UH Pharm.D. student Stacie Dacus was credited for likely saving a life by performing the Heimlich maneuver on a fellow conference attendee who began choking during the Texas Pharmacy Association annual meeting in July. Dacus said she learned the maneuver only months earlier, as part of the CPR & Basic Life Support training given to all UH pharmacy students. The incident capped an eventful weekend for Dacus, who - in a rare, if not historic occurrence - was elected to serve on the TPA Board of Directors during the same term as her mother, UH alumna Carrie Sacky. For more about Dacus and Sacky, click on the link at right to view the Summer issue of Interactions.

UHCOP Associate Professor Vincent H. Tam, Pharm.D., BCPS, has been awarded a $341,000 grant from Achaogen to examine the role of various genes involved in the "SOS response pathway," a type of bacterial defense mechanism by which a microbe's DNA repairs itself and mutates into resistant strains when subjected to antimicrobial agents. The research funding is a subcontract award through Achaogen, a San Franscisco-based research company specializing in resistance-prevention strategies, from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

UH College of Pharmacy alumnus Craig P. Frost, R.Ph. ('92), MBA, a staff pharmacist at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and UHCOP Associate Professor Sujit S. Sansgiry, Ph.D., have received one of two $40,000 grants awarded by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Research & Education Foundation to study mediation safety. Under the foundation's "Medication Safety Team Grant: Optimizing Beside Technology Solutions" program sponsored by Omnicell Inc., the research team will compare time devoted to medication administration in an intensive care unit with and without bedside bar code technology.

UH College of Pharmacy alumna Lourdes M. Cuellar, R.Ph. ('73), M.S. ('79), FASHP, has been appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to a three-year term on the Statewide Health Coordinating Council. The Council evaluates long-term local, regional and statewide health needs to develop workforce goals for health professionals. Cuellar is the director of pharmacy and clinical support services at Memorial Hermann/TIRR (The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) in Houston. Currently serving president of the TSHP Research & Education Foundation, Cuellar is an adjunct associate professor and the former chair of the Dean's Advisory Council at UHCOP.

UH College of Pharmacy alumnus Atwood Kenjura, R.Ph. ('68), owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Kenjura Pharmacy in Brenham, Texas, has been inducted into the Blinn College Ex-Students Association Hall of Honor. Kenjura was named one of UHCOP's "50 Outstanding Alumni" during the college's 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997. A 1965 graduate of Blinn, he has served on the institution's board of trustees for more than 23 years and is in his third term as board chairman. A past president of the Brazos Valley Pharmacy Association, Kenjura was named BVPA's Pharmacist of the Year in 1994.

UH College of Pharmacy pharmaceutics graduate student Rashim Singh has received a $30,065 renewal award from the Pharmacoinformatics Pre-doctoral Training Program of the Gulf Coast Consortia's Keck Center. Singh's research involves using pharmacophore and 3D-QSAR modeling to predict the metabolism of flavonoids (natural plant compounds found in fruit, wine, tea and chocolate that have been linked to health benefits against various cancers and other diseases). Her project aims to identify the chemical structural features of flavonoids that have a higher potential of being more bioavailable due to their lower potential of being broken down by the body's natural enzymes. Singh is working under the supervision of UHCOP Professor Ming Hu, Ph.D., and UH College of Natural Science & Mathematics Associate Professor James Briggs, Ph.D.

Cardiovascular researcher Svetlana B. Tikunova, Ph.D., has joined UH College of Pharmacy as an assistant professor of pharmacology. Tikunova previously served as a researcher at The Ohio State University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics and received an post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Tikunova's research interests include the cellular and molecular mechanisms of striated muscle contraction and relaxation, and modulating cellular function through the rational design of calcium binding proteins. Her current project, which involves studying the influence of troponin C on the rate of cardiac muscle relaxation, is being funded by a $927,000 grant from the National Institute of Health's Pathway to Independence program.

The UH Chapter of the Student Society of Health-System Pharmacy is among one of 50 chapters nationwide to receive official recognition by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Criteria for recognition includes promotion of membership in local, state and national health-system organizations; development of activities to stimulate interest in health-system pharmacy careers; and completion of one or more professional development projects.