April 2024

Welcome to the next edition of the Buffalo Pharmacy Bulletin (BPB) where we will continue to explore and discuss issues in health care and how we as academicians, practitioners and scientists can lead and support these issues. The BPB will also keep you updated on the latest school news, highlighting the outstanding work of our UB SPPS community.

“The best way to ensure we can support and mentor our future pharmacists and research scientists is to make sure we are reviewing and discussing what is currently happening in the dynamic and ever-changing world we live in.”

I am composing my April bulletin comments with mixed emotions. March ended with the sad news that Michael Schwartz, former SPPS dean and a dear friend to many at UB, passed away. Dean Schwartz was a trailblazing leader at UB: he led us through the turbulent times of the late 1960s through the 1970s, strategically positioned us as a leader in clinical pharmacokinetics, and led the development of innovative educational approaches. I first met Mike when I was a graduate student here and he was dean of pharmacy at the University of Florida. He took me under his wing simply because of our shared connection to UB. Throughout his life he gave much to academic pharmacy and to the people who were fortunate enough to know him. Many will miss him. You can read more about his accomplishments HERE along with a link to a recording of his memorial service HERE. 

We began the month of April with the release of the 2024 U.S. News and World Report Pharmacy School rankings. I am pleased to announce that UB has maintained their Top 20 status, placing us among the elite U.S. schools. I am grateful for all the efforts of our faculty, staff, and students to get us to this point. The innovative research and educational initiatives we have launched over the past year will elevate our presence on the national and international stage, bringing further recognition to our extraordinary school.

For as long as I have had coherent thoughts about graduate education, I have viewed graduate students as the fuel that feeds the academic research engine. It is that perspective, together with statements from colleagues such as “We need more!,” that served as the basis for developing strategies to expand our Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD program. Through new university investments and strategic budgeting approaches, we have more than doubled our first-year PhD recruiting target and are on our way to having the size of our PhD program mirror its outstanding quality, allowing us to power a growing research engine (the fuel thing) and increase our impact.

Given the aggressive and successful faculty hiring initiatives launched over the last two years, which supported implementation of a Drug Discovery, Development, and Evaluation (DDDE) Hub for UB, the “we need more!” is critically acute. In addition to expanding the size of the pharmaceutical sciences PhD program, we are exploring other strategies to enhance our PhD programming. These include developing a PhD program to support the rapidly growing research portfolio in the Division of Clinical and Translational Therapeutics and establishing an interdisciplinary PhD program in drug discovery (DDDE Hub Phase II). This interdisciplinary program is envisioned to provide an additional campus-wide level of coordination for drug discovery-related activity and to also draw colleagues in other disciplines towards SPPS.

Our efforts in graduate education strongly align with UB’s Top 25 Ambition, positioning the university to be among the leading top 25 research universities in the country. I encourage you to read more about the university’s Top 25 efforts along with the PhD Excellence Initiative. 

Sprowl receives $750,000 NSF CAREER Award
Jason Sprowl, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is the recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the foundation’s most prestigious honor for early-career faculty. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program recognizes rising faculty who are academic role models in research and education and who lead advances in the mission of their institution. The award provides funding to build a strong foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. Sprowl's five-year CAREER award will support his work to identify a novel post-translational event that regulates variability in sodium-glucose-linked transporter (SGLT) activity and glucose absorption.

Balthasar startup Abceutics Inc. acquired by Merck
Abceutics, Inc., a startup preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company at UB, has been acquired by the global biopharmaceutical company Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada. Abceutics was launched in 2020 by Joseph Balthasar, PhD, David and Jane Chu Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and Development in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Center for Protein Therapeutics at SPPS. Cofounders included Brandon Bordeau and Toan Duc Nguyen, former PhD students in Balthasar's lab. The acquisition will help develop safer antibody-drug conjugates and minimize their off-target effects on healthy cells due to Abceutics’ payload-binding selectivity enhancer (PBSE) technology, which is meant to boost the safety of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). 

Refugee education sessions improve pharmacy education and public health
SPPS faculty, students and alumni recently led two education sessions in Buffalo to help educate newly arrived refugees on medical health literacy in the U.S. The small group teaching sessions assisted displaced refugees with medication management education through culturally sensitive materials and taught essential aspects of medication use including how to navigate the U.S. pharmacy and health care system, understand medication side effects and interpret medication labels and dosing.

On May 17, members of our SPPS community will gather for our Spring Celebration: Graduation and Awards Luncheon. This event honors all 2024 PharmD and Pharmaceutical Sciences graduates and recognizes our outstanding faculty, staff, students and preceptors who, over the past year, have contributed significantly to our school's mission, the profession of pharmacy and the pursuit of academic achievements.

We are excited to welcome SPPS reunion classes ending with 4 or 9 back to campus October 17-19 to celebrate reunions and our SPPS alumni award winners. Special recognition will be given to those from the Classes of 1959, 1974, 1999 and 2014 celebrating a 65th, 50th, 25th or 10th reunion. 

Featuring our new UB Compounding Pharmacy Continuing Education Activity, which meets the new three hour NYS pharmacy CE requirement.

View our upcoming SPPS events!

View upcoming events on the UB Events Calendar!

Join UB alumni experts from across the globe as they share professional insights and advice during Webinar Wednesdays. Engage in upcoming webinars along with past sessions.

Show your #UBTrueBlue spirit by sharing UB Pride photos, videos and stories!

Thank you for reading our April 2024 edition of the Buffalo Pharmacy Bulletin. Please stay in touch! Send us updates on your own personal and professional accomplishments by filling out our alumni update form. 

Regards,
Gary Pollack, PhD '84
Dean and Professor