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2008 News Archive

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URI pharmacy, nursing students join Brown medical students to improve care of asthma patients

Media Contact: Dave Lavallee, 401-874-5862

KINGSTON, R.I.— December 3, 2008 –- If you hadn’t noticed the white lab coats and the identification badges, you might have thought you were at a giant game show.

Hosts were equipped with microphones, and they spun a large wheel to determine which group would answer questions from a variety of case studies. When brave participants volunteered to respond on the spot for their groups, there were smiles and laughter among the crowd.

The good humor and collaborative tone of the exercise at Brown University’s Andrews Hall made it that much easier for University of Rhode Island pharmacy and nursing students and students of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University to test their ability to respond in a matter of minutes to issues related to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is frequently caused by smoking and other environmental triggers. The primary goal of the required exercise was to foster inter-professional collaboration.

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URI student unlocking secrets of Jamun berry to treat cancer

Media Contact: Dave Lavallee, 401-874-5862

KINGSTON, R.I.--December 1, 2008 -- A University of Rhode Island undergraduate majoring in chemistry hopes to unveil the secrets of the garden in her search for natural treatments for such killers as breast cancer.

Caroline Killian worked this summer in a laboratory mashing up berries and doing extensive tests to find the degree of anti-cancer activity that the Eugenia jambolana berry produced. Also known as the Jamun, the berry is a vibrant purple color, native to India, and found in the United States in Hawaii, Florida and Texas. It is traditionally used as a pre-insulin treatment for diabetes but Killian dared to question what kind of healing power it has against cancer?

Her work as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow continues with URI Pharmacy Professor Navindra Seeram. Killian and Seeram have been examining the anti-cancer properties of the Jamun berry.

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Pharmacy professor is berry, berry excited about medicinal plant research at URI

Media Contact: Dave Lavallee, 401-874-5862

Playing role in returning College of Pharmacy to prominence as plant natural products research center

KINGSTON, R.I. – September 25, 2008 – He’s been here less than a year, but Navindra Seeram is already putting the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy back in the spotlight for its research on plants, including the health benefits of medicinal foods such as fruits and vegetables.

The assistant professor of pharmacy has been recently selected the editor of the Clinical Pharmacognosy Series, a new CRC Press (Taylor and Francis) book series that will delve into uses and benefits of natural products in clinical pharmacy practice. “There is much need for a book series targeting the clinical study of natural products, and I started working with the publishers on this project about four years ago”.

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Dr. Navindra Seeram featured on Health Check 10
Part 1 - November 18
Part 2 - November 19

 

 

 

 

Johnston Resident Honored by URI College of Pharmacy

Media Contact: Dave Lavallee, 401-874-5862

KINGSTON, R.I – June 10, 2008 – The University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy has honored alumnus Robert Tortolani with the Introductory Pharmacy Practice “Preceptor of the Year” award.

Preceptors oversee pharmacy students’ clinical experiences and serve as mentors. The students nominate candidates for the awards.

Tortolani graduated from URI with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1979 and has maintained a close relationship with the University since then. He began his work as a preceptor in 1983 and has continued to mentor students for 25 years.

“I love to teach new pharmacists,” the Johnston resident said. “It’s so rewarding. I always tell them, ‘If you learn your pharmacy skills in school, I will teach you the business in the business world.’”

Tortolani was the owner of Golini Drug in Cranston for 17 years and currently works at Walgreen’s in Johnston, where he trains both Walgreen’s interns and URI students.

“You have to be a people person to work retail and the preceptor program offers students critical exposure, which gives them an idea of which avenue of pharmacy they want to follow,” Tortolani said.

A URI student who worked with Tortolani admired the dedicated mentor’s patience and service skills and said, “I hope one day to be as knowledgeable and as loyal to patients as he was during my internship.”

Tortolani is also an active member of the field, having once served as president of the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association and presently serving as president of the Rhode Island Pharmacy Foundation. Yet he commented that receiving this award is one of the “highlights of my career.”


Pictured above

LOCAL PHARMACIST RECOGNIZED: Honoree Robert Tortolani, center, stands alongside Brett Feret, left, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice and Ronald P. Jordan, dean of the College of Pharmacy, after being presented with the “Preceptor of the Year” award. URI Department of Communications and Marketing photo by Dave Lavallee.
 

 

URI’s College of Pharmacy bolsters natural products chemistry work

Discovering drugs from natural sources part of College’s 50-year history

KINGSTON, R.I. – February 25, 2008 – After it opened its doors in 1957, the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy quickly became known for its medicinal plant research.

Fifty years later, the College is strengthening its work in pharmacognosy, a branch of pharmacy dealing with medicinal substances from natural sources, especially plants.

To that end, it has added two new faculty members, one of whom will conduct research on higher plants, including berry fruits, and a second whose research interest is genomics, including interpretation of DNA sequences of microbes to identify or modify compounds that are useful medicinally.

“We now have a complementary, three-pronged approach to natural products research—medicinal plants, marine microbes and genetics,” said Pharmacy Professor David Rowley, whose research focuses on marine microbes.

“Our renewed focus on natural products and our leadership in that area is a return to the roots of the College,” said Ron Jordan, the interim dean of the college.

URI’s natural products research began in an era when natural healing treatments and interest in the healing power of fruits and vegetables were almost unheard of in the world of health care. It started with the arrival of Heber Youngken Jr., the College’s first dean in 1957. In 1966, he joined with John Knauss, the first dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, to make a “drugs from the sea program” a key part of the new Sea Grant program. The pharmacy college hired Yuzuru Shimizu, one of the first professors hired under the Sea Grant program. By the time of his retirement this year, Shimizu had established himself and the University as international leaders in marine natural products research.

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URI pharmacy professor hunting killer diseases with novel research

South Kingstown resident doing nationally recognized HIV, cancer studies

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 23, 2008 – A University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor is developing compounds that could play a major role in the fight against certain cancers, discovering novel compounds to fight the virus that causes AIDS and finalizing development of a cream that could be used by women during intercourse to prevent Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission.

Keykavous Parang, an associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy, has been awarded more than $1.2 million during the last year for his promising cell- and chemistry-based research on two of the world’s major killers---cancer and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

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New study makes strong case for link between childhood lead exposure, Alzheimer’s disease

URI Pharmacy professor discovers enhanced Alzheimer’s plaques in monkey tissue

KINGSTON, R.I. –  January 9, 2008 – A University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor has found for the first time evidence of Alzheimer’s-like disease in monkeys that were exposed to lead as infants.

Nasser Zawia, a URI professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Pharmacy led the three-year study, which involved four institutions. The findings were published in January’s issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

“This is the first evidence of promotion of Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology in a primate by an environmental agent,” Zawia said. “It is relevant because monkeys have identical genes to humans.”

In a study begun in 1980, a group of monkeys was given infant formula with low levels of lead for 400 days. A control group was given formula with no lead. No health problems were found in any of the monkeys during the 23-year study. The low level of lead given to one group of monkeys was designed to mimic what children would be exposed to in their environment. By the time of Zawia’s study, there were no detectable levels of lead in the monkey tissue from the group exposed to the toxin.

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