College of Pharmacy News

Andrea C. Gore, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology and Vacek Chair in Pharmacology, recently earned an R35 RIVER grant award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for her lab’s research on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and their effect on the brain. The NIEHS, which is one of the centers in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a total of $6,823,672 for eight years.

Dr. Leticia R. Moczygemba in the Division of Health Outcomes talked to ECHO, an agency that plans and implements community-wide strategies to end homelessness in Austin and Travis County, about the Interactive Care Coordination and Navigation (iCAN) program that studies how getting phones to more people living outside impacts their lives and health outcomes.

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.

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.

Combining mobile health technology, or mHealth, and community outreach to improve the health outcomes of people experiencing homelessness is the target of a new study led by Division of Health Outcomes Associate Professor Leticia Moczygemba, Pharm.D., Ph.D., thanks to a five-year research grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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.

Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology researcher Pallavi Kompella, Ph.D. has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to research at the Biomedical Research Institute of Málaga in Spain.