School of Pharmacy

The VCU Department of Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy has a long history of groundbreaking research that has been led by a series of distinguished scientists and department chairs, including Richard Glennon, Lemont Kier, Donald Abraham and Umesh Desai. Together, they and many other talented faculty members created a drug discovery ecosystem that […]

School of Pharmacy’s 2023 Graduate Awards The School of Pharmacy’s annual Graduate Awards presentation took place at a celebratory luncheon at the Omni Hotel in downtown Richmond before a packed room of honorees, faculty, donors and alums. A keynote speech by alum Kamlesh Thakker traced his path from India to the School of Pharmacy and onward to tremendous success […]

Ph.D. candidates Sara Abudahab and Akua Donkor excel in research and explanations. By Leah SmallFor VCU School of Pharmacy Sara Abudahab and Akua Donkor, Ph.D. candidates in the VCU School of Pharmacy, are researching topics that outsiders might find intimidatingly complicated — epigenetics and healthy aging and the mechanisms behind tumor formation in plants, respectively.  Nonetheless, […]

SoP researchers are changing the shape of the fight against COVID, cancer and more. Although they’ve been effective at preventing the virus, the VCU School of Pharmacy’s Guizhi “Julian” Zhu, Ph.D., notes that mRNA molecules used in those vaccines still have room for improvement: Their linear shape makes them more susceptible to being broken down […]

A position as a congressional fellow through a program from VCU School of Pharmacy, ACCP and ASHP led to a leadership role in researching and writing a congressional report on the intersection of health care and climate change. With the U.S. health care system responsible for an estimated 10% of national greenhouse gas emissions, the […]

By Lewis Brissman If you think of cancer as a grizzly bear, an attack isn’t the only danger you face. An equal worry is the hibernation. Dr. Umesh Desai is – metaphorically, of course – targeting the beast in both states In the VCU School of Pharmacy, Desai is chairman of the Department of Medicinal […]

The biomarkers could help predict which children are most at risk of trauma-related health issues as an adult, long-term study finds. By Olivia Trani New research from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Pharmacy brings the medical community closer to identifying children with the highest need for treatment and intervention following traumatic events. The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, found […]

The 2022 Graduate Awards luncheon recognized success among the SoP’s graduate students. In his keynote speech, Dean Joseph DiPiro, Pharm.D., told the audience of students, faculty and staff, “We are in the right field. There is a lot of need and a lot of opportunity in pharmacy.”   A highlight was the presentation of the first […]

By Greg WeatherfordVCU SoP News The opioid epidemic that has devastated families and lives across the U.S. in the past decade has brought along with it another deadly problem: HIV. The two conditions have long been intertwined. As the use and misuse of opioids has increased and spread, rates of HIV have as well. To make […]

May Abdelaziz, a VCU Alumni 10 Under 10 honoree, excels as a researcher, mother and teacher. By Leah SmallFor VCU SoP News A single word half-heard during a phone call with a colleague led May Abdelaziz, Ph.D., on a search for insights on the causes of bacterial resistance in superbugs.  It’s the sort of connection […]