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Welcome to the first issue of the Department’s Newsletter. Our goal is to share with you, our colleagues, the accomplishments of a small science department in a small University with limited graduate programs. We hope our experiences and accomplishments (or lack thereof) will stimulate you to contact us with advice or an offer of collaboration in areas of mutual in-terest. The department has 7 full time Ph.D. faculty engaged in teaching in the areas of Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Human Anatomy and Physiology and Health Care Administration. The breath of our responsibilities and limited number has made us flexible and inventive, as can be seen by some of the areas of interest within the department.
This first edition highlights several areas of faculty activity within the de-partment. These include undergraduate research, service learning, inno-vative teaching techniques, and a brief summary of the individual faculty and their most recent accomplishments. If you would like more information about the department, school or University please contact the chair at [email protected]. If you want information about a specific project please contact the faculty responsible for that activity at the e-mail address listed in their personal bio.
Note from the Chair
WILKES UNIVERSITY’S NESBITT COLLEGE of PHARMACY & NURSING
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences October 15, 2011 Volume 1, Issue 1.
Special points of interest:
Chair’s Note
Faculty Profiles
Departmental Staff Profiles
Faculty Research
DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES
Faculty Profiles
Page 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Professor Arthur H. Kibbe, Ph.D. R.Ph. B.S. Pharmacy, Columbia University M.S. & Ph.D Pharmaceutics, University of Florida
[email protected] He is a former President of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science of the American Pharmacists Association. He served as chair and is a continuing member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Advisory Committee. This past year he contributed to the development of a grant submis-sion which resulted in significant funding for the Pediatric Trial Network (housed at Duke University). His in-volvement will be to assist in the development of oral liquid dosage forms of already approved drugs only cur-rently available as adult strength oral solid dosage forms. He continues to write monographs for the Hand-book of Pharmaceutical Excipients and serve on the steering committee for that publication. His research in-terests include oral solid controlled release dosage forms and excipient characterization.
Professor Harvey Jacobs, Ph.D. B.S. Chemistry & Ph.D. Pharmaceutics, University of Utah
[email protected] Dr. Harvey Jacobs is rejuvenating his research endeavors after several years. He is focusing on two projects. The first is to chemically modify glucose so it can be included in a polymeric delivery device and investigated for oral drug delivery sys-tems. This research relies on procedures that were developed in the 1950 and are still useful techniques today. The goal is to selectively perform chemical modifica-tions on glucose through the C-6 carbon atom, rather than on the CI carbon. For those of you who remember your carbohydrate chemistry, this is the carbon not attached to the ring. Modifi-cation through this site will allow the C-1 position (where the ring opens and closes) to be unchanged. This will allow binding of the modified glucose to specific receptors on cells. Once the modification is performed and characterized, the modified molecule will be included in a polymeric drug delivery device. It is envisioned that the modified glucose molecules attached to the polymer will bind to glucose receptors along the GI tract. This will delay the transit of the device through the GI tract and allow for extended release of the drug. Re-search accomplishments to date include successful coupling of a vinyl-terminated group to the C6 position through an amide bond. Continued work will involve the polymerization of this group with other monomers to form the drug delivery device.
The other project involves the chemical modification of graphene. Graphene is, in general, single-molecule-thick pieces of graphite termed platelets. The material is all carbon, no hydrogen, no oxygen no other atoms. As such, it has interesting properties in terms of electronic conductivity and other properties. In order to “do” anything with graphene, chemical modifications must be performed to oxidize some of the carbons to carbox-ylic acids, ethers or alcohols. Oxidation involves reactions with potassium permanganate, sulphuric acid and nitric acid. Needless to say, this is a fairly dangerous procedure, and we are lucky that the third floor of the building is still on the third floor. Once these modifications are made, then the graphene can be coupled with other molecules and different properties of the material can be investigated. So far, success in modifying the material and not destroying the lab has been realized. The next area will be to couple graphene within water-soluble polymers and see what utility this may demonstrate.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Professor Dan McCune, Ph.D. B.S. Pharmacy , Butler University in Indianapolis Ph.D. in Pharmacology ,University of Kentucky in Lexington
Dr. McCune completed postdoctoral research studies at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He began teaching at the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy at Wilkes University in August, 2004. Dr. McCune teaches the pharmacology and medicinal chemistry of a variety of topics in the Pharmacotherapy sequence (including PHA 521-Pulmonary Disorders, topics in Self-Care (PHA425), and dis-orders of the central nervous system (PHA530). He also serves as the instructor for Immunology & Biotechnology (PHA410), and the elective course Neuropharmacology of Drugs of Abuse (PHA450) In the laboratory Dr. McCune primarily works with human arterial smooth muscle cells as a model sys-tem in order to study the differential signal transduction and effects of the three main subtypes of the alpha1-adrenergic receptor (α1-AR), the α1A-AR, α1B-AR, and α1D-AR). (Yes, we know he skipped a letter, best not to ask…). Increasingly, evidence suggests that different subtypes are capable of medi-ated differing physiological effects in different arterial tissues.In addition to his scholarly and teaching responsibilities, Dr. McCune serves as the coach for the Wilkes Fencing Club. One Wilkes fencer recently earned a gold medal in the Keystone State Games in the Y14 saber competition, while Dr. McCune won a bronze medal in the veteran’s epee tournament. Dr. McCune also serves as a faculty preceptor for the experiential rotation “Study of Medicinal Plants in the Amazon”. While in the Peru-vian Amazon, students attend classes in ethnobotany, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and toxicology at the Hospital de la Luz and the National Institute for Traditional Medicine (IMET) and workshops on medicinal plants and agronomy at the National University of the Peruvian Amazon’s Institute of Re-search (UNAP/IIAP). In addition, they attend sessions with internationally known shaman, Rossana Nascimento. A highlight of the program is a 200 mile journey down the Amazon River to visit tribes of Bora, Huitoto, and Yagua Indians and to lodge at the gallery of internationally renowned artist, Fran-cisco Grippa.
Professor Marie Roke-Thomas, Ph.D. B.S. Biology, Wilkes University, Master in Public Administration, Seton Hall University, Ph.D., Human Development and Health Pro-motion, Marywood University. [email protected] Marie Roke-Thomas is an Associate Professor in the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy, Wilkes University. She is a member of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department where she has been recognized as Teacher of the Year 2010 - 2011. She serves on Student Affairs and as Faculty Advisor to students in APhA (American Pharmacists Association). Dr. Thomas co-directs the Pharmacy Access Program at Wilkes University providing pharmaceuticals to six free clinics in the Wilkes-Barre area. Her focus is to increase student awareness as it applies to providing health care services to the unin-sured. She encourages the development of responsible citizenship and promotes the development of integrated, collaborative, multidisciplinary learning, to better coordinate patient care in the underserved populations. Dr. Thomas serves on the Board of Directors of the Volunteers in Medicine (VIM), the HIV Procurement Committee with the United Way, and as a volunteer for the Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s As-sociation and the YMCA. She works closely with the Blind Association and includes students in all her community service projects. Her most recent project is including student in nutritional counseling for “Camp Site” a four-week summer camp for children considered legally blind.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Page 3
Professor Adam VanWert, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Pharm.D., Wilkes University Ph.D. (Pharmacology/Toxicology), MUSC. [email protected] Adam returned to Wilkes in the fall of 2008 after receiving his Ph.D. at MUSC. His doctoral research was in the area of drug transport in the kidney. His didactic training was broad, with a focus on toxicology. His current research involves investigation of the interactions between antibiotics and kidney transporter pro-teins (e.g., OAT3). Techniques used include HPLC, Western blotting, and cell culture. He works with students in the lab during both the school year and summer. He maintains research col-laborations with scientists at the University of Maryland and Vir-ginia Commonwealth University. He was introduced to research at Wilkes while working with Dr. James Culhane from 2000-2003. He was offered jobs in both the FDA and biotech sectors, but chose to return to Wilkes because of his passion for teaching, his posi-tive experience with the faculty, and the family-like environment on campus.
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Professor Ajay Bommareddy, Ph.D. B.Pharm; Osmania University India, Ph.D. (Pharmacology); South Dakota State University, Postdoc; University of Pitts-burgh Medical Center [email protected] Ajay joined the department in the fall of 2009 after a two year postdoctoral research work at the University of Pittsburgh Medi-cal Center in the area of cancer chemoprevention using naturally occurring phytochemicals. He is actively pursuing his research work on prostate cancer and breast cancer chemoprevention using phytochemicals such as isothiocynates from broccoli, Brussels sprouts and alpha-santalol from sandal wood oil. This past year he was the recipient of American Association of Col-leges of Pharmacy New Faculty Research award. From a personal perspective, Ajay and his wife Sandhya had a new addition, a baby girl to their family in 2010. He encourages undergraduate stu-dents to participate in research activities both during summer and school year. Currently, he is also in-volved with a collaborative project involving researchers from South Dakota State University, where the anticancer properties of alpha-santalol are studied using animal models.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Page 5 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Professor Zbigniew J. (ZJ) Witczak M.S. & Ph.D. Medical University of Lodz, Poland. Postdoctoral fellow, Purdue University (Professor Roy L. Whistler) [email protected] Dr. Witczak's work on levoglucosenone and its utilization to the synthesis of various classes of rare sugars led him to study the entire field to explore the hidden potential of this universal carbo-hydrate building block by expanding its application to medicinal chemistry of carbohydrates. His developments of novel (thio-sugars, aminosugars) as potential therapeutics directly from chiral building “synthon” levoglucosenone have pointed the way toward new green methods for use in large-scale chemistry.
In 1997, he co-edited with Karl A. Nieforth the first ever book on Carbohydrates in Drug Design which has since become the leading reference in the field.
At University of Connecticut,School of Pharmacy, ZJ was highly regarded for his teaching and re-search. His students in the UConn School of Pharmacy elected him Teacher of the Year in 1996 and in 2003 at the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy at Wilkes University. He also received the John S. Burlew award in 1997 from the Connecticut Valley Section of the American Chemical Society for his out-standing contribution to carbohydrate chemistry. In 2000, he was awarded the Melville L. Wolform Award of American Chemical Society, Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry for his outstanding re-search contribution to carbohydrate chemistry and service to the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry.
ZJ is a regular speaker at national and regional ACS meetings, as well as IUPAC and International Carbohydrate meetings. He has been invited to lecture on his work in numerous research institutions in the US and abroad. He has published over 90 research papers and six patents in the field of carbo-hydrate, medicinal and biological chemistry. In addition he has edited six books and is a guest editor for carbohydrate topics of the world-renowned journal, Current Organic Chemistry, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Carbohydrate Chemistry, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Carbohydrate Research. He is also US Representative to the International Carbohydrate Organization.Recently Dr. Witczak was selected as 2011 American Chemical Society Fellow for his “excellence in contribution to the chemical sciences and in service to the ACS and the chemistry community”.
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Mary F. McManus, Ph.D., R.Ph. [email protected] Dr. McManus joined Wilkes University in 2000 as a molecular toxi-cologist whose expertise is in neurotoxic mechanisms of environ-mental agents. Within the department, she assumed the delivery of the medical anatomy and physiology sequence due to her exten-sive background in physiology and pathophysiology. In response to the needs of the underserved individuals of the region, Dr. McManus’s research interests transitioned into the area of public health and poverty medicine focusing on delivery of improved medical care to medically underserved and vulnerable individuals. To this end, she has developed, directed and collaborated in initia-tives which improve health care for underserved individuals in industrialized nations. This includes focused application of pedagogical principles in the evolving discipline of poverty medicine with the goal to improve the interprofessional scholarship of practitioners in this area. In addition to Dr. McManus’s teaching and re-search interests, she is extremely actively within the University community. She is dedicated to student learn-ing, faculty and staff development and the overall well being of the community at large.
Professor Kenneth Pidcock B.S., Secondary Education, Millersville State College M.S., Ph.D., Biology, Lehigh University
[email protected] Kenneth Pidcock is an Associate Professor in the Biology department at Wilkes University, and he teaches the introductory microbiology course in the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy. Ken is a bacteriologist whose research involves molecular investigation of the biology and persistence of bacterial agents of infectious disease, with an emphasis on nosocomial and multiply drug-resistant infections. He and his colleagues are currently conducting surveillance of KPC carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae. The KPC carbapenemase confers resistance to essentially all β-lactam an-tibacterial drugs, and K. pneumoniae carrying its gene are typically resistant to multiple other classes of drugs, limiting treatment options.. Ken and his colleagues have focused on carbapenem-resistant K. pneumo-niae isolated in northeastern Pennsylvania, examining them for clonality and expression of KPC and other β-lactamases. To date, they have learned that there are multiple clones of K. pneumoniae expressing KPC-3 genes circulating in the region, and that the replicons on which β-lactamase genes harbored by these isolates are located are highly mobile.
Adjunct Professor Roman Bielski M.S. & Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Warsaw University of Technol-ogy (Poland). [email protected] He carried out his post-doctoral research with Sir Derek Barton at Impe-rial College in London. After spending several years in academia (Warsaw Agricultural University, Lehigh University and Cornell Univer-sity) he worked in and co-founded a few small biotech companies. His research interests include origin of homochirality (together with M. Tencer he discovered a novel chiral influence – a set of three orthogo-nal orienting factors), environmental solutions and sustainable materi-als. He published about three dozen papers and co-authored more than a dozen patents. He is helping our Department to secure funding for research projects.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Page 7
Jackie Ruane has been with the department since 1999 as Labora-tory Supervisor and wears many hats. Her major responsibilities focus in the areas of academic support for the Anatomy/Physiology and Pharma-ceutics labs. She serves as Secretary for the IACUC Committee, provides research support to the faculty and is a member of the University Health and Safety Committee and the School of Pharmacy Strategic Planning Committee. She serves as the safety contact for the department as well. She is also the Pharmaceutical Bank Manager for the Pharmaceutical Ac-cess Program, a collaboration of the School of Pharmacy and the Com-mission of Economic Opportunity. She is the liaison for the student volun-teers and the nurses at the clinics. “Being able to coordinate much needed medications and supplies daily is something I value as a bank manager”. Jackie also works closely with the Biology Department and coordi-nates many volunteer labs for students interested in pharmacy. Some of these labs are Women Empow-ered by Science, Adventures in Science and Pre Med Day. “Seeing the excitement on the faces of the students that come here for these hands on pharmacy labs is very rewarding to me. Knowing that I may have sparked some interest in the area of pharmacy makes me smile.” Coming from a research and scientific background, Jackie is able to assist in the classroom. In the past, Jackie has assisted Dr. Jacobs in teaching IV preparation to the P1s in the Pharmaceutics Lab. She was also an instructor for Dr. Foote’s Pharmaceutical Care Lab. “My experience in sterile compounding really benefited the students… Having completed aseptic training and to be able to assist these students in material, skill and technique was very rewarding to me. Jackie enjoys spending time with her family and has two children Jordyn, 8 and Patrick, 4. Her Husband, Joseph is a 1995 graduate of Wilkes, and will be teaching at the University this fall.
Departmental Staff
Theresa Rule joined the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department as the Administrative Assistant in August, 2008. Ms. Rule has taken on many new responsibilities both within and outside the de-partment pertinent to both faculty and students. Theresa, is cur-rently a member of the Wilkes University Staff Advisory Committee. Ms. Rule is a graduate of Lackawanna Junior College. Presently, she is pursuing her education further in the Business Administration area at Wilkes University. Theresa enjoys spending time with her family. She and her husband, Jim, have three daughters, Tera, Brittny, and Tiffany. Tera is a recent graduate of the Doctorate of Pharmacy Program here at Wilkes. Brittny and Tiffany are also stu-dents at Wilkes University.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dan McCune, Ph.D. Three a1-adrenergic receptor (AR) subtypes have been cloned and characterized, the a1A-, a1B-, and a1D-AR. Additionally, 16 splice variants of the a1A-AR have been isolated in various human tissues. Several Wilkes undergraduate pharmacy students have assisted Dr. McCune in the laboratory in attempts to characterize the expression and function of a1-ARs in human aortic and pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells. The expres-sion of a1-AR mRNA was assessed with RT-PCR utilizing subtype and splice variant specific primers. Re-sponse to agonist was assayed by measuring increases in intracellular calcium ion concentrations in cells loaded with Fura-4. Both aortic and pulmonary cells express mRNA for the a1A-, a1B-, and a1D-ARs. Interest-ingly, message for a1A-AR splice variants 1-3, but not 4, was detected in both cell types. Both cell types dis-played increases in intracellular calcium in response to treatment with the a1-AR selective agonist phenylephrine, suggesting functional receptor expression. Simultaneous expression of all three a1-AR sub-types is consistent with previous reports, while the significance of a1A-AR splice variant expression is currently unknown. Further study of these cell types with a variety of agonists and antagonists to explore multiple sig-nal transduction pathways will be required. This work resulted in abstracts presented by Wilkes students at the international Experimental Biology conference. One of the student participants has since joined the De-partment of Pharmacology as a graduate student at the University of Colorado
Adam L. VanWert, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Dr. VanWert’s research deals primarily with characterizing drug transporters in the body. During his graduate training he was interested in determining the role of organic anion transporter 3 (Oat3) in the disposition of a variety of drugs. A major finding from this work was the discovery that Oat3 is a critical protein involved in the renal elimination of benzylpenicillin (penicillin G), as well as other commonly used drugs. With knowledge gained on this transporter, and an arsenal of techniques to assess transporter function and expression, he has formulated several new research questions. One major goal is to evaluate the potential for quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis in the development predictive models; particularly models that can predict drug-drug transporter affinity/activity based on physicochemical properties of the drug. This pur-suit will ideally lead to more opportunities for rational drug design, and thus, more expeditious development of efficacious drugs. Techniques that students are actively learning and employing in his lab include HPLC, fluorescence spectroscopy, drug transporter assays, mammalian cell culture, immunoblotting, and others. He welcomes new opportunities for collaboration, and encourages interested readers to contact him at [email protected].
Page 8 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Ajay Bommareddy, Ph.D. With the assistance from the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, mentoring grants from Wilkes Univer-sity Student Affairs and research funds from AACP, I am able to carry out research projects in our cell culture and pharmacology laboratory. I have been actively involving student participants in research projects and also training them with cell culture techniques and basic laboratory protocols. Currently, we are focusing on the induction of apoptotis and autophagy by naturally occuring phytochemicals and their ability in to inhibit cancer growth using prostate cancer cells as a model. We are also interested in investigating the role of major proteins associated with apoptosis induction and cell death. Important techniques and assays include but not limited toWestern blot analysis, protein assays, ELISA assays, Trypan blue assays and MTT assays are pri-marily used in our research projects. This past summer I attended the annual AACP conference held at San Antonio, TX, along with a P-2 student to present our research as a poster entitled “chemopreventive proper-ties of alpha-santalol, a naturally occuring phytochemical present in sandalwood oil on prostate cancer devel-opment”. Currently, I am collaborating with scientists from the College of Pharamcy, South Dakota State Uni-versity and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
Faculty Research Update
