Get to Know our Students and Faculty
Students
Caroline Strasinger. I am a forth year student doing transdermal work in Dr. Audra Stinchcomb's lab. I graduated in 2004 from the University of Kentucky with a bachelors in chemical engineering. I completed an internship at Pfizer after my first year of graduate school which really solidified my desire to work in the pharmaceutical field. I am currently working to create a variable rate patch, essentially one that can be turned on and off by a patient or computer chip, to be used for more effective smoking cessation, cancer pain management, and opioid withdrawal symptom treatment. I enjoy living in Lexington and feel the University of Kentucky has, and continues to offer great diversity in education, research, culture, and entertainment. Once I complete my education I plan to enter into regulation with the FDA.
Yolanda Williams. I am a 4th year graduate student under the direction of Dr. Linda Dwoskin. I am originally from Durham, NC. I received a B.S. in Chemistry from Spelman College in 1995. After working as an analytical chemist and a forensic chemist, I decided to attend Pharmacy School in 1999 and graduated from Hampton University, School of Pharmacy, in 2003 with a PharmD. I entered the Clinical Pharmaceutical Science department and joined Dr. Dwoskin’s lab in 2003. My research involves investigating the effect of a compound called, lobeline, on dopamine transporter function and vesicular monoamine transporter-2 function (VMAT-2) in rats to determine if lobeline is a possible pharmacological agent for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We believe that there is a need for improved treatment options for ADHD due to the adverse effects of the current medications used to treat ADHD. This research will provide more insight and impact the development of these agents in the future. My career goal is to conduct clinical trials on investigational drugs and to become an adjunct pharmacy professor.
Stan Banks. I am currently a fourth year student in the pharmaceutics and drug delivery area of graduate studies, under the supervision of Dr. Audra Stinchcomb. My hometown of Owenton, KY is only one hour north of Lexington. I graduated in 1999 with a BA in biology from Grinnell College in Iowa and in 2001 with a BS in Chemistry from Kentucky State University. Upon completion of my chemistry degree I began as a quality control analyst in the Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology (CPST). After working in the CPST for 2 ½ years, I entered the graduate school. My work has been focused on the treatment of alcohol and opiate addiction via transdermal drug delivery, and is titled, “Optimization of Microneedles Systems for Transdermal Delivery of Naltrexone and 6-?-Naltrexol Salts.” Naltrexone, an opiate receptor antagonist, is prescribed as an oral tablet to decrease the craving associated with alcoholism as well as to maintain opioid addicts in a drug free state. The drug’s effectiveness is limited by its extensive degradation in the initial first pass through the liver, therefore an alternative approach is to deliver naltrexone directly into the circulatory system by the transdermal route. Microneedles, unlike conventional passive transdermal delivery, provide a mechanical pathway by removing the barrier (stratum corneum) to transdermal delivery. The microfabricated microneedle is a device that has been shown to greatly enhance drug permeation across the stratum corneum and deliver therapeutic doses of some drugs. Thus, with the aid of the microneedle and the water soluble form of naltrexone, we hope to effectively increase permeation of naltrexone through the skin and into the systemic circulation. After graduation I plan on working in industry.
Justin Balko, Pharm.D.. I am a 3rd year graduate student in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics. I work in the lab of Dr. Penni Black with a focus in pharmacogenomics of lung cancer. My research project attempts to identify biological markers and assays that determine patients who will respond to particular therapies before they are administered treatment. Using predictive genomic analyses, we hope to stratify lung cancer patients a priori to receive treatments they are most likely to receive benefit from, and reduce unnecessary health care costs. I graduated from SUNY Buffalo in New York in 2004 with my Doctor of Pharmacy degree, and also work as a clinical staff pharmacist in the Markey Cancer Center chemotherapy infusion clinic. My goals include teaching and conducting translational and clinical science in a University setting.
Julie Oestreich, Pharm.D..I graduated from the Ohio Northern University College of Pharmacy in 2004, and I am currently a 3rd year graduate student in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics. My research advisor is Dr. Scott Akers , and my PhD project utilizes healthy volunteers to evaluate potential pharmacogenetic mechanisms of variability in antiplatelet response. We hope to determine if polymorphisms in certain platelet receptors contribute to increased receptor expression and enhanced platelet activation and aggregation. I plan to pursue an academic position teaching pharmacy students and conducting clinical research.
Darshini Trivedi. I'm a fifth year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Loftin. Even though I am a 'Tar Heel' by birth, I graduated with a B.S. in Microbiology from India. I joined the Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate program at the University of Kentucky in 2002. The primary focus of my research has been to study the physiological and pathological functions of enzymes known as the cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2). These enzymes are targets of widely used medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen and celecoxib. By utilizing gene-targeted mouse models, we have shown that COX-2 is important in a cardiovascular remodeling process that is essential in infants, and that the deficiency of COX-2 in premature infants may result in a serious congenital heart defect. We are also interested in studying the role of COX-2 in adult cardiovascular disease. Using an animal model of aortic aneurysms, we have shown that targeting COX-2, either genetically or pharmacologically, can result in reduced incidence of the disease. After I graduate, I plan pursue post-doctoral research on the COX enzymes, their products and their receptors, using other models of cardiovascular disease.
Miranda Beam. I'm a 4th year graduate student working in the lab of Dr. Jurgen Rohr. I graduated with a B.A. in Chemistry from Berea College in 2003. My work is focused on the Baeyer-Villiger type oxygenase MtmOIV that has been isolated from the biosynthetic gene cluster of the anticancer agent Mithramycin. I have studied the kinetics of the enzyme and am presently determining the X-ray crystal structure of the protein as well as performing site directed mutagenesis of important residues. By learning more about the detailed mechanics of the enzyme we hope to alter the substrate specificity to produce new Mithramycin analogues with higher efficacy. After graduation I plan to work in the pharmaceutical industry continuing research in natural products chemistry.
Clare Aubrey-Medendorp. I am a 3rd year graduate student of Tonglei Li, Ph.D. I graduated with a biomedical engineering degree from the University of Tennessee and began research in Dr. Li's lab in the summer of 2003. My research is focused on the importance of understanding and controlling crystal growth. The majority of drugs are in the solid dosage forms such as tablets and crystals. However, a challenge in development of drugs is the ability for the active pharmaceutical ingredient to form various polymorphs (crystals with different internal packing) and crystal habits (shape). We believe that understanding the surface energy at the solid-liquid interface will help to understand the formation of polymorphs and change in habit. Our primary methods of investigation include contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. Once I complete my education at UK, I hope to work in the pharmaceutical industry.
Mikolaj Milewski. I am a second year graduate student working in Dr. Stinchcomb’s lab. My hometown Ostrow Wielkopolski is situated about 5000 miles east-north of Lexington, KY. That is the reason for which I usually don’t drive home on weekends. I graduated with a master’s degree in pharmacy from a Pharmacy School in Poznan, Poland. After the completion of a six month internship in a community pharmacy I started working as an analyst in the GSK Quality Control dept. The work in a pharmaceutical company enabled me to get some hands-on experience and motivated me to seek a doctoral degree. Presently, the main subject of my research is the investigation of QSPR of microneedle enhanced transdermal delivery of drugs. The microneedle systems proved to be very effective in augmenting the drug permeation rates across skin and represent a promising tool, especially for the delivery of large molecule drugs like peptides and proteins. I enjoy living in Lexington and am happy to be surrounded by very friendly and helpful people. I haven’t quite become an equestrianism fan yet but I feel there’s no escape form it in the future. After graduation I plan to work in the pharmaceutical industry.
Shaoxin Feng. I am currently a third year graduate student in the pharmaceutics and drug delivery area, under the supervision of Dr. Paul Bummer. I graduated with a physics Ph.D. degree from Nankai University in China in 2001. The experience of working for Dr. Tonglei Li in physical pharmacy area was very valuable and inspiring, and it led to my decision of pursuing a second Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences. Starting in the winter of 2005, my research in Dr. Bummer’s lab has been focused on studying solubilization mechanism of poorly water-soluble drug candidates by micelle assemblies. Understanding how micelles and mixed micelles enhance solubility, knowing where the drug is located in these assemblies and to what extent the solubilization can be predicted by physicochemical characteristics will greatly aid scientists in designing dosage forms that maximize bioavailability. To develop the full potential of these dosage forms, a robust two-location thermodynamic model of the location of drug in micelles and in mixed micelles of phospholipids and bile salts has been developed. Our preliminary results suggest that the interface of the micelle may be the primary loci of solubilization for hydrophobic drugs and that these drugs compete with surfactant for the surface. After graduation I plan to work in the pharmaceutical industry continuing research in physical pharmacy.
Faculty
Linda P. Dwoskin, Ph.D. is the U.S. Surgical-Pfizer Endowed Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. She also is director and principal investigator of a national cooperative drug discovery group which collaborates with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discover novel treatments for tobacco dependence. Dr. Dwoskin joined the faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor. She received her B.S. in 1974 in psychology from Syracuse University, and her Ph.D. in 1983 from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota. She was a postdoctoral fellow in endocrinology at the Oregon Health Science Center and in pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Science Center. She has graduated four Ph.D. students and trained 13 postdoctoral fellows in her laboratory.
Dr. Dwoskin's major research focus is drug discovery in neuropharmacology, such as the development of novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of psychostimulant abuse, specifically for nicotine and methamphetamine abuse. She also is founder and vice president of pharmacology for Yaupon Therapeutics Inc., a drug discovery company. Creating New Treatments for Nicotine and Methamphetamine Abuse
Kimberly Nixon, Ph.D., assistant professor, has been with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences for just over 1 year. Her research focuses on the role of neural stem cells in alcoholic neurodegeneration in both adult and adolescent models of alcohol use disorders (alcoholism). The goal of the lab is to discover novel pathways involved in the regulation of neural stem cells and whether those pathways can be manipulated to prevent cell loss or promote recovery. Dr. Nixon's lab utilizes animal models of alcohol use disorders, specializing in a model of binge drinking combined with neuroanatomical, biochemical, and behavioral methods. Dr. Nixon, a yankee by birth and Texan by choice, considers the rural Ft. Worth community of Keller, Texas, as her hometown. She received her bachelor's and doctoral degrees in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience) from the University of Texas at Austin where she was co-supervised by Steven W. Leslie, Dean of the College of Pharmacy. Dr. Nixon completed postdoctoral fellowship and research associate positions at The Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC before joining the faculty in 2005.
Gregory Graf, Ph.D., assistant professor, joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2004. His research focus is the relationships between obesity and changes in lipid metabolism that link obesity to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and gall stone formation. Dr. Graf's lab utilizes animal models of obesity and dyslipidemia as well as fat cell (adipocyte) and liver cell (hepatocyte) culture systems to examine the role these transporters play in determining whether cholesterol and key fatty acids are stored, catabolized or excreted. Dr. Graf, a native of Vernon, Texas, received a bachelor's degree in from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, in 1994 and his doctoral degree in physiology at UK in 2000. He joined the faculty in the College of Pharmacy after completing post-doctoral training in Molecular Genetics at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.