College of Pharmacy News

The Texas Pharmacy Alumni Association has selected Drs. Robert L. Talbert, Chibuokem Amuneke-Nze, Cynthia A. Gutierrez and Ms. W. Renee’ Acosta as the 2024 Alumni Award recipients. This year's winners will be honored on November 23, 2024 at the Texas Pharmacy Homecoming Tailgate, generously sponsored by H-E-B.

Last month, the UT Austin Student National Pharmaceutical Association (UT-SNPhA) chapter cleaned up at the 2024 SNPhA Convention in Los Angeles, California, bringing home numerous awards including the coveted Prescription for Service Award, which carries a $10,000 prize.

The Alcalde's Jade Fabello writes about the Division of Health Outcomes' Dr. Leticia Moczygemba, whose Interactive Care Coordination and Navigation (iCAN) program provides smartphones to unhoused populations to investigate how technology allows people experiencing homelessness to manage their health and social needs.

The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacotherapy in San Antonio is undergoing a significant transformation. Effective September 1, 2024, the group will become the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Sciences (PTSCI) to better reflect its tremendous growth, expansion and strategic collaborations over the past decade. The PTSCI Division will pursue its mission to educate and train the future leaders of pharmacotherapy and translational science, engage in innovative research and provide exemplary patient care.

Division Head and Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Doluisio Regents Professor Karen Vasquez, Ph.D. recently published an article in Nature Communications. The study, titled “Obesity increases genomic instability at DNA repeat-mediated endogenous mutation hotspots,” represents the first demonstration that obesity increases genetic instability at alternative DNA structures (in this case H-DNA), which are hotspots for mutations in human cancers.

The Daily Texan recently spoke with UTCOP's Dean Samuel Poloyac and members of the pharmacy community about the development of Texas PharmCare, a collaborative program which will help combat barriers and allow pharmacists to easily access medical information necessary to assist patients with obtaining needed medication treatment.

KXAN recently reported on the College of Pharmacy's Texas PharmCare program, which works to minimize barriers limiting pharmacists from accessing medication data and medical records from hospitals and clinics to better provide care for patients, partnering with Tarrytown Pharmacy, H-E-B and Watershed Health.

In a recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), ongoing research into the causes of manganese-induced parkinsonism has revealed a possible treatment option. Dr. Somshuvra Mukhopadhyay and a team of researchers have released new findings that the PHD2 inhibitor, which is the cell’s master oxygen sensor, has a second physiologically essential function – to also act as the cell’s manganese sensor.

Associate Dean for Healthcare Partnerships Dr. Diane Ginsburg received the Harvey A.K. Whitney Lecture Award at ASHP's Pharmacy Futures meeting last week. The award is health-system pharmacy’s highest honor.

This July, UT Austin College of Pharmacy faculty and students will be recognized and presented with their awards at the 2024 TPA Conference & Expo in Allen, Texas.