6 students awarded USP fellowships for 2009-2010
New research focused on the quality of key medicines and their use as well as increasingly popular botanicals is being sponsored by the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention under its 2009� Fellowship Program. USP fellowships are awarded to graduate students enrolled in chemistry, pharmacy, or other health care/scientific doctoral or post-doctoral programs to support research related to quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements and food ingredients.
USP's six fellowship recipients for 2009 are:
Paul Gavaza, The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy Area of Research - Using the theory of planned behavior to predict Texas pharmacists' intention to report adverse drug events (ADEs). ADEs are unintended, undesirable and harmful events that are associated with the use of a drug. Some ADEs are the result of errors caused by medical staff, and most are preventable. In what is understood to be the first research of U.S. pharmacists' attitudes or willingness to report ADEs, this research will identify pharmacists' beliefs concerning reporting; identify critical factors that influence attitudes and willingness to report ADEs; explore the utility of the theory of planned behavior models in predicting intentions to report ADEs; and examine the relationship between demographic and practice characteristics and the theory of planned behavior model constructs.
Tanja G-decke, University of Illinois, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and PharmacognosyArea of Research - Method development for identity and quality control of an Angelica sinensis extract by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Quality control of botanical dietary supplements that contain single or mixed herbs or herbal extracts presents considerable challenges. This research will focus on developing an innovative analytical methodology for the quality control of herbal materials and extracts, applying state-of-the-art NMR. It will focus on Angelica sinensis (Dong quai), which is widely used as a dietary supplement in the United States. The newly developed NMR method would allow the simultaneous authentication, the identification of adulterants, and the quantitation of biologically active compound markers, and thus facilitate rational quality control of the plant material and extracts in a dietary supplement.
Kristyn Greco, University of Connecticut, School of Pharmacy Area of Research - Establishing best practices in dissolution testing for drug salts that undergo solvent mediated conversion: Effect of biorelevant dissolution media and its implications to bioavailability. Salt form selection is an integral part of the drug development process. For poorly soluble compounds, appropriate salt selection can result in higher dissolution rates, which are expected to lead to higher bioavailability of a drug. In a continuation of research from 2007�, this research will investigate the effect of different synthetic surface active ingredients as well as of some bile salts on the solution mediated phase transformation. This may lead to a better understanding of bioavailability.
John Limitiaco, The University of California, Riverside