College of Pharmacy News

Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery professor Maria A. Croyle, Ph.D. earned this year's Best Paper Award from the University Co-op Research Excellence Awards, presented by UT's Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors and the University Co-operative Society.

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has released its grant research funding awards for the upcoming year. All three awarded research projects at The University of Texas at Austin involve College of Pharmacy faculty.

The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy moved up in several research funding categories, as reported in the newly-released rankings from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). The college rose to #8 nationally in total research funding during the 2019-2020 fiscal year, compared to #9 in 2018-2019.

Assistant Dean for Experiential and Professional Affairs Jennifer L. Ridings-Myhra, M.Ed., R.Ph. is 2021's recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP). It is the highest honor TSHP can bestow on an individual.

Three researchers from the College of Pharmacy won an award from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation. Leticia R. Moczygemba, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Carolyn M. Brown, Ph.D. and Michael Johnsrud, Ph.D., R.Ph. were awarded $5,000 from the PhRMA Foundation for their proposal to advance racial and ethnic representation in value assessments.

Two of the College of Pharmacy’s distinguished faculty were recently promoted due to their outstanding accomplishments in research, outreach and education. Dr. Kimberly Nixon of the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology will assume the rank of professor and Dr. Lucas G. Hill of the Division of Pharmacy Practice will become a clinical associate professor.

An update from Dean M. Lynn Crismon regarding the College of Pharmacy’s transition to remote learning and efforts to learn, research, graduate, and stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers in the lab of Dr. Maria Croyle have developed a peelable lightweight film that stabilizes biologics, is inexpensive, and withstands extreme temperature changes. The technology has already demonstrated proof of concept for model Ebola and H1N1 vaccines, and may prove an effective method of delivery for future treatments, such as for coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Health Outcomes Professor Carolyn Brown, Ph.D. was one of five accomplished faculty members at The University of Texas at Austin to be inducted into the first cohort of the Provost’s Distinguished Service Academy (DSA).

College of Pharmacy Professor Karen M. Vasquez, Ph.D. recently collaborated on a research paper exploring the mechanisms involved in DNA structure-induced genetic instability in human disease. “Mechanisms of genetic instability caused by (CGG)n repeats in an experimental mammalian system” recently published in Nature, and includes co-authors Artem V. Kononenko, Thomas Ebersole, and Sergei M. Mirkin from Tufts University.