SPRING NEWSLETTER DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS AND PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY 2019 Issue 1 Spring Newsletter Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry 2019 DEPARTMENT PICNIC FALL 2018 THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US! Welcome to our 2019 Department remains at the chemistry and drug delivery, Newsletter! We are thrilled forefront of research in drug and to provide excellent to update you on all the delivery and targeted educational opportunities for exciting research and biologics (polymeric all students that they teach. achievements in our conjugates, antibody‐drug We remain on the forefront Department in the College of conjugates, genes, peptides, of innovative drug delivery Pharmacy in the Skaggs proteins, and more). strategies and novel Pharmacy Institute, a state‐ therapeutics for the 21st All faculty support and are of‐the‐art research facility century. involved with which opened in 2013. interdisciplinary science. We Currently, our faculty offer the opportunity for Interim Chair, Dr. Carol Lim members include Assistant students to carry out cutting‐ Welcome to our Department Professors Mingnan Chen edge research with world‐ Newsletter, and best wishes for a (soon to be Associate) and class scientists in a highly productive and successful 2019! Shawn Owen; Associate collaborative, interdisciplin‐ Professor Jim Herron; ary training environment. Professors You Han Bae, Students work in exceptional Jindrich Kopecek, Hamid facilities and have access to Ghandehari, David Grainger, outstanding core services. Sung Wan Kim, and Carol The departmental missions Lim; and Dean Emeritus are to advance research in Professor John Mauger. Our the areas of pharmaceutical SPRING NEWSLETTER DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS AND 2 PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY 2019 | Issue 1 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT Both of Dr. Chen’s graduate students Peng Zhao and Peng Wang, have been the recipients of the UU Assistant Professor Mingnan Graduate School Fellowship (in 2017 Chen and 2018, respectively). Chen Lab for Immunotherapeutics, 2019 In January 2019, Dr. Mingnan Congratulations to Peng Zhao. Peng has graduated from the Chen’s Lab for Chen lab with four first‐authored research articles including Immunotherapeutics received NIH one in Nature Biomedical Engineering. He is now a R01 grant support ($2.7 million postdoctoral associate at the UT Health Science Center at Houston. Best wishes to his future career! total costs) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a precision immune cell‐ablation therapy for autoimmune diseases. The ablation therapy, when translated to the clinic, is expected to be more effective than current therapies due to its broad coverage of pathogenic cells. This new therapy will also likely avoid immunodeficiency that often Dr. Mingnan Chen has passed through the tenure process at the plagues current therapies. This Department and College levels, and is awaiting notification from the five‐year project, together with University for the award of tenure sometime this spring/summer. We the multidisciplinary research congratulate Dr. Chen in advance of this significant milestone! team led by Dr. Chen, will provide th research and training On March 4 , 2019, Dr. Mingnan Chen’s recently developed, broadly applicable therapy for autoimmune disease therapy was published on opportunities to graduate students Nature Biomedical Engineering, a top‐notch journal in Biomedical of our department at the interface Engineering (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551‐019‐0360‐0). Dr. Chen of protein engineering, is now diligently working on the clinical translation of the therapy. immunology, and pharmaceutics. SPRING NEWSLETTER DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS AND 3 PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY 2019 | Issue 1 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT Dr. Shawn Owen was one of six University of Utah researchers that won a University Technology Acceleration Grant (UTAG) in 2017, a program that provides crucial funds to accelerate university‐developed technologies from the idea stage to the market. This grant was funded by the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative. Dr. Owen has been awarded ~$650,000 direct costs of funding from USTAR, HCI, Agilent Technologies University Collaboration Grant, TVC Engine Funds, and ARUP Labs Jessica McCombs received a Collaborative Funding. United Negro College Assistant Professor Shawn Owen Foundation/Merck Science Dr. Owen was the recipient of the 2016 ”As biomedical scientists, we Initiative Fellowship. Jessica was Distinguished Teaching Award for the one of ten recipients to receive are motivated by the belief that College of Pharmacy, usually an honor there are significant the prestigious fellowship that bestowed to more senior faculty. We wish therapeutic and diagnostic him continued success in his academic started in 2015. Jessica was also challenges and that we have a endeavors! the recipient of a UU Emerging leading role in solving them.” Diversity Scholars Award. Dr. Owen’s other affiliations include Adjunct Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Keith Arlotta, BioE PhD student Biomedical Engineering, and Adjunct in the Owen lab, received the Assistant Professor, Medicinal Chemistry. 2019 Graduate Research Selected Publications: Fellowship. 1. Biophysical Properties and Heating‐ Induced Aggregation of Lysine‐ Conjugated Antibody‐Drug Conjugates AV Gandhi, KJ Arlotta, HN Chen, SC Owen, JF Carpenter, J Pharm Sci. (2018) Jul;107(7):1858‐1869. Dr. Owen’s first graduate 2. In‐Depth Comparison of Lysine‐Based student, Sun Jin Kim, recently Antibody‐Drug Conjugates Prepared on defended her thesis entitled Solid Support Versus in Solution, KJ “Biomolecular Interactions in Arlotta, AV Gandhi, HN Chen, CS Nervig, Breast Cancers: Development JF Carpenter, SC Owen, Antibodies 2018, of Strategies and Platforms to 7 (1), 6. Understand Biointerfaces.” 3. A Tri‐part Protein Complementation During her time in the lab, she System Using Antibody‐Small Peptide Christine Nervig received a NSF was also the recipient of one of Fusions Enables Homogeneous Fellowship (2015), and a Skaggs the College’s Skaggs Research Immunoassays. Dixon AS, Kim SJ, Research Fellowship (2018). In Fellowship Awards and also Baumgartner BK, Krippner S, Owen SC 2019, she also received a P.E.O. (2017) Sci Rep, 7(1), 8186 won the Department’s Fox (Philanthropic Educational Award for outstanding service Organization) Scholar Award for and scholarship. 2019. SPRING NEWSLETTER DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS AND 4 PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY 2019 | Issue 1 INDUSTRY RELATIONS Larson taught a short course on David W. Grainger Drug Product Development. Eric J. Mack Hamidreza S. Ghandhari Special thanks to Daan Jaesung Kim Crommelin (Professor James N. Herron Emeritus, Department of Jian Chen Pharmaceutics at Utrecht Jindrich Kopecek University) for his efforts in Jiyuan Yang Kevin Scott Warner teaching a liposome short We are grateful for on‐site course to our students in the Libin Zhang Michael A. Zupon interviews and visits from department for over a decade! Robert D. Tien Celgene and Gilead in recent Sandra M. Sims years. Special thanks to Drs. Sung Wan Kim Ho‐Wah Hui, Shyam Karki, and William I. Higuchi Kung‐I Feng from Celgene William J. Lambert Corp, and Drs. Monica Tijerina Yixin Fang and Scott Mitchell from Gilead Yoo‐Koo Kang for coming to visit and Yoshikazu Umashiro providing our students with Corporate donors, insights into industry and the Dr. Daan Crommelin, speaking interviewing process. alphabetical: on the fate of nanomedicines as American Association of our guest speaker in our Pharmaceutical Scientists department in 2018. Arcturus Therapeutics Elute Inc. Many thanks also to Research Galloway & Associates Professor Darrell Galloway for Kowa Company LSK Biopartners teaching a short course on immunology/vaccinology in Pfizer Foundation Pharmicell Co. 2016. ALUMNI AND FRIENDS SCM Lifescience Theratarget Inc. We are indebted to former We express our heartfelt thanks alumni Drs. Nate Larson (now and gratitude to our numerous at Deseret Laboratories, Inc., donors who have contributed Chief Scientific Officer; Adjunct to our department over the Assistant Professor in our years: department) and Kevin Warner Individual donor list, alphabetical (now at Alucent Medical, Senior order by first name: Director, Pharmaceutical Anil Chhettry Development; Adjunct Benjamin S. Maxey Assistant Professor in our Carol S. Lim Alumna Monica Tijerina (Gilead) department) for their teaching Carolyn H. Asbury giving a presentation to our graduate efforts/seminars over the years. Dalynn Berglund students on drug formulation processes (2017). Most recently, in 2018, Nate Darrell Galloway David E. Dong SPRING NEWSLETTER DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICS AND 5 PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY 2019 | Issue 1 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT novel adjuvants formulated with two separate plague vaccines (the U.S. plague vaccine and the U.K. plague vaccine). One of the studies is being funded by the NIH and is being conducted through one of their contractors with Galloway as the principal for the study. The study is currently underway and will involve an Dr. Darrell Galloway, aerosol challenge component. Research Professor The second study will be conducted at the University of Utah and will be an extension of the NIH study in that it will involve a more complete analysis of the immune responses generated by the novel adjuvant formulations. Associate Professor James The study is being funded through Herron a corporate sponsor. Darrell Galloway, Research Professor In addition to his