camelback RoadPhoenix, Ariz.

February 2CHALLENGE OF THE DEANSGame time 7 p.m.; Challenge at half timeYoungstown State vs. UIC

March 8–9COLLEGE OF PHARMACY RESEARCH DAYSUIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetChicago, Ill.Alumni judges wanted! For details, please contact Ben Stickan at (312) 996-2366 or [email protected].

March 9–12APHA ANNUAL MEETINGNew Orleans, La.UIC Pharmacy Ice Cream SocialDetails to be announced.

SAVE THE DATE

April 5HONORS CONVOCATIONUIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetRoom 134-1

November 3REUNIONHarry Caray’sThe Westin Lombard70 Yorktown CenterLombard, Ill.

nUpcoming College of Pharmacy Events

uic pharmacist, winter 2012

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