On the CUSP: June 2023

Awards and Recognitions:

• Dr. Lawrence Brown was awarded the University of Pacific Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy Alumni of the Year Award. He will be recognized on September 9th at the UOP White Coat Ceremony.

Grants:

• Dr. Rennolds Ostrom and his collaborators were awarded a new R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) to study the compartmentation of second messenger signaling in airway smooth muscle. The total award is for over $2.2M across a 4-year-span.

• Dr. Miao Zhang received an award from the Chapman University Faculty Grant for Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities 2023/2024.

Presentations

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

• Dr. Mary Gutierrez presented “Pharmacogenomics: A Primer for Clinicians in Psychiatry” at the American Psychiatric Nursing Association‘s 21st Annual Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute, in Reston, Virginia.
• Dr. Keykavous Parang. presented “Cyclic Peptide-Doxorubicin Conjugates to Overcome Multi-Drug Resistance and Reduce Toxicity” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona, during a Flash Talk Oral Presentation on 6/27/2023.
• Dr. Moom Roosan and Dr. Ajay Sharma presented the “Horizontal and vertical integration approach as an innovative tool in teaching and assessment of pharmacogenomics” at the AACP PGx Virtual Business Meeting on June 22, 2023.

Posters

• Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. Keykavous Parang, Ph.D. candidate Jonathan Moreno, and Master of Science candidate Khushbu Bhakta presented “Cyclic and Linear Peptides Containing Tryptophan and Arginine Residues as Cell-Penetrating Peptides” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona on 6/28/2023.
• Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. Keykavous Parang, Dr. Khalid Zoghebi, David Salehi, MS, Ph.D. candidate Jonathan Moreno, Master of Science candidates Khushbu Bhakta and Lois Kim, and Sorour Shoushtari presented “Amphiphilic Cell-Penetrating Peptides Containing Arginine and Hydrophobic Residues as Protein Delivery Agents” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona on 6/28/2023.
• Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. Keykavous Parang, Dr. Muhammad Imran Sajid, and Mrigank Shekhar Rai, MS presented “Delivery of siRNA using Oleyl-(WRH)n Cell-Penetrating Peptides” and “Silencing of STAT3 Gene in Breast and Ovarian Cancer Cells Using Fatty Acylated Cell-penetrating Peptides” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium, “At the Peptide Frontier”, from June 24-June 29, 2023 in Scottsdale Arizona.
• Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. Keykavous Parang, Dr. Eman H. M. Mohammed, and Dr. Sandeep Lohan presented “Amphiphilic Membrane-Active Peptides: Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Activity Alone and in Combination with Antibiotics and Structural Insights” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona on 6/28/2023.
• Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. Muhammad Imran Sajid, Mrigank Shekhar Rai, MS, Ph.D. candidate Jonathan Moreno presented “Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Oleyl-WRH Peptides for siRNA Delivery,” at The 28th American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 6/28/2023.

Publications:

• Dr. Sherif Elshahawi and undergraduate student, Ashley Alexander, published “Promiscuous Enzymes for Residue-Specific Peptide and Protein Late-Stage Functionalization” in Chembiochem.

• Dr. Keykavous Parang and Dr. Naiera Hemly published “Cyclic Peptides with Antifungal Properties Derived from Bacteria, Fungi, Plants, and Synthetic Sources” in Preprints.org

• Dr. Sherry Wang and research associate Dr. Jianwai Zheng collaborated with others to produce Geospatial Analysis of Opioid Dispensing Patterns in California: A 2021 Real-World Study in Healthcare, Vol. 11. No. 12.

• Dr. Rachita Sumbria, Dr. Surya Nauli, Dr. Rakesh Tiwari, and research associate Dr. Muhammad Imran Sajid collaborated with other institutions to produce “siRNA drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer’s Disease” in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

• Dr. Sherry Wang, Dr. Jerika Lam, Dr. Mary Gutierrez, Ivan Portillo, Dr. Lawrence “LB” Brown, and research associate Dr. Jianwai Zheng worked with others to create “What quantifies good primary care in the United States? A review of algorithms and metrics using real-world data” in BMC Prim. Care.

• Dr. Miao Zhang, Dr. Keykavous Parang, Dr. Naglaan Ibrahim, and guest researcher Young Woo published “Bezprozvanny I, Cui M. SK Channel positive allosteric modulators” in US Patent App.