Rob MacLaren, PharmD, FCCM, FCCP

1
Student Research Opportunities and
Accomplishments at SOP

• Rob MacLaren, PharmD, FCCM, FCCP
• Associate Professor

2
Objectives

• Describe the various types of research conducted
  at SOP.
• Compare and contrast the research avenues
  available to students.
• Appreciate the accomplishments of students
  already involved with research.

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What is Research?

• You can observe a lot just by watching (Yogi
  Berra)
• Studious inquiry or examination investigation
  or experimentation aimed at the discovery and
  interpretation of facts, revision of accepted
  theories or laws in the light of new facts, or
  practical application of such new or revised
  theories or laws (Websters Dictionary)

www.merrian-webster.com/dictionary
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The Researcher

• We are like people looking for something they
  have in their hands all the time we're looking
  in all directions except at the thing we want,
  which is probably why we haven't found it
  (Plato, 380BC)
• Research is what I'm doing when I don't know
  what I'm doing (Wernher von Braun)

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Why Should You Care About Research?

• Since 2002, UCD SOP consistently ranks in the top
  three pharmacy schools in the country for grant
  .
• It was once mandatory for Pharm.D.
• Still is at 20 of schools.
• Show me the money!
• Exposure, experience, and educational
  opportunities.
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• First impressions (CV) matter.
• It really can be fun honest engine!

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Ask Einstein Why Should You Care About Research?

• My dear children I rejoice to see you before me
  today, happy youth of a sunny and fortunate land.
  Bear in mind that the wonderful things that you
  learn in your schools are the work of many
  generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and
  infinite labor in every country of the world. All
  this is put into your hands as your inheritance
  in order that you may receive it, honor it, and
  add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to
  your children (Albert Einstein talking to a
  group of school children in 1934)

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Why Do Faculty Care?

• Cheap (free?) labor for not-so-interesting tasks.
• Exposure, experience and educational
  opportunities outside of the classroom.
• Student successes are rewarding.
• Curricular expectations of ACPE and campus
  expectations.
• The future of academia?

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Bidirectional Research at SOP
Discovery Translation
Implementation Translation
Clinical Investigation Clinical Trials
Practice In the Community
Basic Research
DOPS
DOCP
DOPS and DOCP
Bench
Bedside
Trench
Molecules, Cells, Pharmaceutics
Patients, PK/PD
Population Outcomes
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Departmental Research

• DOPS
• Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (Anchordoquy)
• Biophysics and Molecular Structure (Bain)
• Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacogenetics (Aquilante,
  Anderson, J Kiser)
• Cancer (Ross)
• Toxicology (Vasiliou)
• DOCP
• Clinical (everyone)
• Outcomes (Valuck, Nair, Sullivan, McCollum)
• Experimental Therapeutics (Fish, OBryant,
  MacLaren, T Kiser)
• Curriculum, Assessment, and Administrative
  Sciences (Turner, Paulsen, Thompson, Hansen,
  McCollum, Jarvis, Valdez)

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Research Avenues Available to Students

• Volunteer.
• Student research associate (e.g. work study).
• Honors program.
• Research elective (P3) ? independent study.
• Research rotation (P4).

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Volunteer

• Long-term or short-term commitment.
• Usually involves task-oriented functions and may
  not span an entire project.
• May progress at your rate.
• May involve non-research functions.
• Limited expectation for completion.
• May apply toward intern hours.
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• No compensation.

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Student Research Associate

• Employee-like process.
• Commitment is usually one summer (can be during
  the school year).
• Usually involves task-oriented functions and may
  not span an entire project.
• Progress dependent on project.
• Expectation for completion is possible.
• May NOT apply toward intern hours or credit.
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• May be paid (usually 12-16 / hour) entirely by
  faculty or work-study program (25 faculty and
  75 other - loan based, grant based).

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Honors Program (MacLaren, Jones-Braun)

• Commitment is usually one year ( 325 hours).
• Unless special consideration, may not start after
  the 5th semester.
• Usually involves all functions of an
  hypothesis-driven project.
• Progression AND completion of the project are
  expected.
• Project must be approved by coordinators
  (written).
• Student must present results to coordinators and
  have a manuscript prepared before commencement.
• Must maintain GPA of 3.0.
• May NOT apply toward intern hours or credit.
• Receive honors designation.
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• No compensation.

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Research Elective (P3) ? Independent Study

• Research Elective (MacLaren)
• Commitment is usually spring semester of P3 year
  ( 135 hours or 9 hours/week) but may begin
  earlier.
• 3 credit hours.
• Usually involves MOST functions of an
  hypothesis-driven project.
• Progression AND completion of the project are
  expected.
• Project must be approved by coordinators (written
  and verbal) and OSS.
• Student must present results to coordinators
  (written and verbal) before the end of the P3
  spring semester.
• Must maintain GPA of 2.0.
• Must apply toward credit (typically pass/fail).
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• No compensation.

• Independent Study (Curriculum
• Committee)
• Commitment is usually a semester of any year
  (request to CC 4 weeks before end of the semester
  prior to study semester).
• 2 credit hours.
• May involve multiple types of study and
  scholarship.
• Progression AND completion of the project are
  expected.
• Project must be approved by CC.
• Faculty advisor must submit student / course
  assessment.
• Must apply toward credit (pass/fail or graded).
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• No compensation.

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Research Rotation (P4)

• Commitment is 6 weeks but may last longer.
• General vs. targeted rotations.
• Usually involves a mix of task-oriented functions
  and hypothesis-driven functions.
• Progress is expected but completion not likely.
• Must approve rotation with Office of Experiential
  Services.
• Must apply toward credit (pass/fail).
• Faculty connections.
• Opportunities for publication and presentation.
• No compensation.

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How to Find What Interests You?

• Go to SOP website and select appropriate faculty
  page and go to research interests
  (http//www.uchsc.edu/sop/faculty_pages/faculty_de
  pt.htm).
• Research the faculty.
• Speak with faculty.
• Speak with students already involved in research.
• OSS.

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Recent Faculty Survey
Thank you Dr. Aquilante!
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Recent Faculty Survey
Thank you Dr. Aquilante!
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Considerations Before Committing

• Time commitment.
• Financial needs.
• Academic needs.
• Expectations of faculty (and others).
• Responsibilities, timeline, etc.
• Your expectations and goals.
• Never tell people how to do things. Tell them
  what to do and they will surprise you with their
  ingenuity (Gen. George S. Patton)

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Student Accomplishments (P4s)

• Stephanie Cho (P4) and Patrina Mccauley (P4) with
  Dr. McCollum as volunteer study
• Prevalence of aspirin use among US adults,
  presented at accp annual meeting
• Liza Alarid (P4) with Dr Ellis as experiential
  rotation
• Metabolic effects in insulin-dependant diabetics
  receiving second generation antipsychotics
• Jeri Sandbach (P4) with Drs. Hemstreet and
  McCollum as volunteer study
• Laboratory test interpretation for pharmacists
• Patrina Mccauley (P4) with Dr. McCollum as
  work-study
• IV catheter study
• Tara Vlasimsky (P4) with Dr. Anderson as
  independent study
• "Double-boosted protease inhibitor antiretroviral
  regimens What is their role?" 
•   Olivia Rapacchietta (P4) with Dr. Linnebur as
  volunteer study
• Hepatotoxicity induced by a nutritional
  supplement marketed for osteoarthritis,
  presented at accp annual meeting
• Chris Wilson (P4) with Dr. Fish as honors
  project
• Evaluation of the Hartford Nomogram for dosing
  of aminoglycosides in critically ill patients,
  presented at accp annual meeting
• Jennifer Jorgensen (P4) and Diane Beavers (P4)
  with Dr. Fish as volunteer study
• Pharmacodynamic evaluation of once-daily
  aminoglycosides in critically ill patients,
  presented at accp annual meeting
• Jennifer Jorgensen (P4) with Dr. Anchordoquy as
  honors project
• Preparation of microspheres designed to release
  a-tocopherol succinate
• Sarah Carson (P4) with Dr. Fish as volunteer
  study

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Student Accomplishments (P3s)

• Ashley Garcia (P3) with Dr. OBryant as research
  elective
• "A retrospective review of a pharmacist-managed
  anemia clinic and BSA and different cancer
  types
• Alyssa Walker (P3) with Dr. Anderson as research
  associate
• "Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/RTV) pharmacokinetics
  (PK) in human immunodeficiency virus
  (HIV)-infected cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A5
  expressors versus non-expressors, to be
  presented at spring accp meeting.
• Shannon Knutsen (P3) with Dr. Aquilante as
  research associate
• Enrolled/consented patients and  performed
  laboratory genotyping assays for many clinical
  pharmacogenomic studies - presented at accp
  annual meeting (best in-training poster finalist)
• Ashley Hall (P3) with Drs. Fish and Kiser as
  honors project
• Protein binding and antibiotics and Ertapenem
  prophylaxis in colorectal surgery
• Ashley Hall (P3) with Drs. Aquilante, Linnebur
  and Ruscin as work-study
• Pharmacogenomics research and vitamin D /
  testosterone studies study
• Stacey Schomberg (P3) with Dr. Todd Carpenter as
  research associate
• The role of ephrins in lung edema due to virus
  and hypoxia

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Student Accomplishments (P2s, P1s)

• Angela Leutters (P2) with Dr. Valuck as
  work-study
• Various tasks relating to outcomes research
• Dan Crona (P2) with Drs. West, Majka,
  Roederscheimer as research associate
• The role of 5HTT deletion in the inception of
  pulmonary hypertension (PAH), The molecular
  effects of loss of BMPR2 signaling in smooth
  muscle in a transgenic mouse model of PAH,
  PPAR-gamma agonist treatment (i.e.
  rosiglitazone) and how it attenuates chronic lung
  disease, Identifying different angiogenic
  factors that exist in a lysate mixture derived
  from platelets
• Charles Foster (P2) with Dr. Aquilante as
  research associate
• Influence of the PPARg pro12Ala polymorphism on
  plasma resistin concentrations in nondiabetic
  subjects without cardiovascular disease,
  presented accp annual ACCP meeting "Interethnic
  comparison of SLCO1B1 haplotypes relevance to
  clinical pharmacokinetic-pharmacogenetic
  studies, to be presented at spring accp meeting.
  
• Kennda Zoffka-Zimmerman (P2) with Dr. Ross as
  honors project
• Hsp90 inhibition as a possible drug target for
  Parkinson's Disease
• Lisa Yacko (P2) with Dr. Anchordoquy as honors
  project
• To be determined.
• Dallas Hill (P1) with Dr. Anderson as research
  associate
• Various research assignments.

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Summary

• Tremendous amount of top quality research goes on
  at SOP.
• Faculty are very, very good at the research they
  do.
• You can get involved!!

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Thank you

• Joseph Saseen, PharmD (Chair, Curriculum
  Committee).
• Christine Aquilante, PharmD
• Cathy Jarvis, PharmD (Director, Office of Student
  Services)
• Greg Lee (Office of Experiential Services)
• Faculty and students who volunteered information.
• Rho Chi.

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Student Perceptions

• Charles Foster
• Research associate.
• Jennifer Jorgensen
• Honors project, volunteer study,
• Ashley Hall
• Work-study, honors project.

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Questions