College of Pharmacy News

College of Pharmacy Dean Sam Poloyac participated in a panel discussion from the 2023 Texas Leadership Society Luncheon on The University of Texas at Austin's bold pursuits in health and well-being. The discussion was moderated by UT President Jay Hartzell.

Two of the college's distinguished faculty in the Division of Health Outcomes and Division of Pharmacy Practice were recommended for promotion by President Hartzell due to their outstanding accomplishments in research, outreach and education. Dr. Tish Moczygemba will assume the rank of professor and Dr. Kristin Janzen will become a clinical associate professor.

Division Head and Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology Karen Vasquez, Ph.D. published in the latest issues of Nature Reviews Genetics regarding repetitive elements in the human genome. Once considered "junk DNA," they are now known to adopt more than a dozen alternative DNA structures. These dynamic conformations can act as functional genomic elements involved in DNA replication and transcription, chromatin organization and genome stability.

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.

P4 students, Megan Yeung, Kami Johnston and Morgan Murchison co-author a peer-reviewed blog in Pulses encouraging educators to adapt to reflect the specific needs of people who use drugs and patients with substance use disorders. This blog also highlights UT Pharmacy as a U.S. leader in substance use disorder and harm reduction education for Pharm.D. students.

Tara Law from Time writes about how few pharmacies carry buprenorphine, a life-saving drug to help treat opioid use disorder (OUD). Lucas Hill, Pharm.D., BCACP, director of the college's Pharmacy Addictions Research & Medicine (PhARM) program, offers his insight on the issue, and how the DEA's crackdown of the drug puts OUD patients at risk.

A paper from UT College of Pharmacy researchers was awarded the 2021 Outstanding Paper of the Year from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Ambulatory Care Practice Research Network. The paper investigates the availability of buprenorphine and naloxone in Texas to treat opioid use disorder.

Division Head and Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Karen Vasquez, Ph.D. appeared on BBC World Service's Science in Action to talk about Z-DNA. Dr. Vasquez's research focuses on DNA damage and repair, genomic instability, gene targeting, DNA structure and cancer therapeutics.

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.

Chemistry Assistant Professor Emily Que, Ph.D. and the College of Pharmacy’s Walt Fast, Ph.D. are working together to research new methods to fight against antibiotic resistance. The fluorescent chemical probe developed by Que and Fast may help find a different way to combat resistant bacteria.