Grants Boost New Pharmacy Developments

By Kukla Vera on August 20, 2009 12:46 PM

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has awarded five grants supplementing support for current research at the USC School of Pharmacy.

The two largest awards went to Nouri Neamati, an associate professor working on HIV therapies, and Sarah Hamm-Alvarez, the Gavin S. Herbert Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, whose work focuses on drug delivery to the eye.

Neamati’s grant provides $442,259 to enhance his lab’s efforts to inhibit the HIV-integrase protein. Hamm-Alvarez was awarded $408,692 to further research efforts designed to find ways to best deliver medications to the eye. Co-investigator of the Hamm-Alvarez grant is Andrew MacKay, an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Hamm-Alvarez and MacKay will develop nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic agents to the lacrimal gland in the eye. Ultimately, this research supports the development of new treatments for dry eye diseases that affect millions of Americans, leading to loss of vision in many. The two-year award from the National Eye Institute provides funding for an additional 1.6 positions on the project. Hamm-Alvarez is the chair of the school’s Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the associate dean for research affairs.

Neamati’s work combines computational chemistry with laboratory experimentation in his quest to find inhibitors that selectively block the interaction between HIV-1 integrase and a cellular protein called LEDGF/p75 for the treatment of AIDS. The grant extends the footprint of Neamati’s research, providing additional staff to move the work forward. Neamati’s support comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Tino Sanchez, a Ph.D. student working in the Neamati lab, was awarded a two-year fellowship totaling $82,352. This support allows Sanchez to mine molecular databases for novel compounds that are able to disrupt replication of the HIV virus. Sanchez’s work is also supported by a fellowship from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program.

Ron Alkana, professor and associate dean of graduate studies and curricular development, has been awarded a $58,859 supplement to support Ph.D. student Letisha Wyatt as a graduate assistant in his lab. The grant will allow Wyatt to contribute to the work of the Alkana and Davies labs in the pursuit of finding new approaches to prevent and treat alcohol-related problems. This award was made by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Another grant from the institute went to Darryl Davies, associate professor in the Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy, who works with Alkana in searching for therapies to treat alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

Davies’ award of $45,325 provides an opportunity for a secondary-school science teacher and two undergraduates to spend hands-on time in the laboratory setting.

TAGS: pharmacy, research

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