UH College of Pharmacy Executive Vice Dean for Research and Professor Mustafa F. Lokhandwala, Ph.D. (’75), has been appointed Interim Dean while the university administration conducts a national search for a permanent successor to departing Dean and Professor Sunny E. Ohia, Ph.D.  Ohia resigned from UH effective Sept. 12 to accept the position Vice President of Academic Affairs & Provost at Texas Southern University.  A National Institutes of Health-funded researcher, Lokhandwala currently heads the Office of Research and the Heart & Kidney Institute and served as college dean from 1991 to 2002.

UH College of Pharmacy 2005 Distinguished Alumnus W. Benjamin “Ben” Fry, R.Ph. (’72), FIACP, FACA,  recently established the W. Benjamin Fry Rio Grande Valley Scholarship Endowment. President of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Fry is owner of Fry’s Prescription Pharmacy in San Benito, Texas, and Small Fry’s, a pediatric pharmacy in Harlingen, Texas. A member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Fry was among the “50 Outstanding Alumni” recognized during the college’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997 as well as the recipient of the 2008 Dean’s Special Recognition Award. He is a charter member of the college’s Mading Society and a life member of the Houston Alumni Organization. The scholarship was set up to assist UH Pharm.D. students from the Texas Rio Grande Valley.

The Texas Pharmacy Foundation has established the Texas Pharmacy Foundation Scholarship Endowment with a gift of $12,500 to UH College of Pharmacy. Committed to advancing the profession in cooperation with the Texas Pharmacy Association and pharmacy professionals throughout the state, TPF works on special projects, such as acquiring funding for studies and pilot projects that benefit the profession and the quality of health care. TPF also recognizes Texas pharmacists in leadership positions, presents awards at the state level and fosters TPA relations within the health-care and pharmaceutical industries.

Russell E. Lewis, Pharm.D., BCPS, associate professor, has received a $76,845 grant from Astellas Pharma and a $47,382 grant from Enzon Pharmaceuticals for his antifungal research. Lewis is exploring how antifungal therapy affects the pathobiology, kinetics and clearance of breakthrough infections caused by the opportunistic mold Rhizopus oryzae, an aggressive and frequently antifungal resistant pathogen associated with high morbidity and mortality rates in immunocompromised patients.

Maria Victoria Tejada-Simon, Ph.D., M.Ed. (’07), assistant professor, has been awarded a two-year, $66,770 grant from the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation to study the therapeutic potential of Rac GTPase inhibitors in cognitive disorders. Tejada-Simon is investigating how abnormal neuronal connectivity – associated with impaired learning capabilities – is generated by focusing on the role and relationship of actin cytoskeleton remodeling and local protein translation in the formation of neuronal connections. The results of her research could provide the groundwork for developing novel therapies for a range of mental retardation disorders, including Down Syndrome.  Established in 1996, the Paris-based Fondation Jérôme Lejeune funds research on such genetic intelligence diseases as Down Syndrome, "Cri du chat" syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome.

Bradley McConnell, Ph.D., has joined the College as an assistant professor of pharmacology. McConnell previously worked at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) School of Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. After earning his doctorate degree in Physiology and Biophysics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, McConnell completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston. With a primary research interest in signaling pathways in cardiovascular disease, McConnell has received research support from the American Heart Association (AHA; BGIA), the State of Maryland, and the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (R01).