Concordia Pharmacy Students & Faculty Collaborate On Research
In its short, five-year existence, Concordia University Wisconsin’s School of Pharmacy (SOP) has become a robust, research facility. Besides producing new information on which future treatments are based, research has become an important community asset. Students have become an integral part of the innovative research being conducted by professors in the school located along the shore of Lake Michigan in Mequon. The Honorable Governor Scott Walker delivered the commencement address this past May to the first SOP graduating class of 67 students, along with other graduate degree students.
“Development of the research program and the information produced in the school has brought national attention to Concordia as well as the faculty,” noted Dean Arneson, Dean of the SOP. “It has also opened doors for collaboration with regional academic and business entities, broadening opportunities for both students and faculty,” Arneson said. Xiaoang (Kevin) Xing, a second year student, has been working in the zebrafish laboratory of Dr. Michael Pickart for nearly 15 months, some of the most complex research performed in the SOP. “The goal is the production of an animal model for human cancer,” admitted Dr. Pickart, while noting current research involves attempting to grow cervical cancer cells in zebrafish. “If this works, we’ll have a very convenient living model on which to test promising drugs early in the drug discovery process.”
Concordia’s zebrafish facility interacts with several researchers since that particular fish serves as a common model for myriad experiments. Fish have many advantages – fish eggs can be more easily manipulated – and their relatively low cost means more of them can be tested with a new treatment or drug. This hands-on approach appealed to Xing. “I’ve done a little bit of everything in the laboratory,” Xing said, “including tissue culture techniques with the cancer cell lines, microinjection of zebrafish eggs, and the transformation of mammalian cell lines. At heart, I’m just someone who likes to solve problems. The world of pharmacy is changing so rapidly that I want to be fully prepared for whatever opportunities open up,” added Xing.
Andrew Rosicky is nearing the end of his classroom work and the beginning of his clinical studies, so he is keen on finishing his research with Dr. Chris Cunningham that involves brain receptors which are responsible for interacting with chemical signals and affect how we feel pain, stress or anxiety. Dr. Cunningham is on a search for better compounds to interact with these receptors so that pain can be studied with greater precision. “That’s what really drew me to the laboratory,” Rosicky noted. “I love the science, the ability to make a new compound utilizing organic chemistry, then purifying it and analyzing it with nuclear magnetic resonance. As an undergraduate I never did any research. Once I came here and found that I could help in the lab I jumped at the chance. It’s such a different experience.”
Sydney Bishop, another second year student, is working with Dr. Frank Dailey on a project that studies novel species of bacteria in the intestines of fish. While this might seem to be an odd choice at first blush, the potential benefits can be easily appreciated. “All the fish we work with are rich in beneficial, omega-3 fatty acids,” Dailey noted. “We are attempting to identify the role bacteria play in enriching fish with these nutrients.” The study is attempting to provide the right bacteria and then the right genes that will improve nutrition, according to Dailey.
For Bishop, this project means learning and applying many different laboratory techniques, ranging from DNA sequencing to the identification of products using gas chromatography. For the latter she is fortunate to work with Dr. Joe McGraw, skilled in the area of mass spectrometry, which identifies the structure of unique chemical compounds. In the end, a healthier fish obtained from Wisconsin fish farms would be the ideal application for this work.
Erin Prust and Dr. Cunningham are concentrating on cell receptors and agonists. “My research revolves around developing the tools to study pain, stress and anxiety,” said Dr. Cunningham, while noting that effects of environmental toxicants on neuronal development using the zebrafish animal model is a key component of that research. This particular study is being funded by grants from the Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, the American Association of Colleges and Pharmacy, and the Mick A. Naulin Foundation. “Students in my laboratory are studying computer-aided drug design, organic synthesis, and the extraction and isolation of bioactive natural products,” Dr. Cunningham noted.
Influence stretches outside the U.S. border
Research by the University’s professors has stretched northward into Canada, due to the work of Dr. John Dellinger who serves as the American co-chair of a United States-Canadian task force that is studying human health concerns associated with water quality regulations. Dellinger, who was appointed by U.S. State Department officials, has served on the Health Professionals Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission since 2001. “I have two years remaining on the IJC and while we seem to have an abundance of fresh water in some parts of the United States, it is absolutely paramount to protect water when you look at the world as a whole.”
The International Joint Commission is but one of two key panels on which Dellinger serves. He is also one of 15 North American senior environmental health scientists who is reviewing and recommending pollutants that are to be included on a list of “chemicals of mutual concern” in the US and Canada. “My work has primarily revolved around the benefits as well as risks of eating fish,” noted the former director of the Illinois Poison Center. “Mercury, pesticides, and PCBs and everything else that shows up in a fish filet is of concern,” Dellinger continued.
Dellinger, who started in 2010 before the School of Pharmacy even opened, further pointed to the direct connection between pharmacy and water stewardship. “The biggest impact for a pharmacy student is making sure that prescription drugs are properly disposed of so they don’t end up in our fresh water.” CUW has nearly 400 students currently enrolled in its Pharmacy Program and daily interaction with people stresses the importance of clean water for future generations.
For more information on the School of Pharmacy, one of six schools at Concordia University Wisconsin, we welcome you to visit our website at www.cuw.edu/pharmacy or call toll free at 1-888-628-9472
