On the CUSP: July 2023

Awards and Recognitions:

• Dr. Kamaljit Kaur organized and chaired an ACS-AFMC symposium titled “Next-generation Peptide Therapeutics” at the 14^th AFMC International Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Seoul, Korea from June 25-28, 2023.

Presentations

Oral (e.g., Platform Presentations, Symposiums, Plenaries, Keynotes)

• Dr. Jennifer Ko collaborated with others on “Care Team Strategies for Hypertension Treatment Involving Pharmacy and Increasing Medication Adherence” at the HRSA NHCI Learning Collaborative on July 11, 2023.
• Dr. Jennifer Ko presented “Moving Upstream: Let’s Discuss New Tools for Promoting Health Equity and Structural Competency” with others at the AACP Pharmacy Education in Aurora, Colorado, on July 24, 2023.
• Dr. Kamaljit Kaur discussed “Peptide-drug conjugates with high selectivity for triple-negative breast cancer” at the 14^th AFMC International Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Seoul, Korea on June 28, 2023.
• Dr. Hindu Rao presented “Increasing the Reach of Ambulatory Care Pharmacists Through Pharmacy Extenders” at the American Pharmacists Association Webinar.

Posters

• Dr. Reza Taheri, Dr. Jerika Lam, Director of Interprofessional Education Amanda Brown, and Dr. Richard Beuttler collaborated with other institutions to create “Healthcare Communication and Teamwork: An Interprofessional Case-based Approach to Learning” which was presented at the AACP Pharmacy Education in Aurora, Colorado from July 22-25.
• Dr. Luma Munjy, Dr. Laressa Bethishou, Dr. Kathleen Hill-Besinque, Dr. Richard Beuttler, Dr. Reza Taheri, and Dr. Kimberly Won created “Results from a Longitudinal Curriculum to Develop Empathy in PharmD Students” at the AACP Pharmacy Education in Aurora, Colorado from July 23-24, 2023.

Publications:

• Dr. Aftab Ahmed, CUSP alumnus Dr. Taibah Aldakhil, David Salehi, and Dr. Saud Alshammari published “The structural characterization and bioactivity assessment of nonspecific lipid transfer protein-1 (nsLTP1) from caraway (Carum carvi) seeds” in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.

• Dr. Razan Orfali, Dr. Mohammad Asikur Rahman, Dr. Young Woo Nam, Dr. Miao Zhang, and PharmD candidate ’25 Liz Lau produced “K_Ca2 and K_Ca3.1 Channels in the Airways: A New Therapeutic Target” in  Biomedicines.

• Dr. Razan Orfali, Dr. Mohammad Asikur Rahman, Dr. Young Woo Nam, Dr. Miao Zhang, and PharmD candidates ’24 Nikita Dave, Elyn Lam, Nadeen Naguib, created “K(Ca) 2.2 (KCNN2): A physiologically and therapeutically important potassium channel” in J Neuroscience Research on July 19, 2023.

• Dr. Sun “Coco” Yang and Dr. Keykavous Parang submitted a patent application “Apurinic/apuyrimidinic endonuclease 1/redox factor-1 inhibitor for treating cancer” with other Orange County scientists.

• Dr. Kamaljit Kaur, alumna and research assistant Dr. Elmira Ziaei, and Dr. Shih-Jing Yao. “Peptide-Drug Conjugate Targeting Keratin 1 Inhibits Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Mice” in Mol. Pharm.