Aug. 26, 2002

Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853.

KU pharmacy graduate students win 2 of 6 national grants

LAWRENCE -- Two University of Kansas graduate students in the School of Pharmacy are among six students nationwide to receive $20,000 grants for postgraduate research awarded by the U.S. Pharmacopeia in Rockville, Md.

The KU grant winners, both doctoral students in pharmaceutical chemistry, are Chad S. Braun of Battle Creek, Mich., and Fei Tian of Beijing, China.

Braun is researching new ways to deliver genes for genetic therapy for diseases. His project is titled "Biophysical Characterization of PAMAM Dendrimer/DNA Gene Delivery Complexes."

Tian is researching methods of improving the stability of protein drugs, which tend to have a short shelf life. Her project is "Calorimetric and Spectroscopic Investigation of Protein-Excipient Interactions in the Solid State Upon Freeze and Spray Drying."

Jack Fincham, KU dean of pharmacy, congratulated Braun and Tian, noting that their winning two of the six national awards "is a great indicator of the quality of the faculty in the department, the world-class research that is being conducted and the excellence of our graduate students. The school is exceedingly proud of the noteworthy accomplishment."

The fruits of each grant will contribute to USP's goal of promoting public health, said CEO Roger L. Williams. Since 1981, the program has invested more than $2.3 million in 182 fellowship awards.

The other four grant winners for the 2002-03 academic year are from the universities of Connecticut, Minnesota, which also had two winners, and Texas.

MICHIGAN
Battle Creek
Chad S. Braun is the son of Donald Braun. He received a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Tampa and a master's degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from KU. He has served as a mentor for two Native American undergraduate student summer interns in the pharmaceutical chemistry lab of Charles Russell "Russ" Middaugh, the Takeru Higuchi distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at KU.

CHINA
Beijing
Fei Tian is a resident of Beijing. She received a bachelor's degree in analytical chemistry from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and master's degrees in analytical chemistry from Kansas State University and in pharmaceutical chemistry from KU in January 2002. She was a mentor for a summer intern from Yugoslavia in summer 2001 in the chemistry lab of J. Howard Rytting, KU professor of pharmaceutical chemistry. This summer, Tian completed an internship at Pharmacia Corp. of Kalamazoo, Mich., in its labs at Skokie, Ill. She was researching techniques to inhibit moisture-absorbing properties of certain drugs to improve preparation for manufacture.