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Grants assist pharmacy unit
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
Amgen, a Fortune 500 company that has pioneered new treatments based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology, has awarded three grants totaling $145,000 to the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences for fellowships in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) research.
William J. Jusko, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, praised Amgen for its support of important studies conducted by the UB team of faculty and students. He gave special thanks to Andrew Chow, Amgen senior director, pharmacokinetics and pharmacometrics, who helped facilitate the awards. Chow earned his doctorate from UB in 1990, as well as bachelor's degrees in pharmaceutics and pharmacy in 1984 and 1985, respectively.
"This type of support comes at a critical time in the evolution of our department as we have enlarged our faculty and are expanding our graduate and fellowship program to add breadth to our scientific capabilities and interests," Jusko said.
"The major strength of our department is pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the study of handling of drugs by the body and their diverse actions. With PK/PD and computational approaches, we can better make connections between drug doses and exposures, cellular mechanisms, and alterations of body functions disturbed by diseases. This leads to more efficient drug development and clinical studies that bring safer and more effective drugs to patients sooner. These efforts are devoted to various types of drugs and therapeutic areas."
The funds will be awarded for fellowships in three areas—hematology, bone diseases and inflammation—that are of joint interest to School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences' faculty and students, and to Amgen in its drug-development efforts.
The first fellowship, for $50,000, has been awarded to Sihem Ait-Oudhia, a graduate student who holds a master's degree in pharmacokinetics and biopharmacy from the University Paris 5, France. Her research findings will contribute to improving treatments for patients suffering from anemia or autoimmune diseases. Under the direction of Wojciech Krzyzanski, assistant professor, Ait-Oudhia will analyze experimental data and develop mathematical models to quantitate and predict the time course of drug concentrations and hematological responses to drugs that stimulate production of red blood cells and lymphocytes.
The second fellowship will support postdoctoral research in bone homeostasis and IFN-beta PK/PD by Anshu Verma, who holds a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a doctorate in chemical and biological engineering from UB. Working with UB assistant professor Donald E. Mager, Verma will develop new mathematical models to provide insight into the factors controlling bone metabolism under normal and disease conditions.
"Our lab is particularly interested in multiple myeloma, a disease that is incurable at present and characterized by excessive bone resorption," Mager noted. "Recent evidence suggests that an endogenous protein, interferon-beta (IFN-beta), plays a significant role in controlling bone breakdown. Verma will be investigating the processes that control the time-course of IFN-beta exposure and effects. Such information will be integrated into mathematical models of bone turnover that are under construction and ultimately lead to better methods of drug therapy."
The third award for $45,000 will support the work of pharmaceutics graduate student Justin Earp in the area of PK/PD inflammation, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis. Earp, who earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Arizona-Tucson, said that recent studies have "re-emphasized the necessary and beneficial role of corticosteroids in rheumatoid arthritis therapy." His continuing research with Jusko will utilize an animal model of arthritis and assess how drug therapy modulates several key steps leading to overt disease.
Amgen launched the biotechnology industry's first blockbuster medicines. Today, as a Fortune 500 company serving millions of patients, Amgen continues to be an entrepreneurial, science-driven enterprise dedicated to helping people fight serious illness.