Class of 2013!

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Graduation Rehearsal

ETSU received notification of full accreditation for its PGY2 programs in internal medicine and ambulatory care from the ASHP Commission on Credentialing, which conducted a site visit in October 2012. Members of the commission reviewed all components of the ETSU programs to confirm they meet accreditation standards that will ensure quality training of pharmacy residents.

The Gatton College of Pharmacy began its residency programs in 2011 to further elevate the level of training for pharmacists who have already graduated from pharmacy school and have completed the first year of postgraduate training at other institutions. Among residency programs that are ASHP accredited or seeking accreditation in Tennessee, ETSU offers one of only two ambulatory care PGY2 programs and one of only three PGY2 internal medicine programs.

PGY2 residency programs are often used as a training ground for pharmacists who are interested in careers in academia, and three of the first four ETSU residents have either begun careers at schools or colleges of pharmacy or soon will.

Drs. Jessica Freshour and Michelle Vaughn were the first residents at the College of Pharmacy, and Freshour is now a faculty member in the ETSU Department of Pharmacy Practice. Vaughn accepted a position with the U.S. Indian Health Service in Juneau, Alaska.

The 2013 graduates, Drs. Phillip Lee and McKenzie Calhoun, have accepted academic positions. Lee will join the faculty at Auburn University, and Calhoun – a member of the 2011 graduating class at the Gatton College of Pharmacy – has accepted an appointment to the ETSU Department of Pharmacy Practice.

The award was announced at the recent annual meeting of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP). When ETSU students in attendance heard their Generation Rx chapter was ranked second in the nation, it created a minor shockwave.

“When I heard our college’s name, I started shaking; my whole body was shaking so badly that I couldn’t text Dr. Melton to tell her,” said third-year student pharmacist Chris Lopez, referring to Dr. Sarah Melton, an ETSU associate professor of Pharmacy Practice and the group’s faculty advisor.

The awards application cycle ran the 2012 calendar year, but it wasn’t until May that ETSU formed a chapter of this national organization that targets prescription drug abuse through public education. The Generation Rx Initiative was founded at The Ohio State University and is supported by the Cardinal Health Foundation.

Despite the late start, ETSU students made the most of their time. They delivered over 25 public presentations on prescription drug abuse, reaching more than 2,000 people. Drawing on student input from all five colleges in the ETSU Academic Health Sciences Center, the team developed a “provider’s tool kit” which includes information and resources that health care professionals can use to become educated on prescription drug abuse and prevention. The Gatton College of Pharmacy also became the first school in the nation to develop a “Girl Scouts Rx Awareness Badge” workshop that drew dozens of Scouts to the college to learn about prescription drug abuse.

Jacob Peters, a second-year student pharmacist and chairman of ETSU Generation Rx, was among the students at the APhA-ASP meeting.

“It was encouraging that we were able to do so much in such a short time,” Peters said. “We’ve had tremendous support from the faculty and staff, from all the students and Dean (Larry) Calhoun.”

Peters said the chapter, which has approximately 40 student members, is one that can be especially beneficial in a region that has high rates of prescription drug abuse.

“I grew up in Elizabethton. My whole life has been in this area,” Peters said. “I’ve seen the toll that prescription drug abuse can take on families and communities. At some of our public presentations, people would come up afterward and say that the presentation had convinced them to make changes in their lives, or it gave them something to take back and talk to friends and family about.”

For Lopez, Generation Rx is another step in a personal mission that began when he enrolled in pharmacy school. When Lopez was 15 his mother passed away, a victim of prescription drug addiction. “My mother passing away,” Lopez said, “is the reason I wanted to become a pharmacist.”

While at a national conference in late 2011, Lopez and two other ETSU pharmacy students, Loren Kirk and Les Louden, learned about the Generation Rx Initiative. They returned to Johnson City intent on bringing the initiative home. The students sought the help of Melton, who is a recognized authority on prescription drug abuse, and she became the chapter’s faculty advisor before she even officially joined the ETSU faculty.

Lopez, in particular, was moved to make Generation Rx meaningful. He decided to begin sharing the story of his mother at public presentations. She had died on Dec. 2, 2004, when he was a high school sophomore. “I had never told anybody outside my family what truly happened with my mom, until Generation Rx,” said Lopez, a native of Morristown. “More or less, I was so embarrassed by it.” But after becoming more educated about drug abuse, Lopez reached a keener understanding.

“I didn’t know addiction was a disease; I thought it was just a weakness,” Lopez said. “I made it a goal that I wanted to do something to help other families. It’s really through the grace of God and the intervention by all kinds of friends and everyone at our college that we had the opportunity to make such a difference with this organization.”

Melton, Peters and Lopez recently delivered a presentation on ETSU Generation Rx at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando, Fla.

Contact: Brad Lifford
April 11, 2013

Dr Zachary Walls in his Lab

At East Tennessee State University’s Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, Dr. Zachary Walls is busy building a Trojan horse, too. But Walls, an assistant professor in the ETSU Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, doesn’t plan to hijack e-mail accounts or steal personal information on the internet. One might say he isn’t trying to win a war, either – except that this Trojan horse is a tool in the fight against cancer.

Drugs that are used in chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients often face hurdles on the human cellular level that diminish their effectiveness – getting those drugs past the cellular membrane and into the cell is the challenge. To deliver those drugs into the cell, they are packaged within in a synthetic, molecular vessel called a liposome, which will pass through cellular walls. But it’s not always an efficient delivery system, Walls said, as the process can lead to degradation of the drugs and contribute to treatments that are not target-specific.

In his ETSU lab, Walls is turning to a notorious bacterium for help: Listeria monocytogenes.

“We’re using Listeria as a sort of Trojan horse,” Walls said.

That bacterium is most often associated with the food-borne illness listeriosis. A protein component of Listeria, called Listeriolysin O, contributes to its virulence but also enables the breaching of human cells without damaging the cellular membrane. Walls and his research collaborators have isolated a mutated form of Listeriolysin O that blunts its negative properties while drawing upon its positive transport qualities. Walls’ novel approach resulted in a grant proposal, “Listeriolysin O-Liposomes, for the Treatment of Drug Resistant Cancer,” that was recognized by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) with a 2012-13 New Investigator Award. Walls was one of only 17 researchers who received the New Investigator grant this year.

“Most bacteria reproduce outside of cells,” Walls said, “but Listeria is different; it likes to reproduce inside cells, and it has a mechanism to escape the endosomal membrane. It contains a protein that will poke holes in the endosome to allow all the drugs inside the liposome to be released inside the cell.”

Before he joined the ETSU faculty in 2011, Walls trained as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, where he began working with Listeria monocytogenes as a transport model. He received his doctorate in molecular and medical pharmacology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Walls is hopeful this approach could lead to treatments that are more effective and could be more specific in targeting diseased cells. He expressed gratitude to the AACP for funding support, as well as his colleagues at the university, the ETSU Research Development Committee and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Administration.

Light it up Blue for the whole month of April.

Join us at the East Tennessee State University Gatton College of Pharmacy and the Generation Rx committee for a day of fun and education about prescription medication safety. Girl Scouts will learn about how to be safe with medications and avoid prescription drug abuse as well as have a chance to enjoy a fun experiment and cap the day off with a tasty treat from a real soda jerk! Girls will be able to earn a badge for their work for the day and make a swap bracelet too.

Pizza lunch and ice cream soda will be served

Min/Max: 30/100 people

Grade Levels: Daisies-Cadettes and Adults

Registration Deadline: Saturday, January 12, 2013

Questions: Please contact Generation Rx at pharmacyetsu@gmail.com

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED click here

As the Region 3 representative in the American Pharmacists Association House of Delegates, Kirk will be pivotal in deciding what APhA-ASP policy proposals are discussed and passed on the national level. There are only eight regions in APhA-ASP, and Region 3 encompasses most schools of pharmacy in the Southeast.

A native of Cary, N.C., Kirk is a second-year student at the Gatton College of Pharmacy. APhA-ASP members elected him as a regional delegate at the group’s recent regional meeting in Raleigh, N.C.

“I am honored to have been elected by my fellow student pharmacists and to have the opportunity to represent not only APhA-ASP Region 3, but also ETSU’s Gatton College of Pharmacy as our region’s delegate,” Kirk said. “I am committed to the responsible advancement of our profession and am humbled by the trust placed in me.”

Kirk has been a leader in the APhA-ASP chapter at ETSU. He co-authored the chapter’s proposed resolution that would encourage schools of pharmacy to create and offer career development opportunities specific to personal finance, as many students face significant debt from student loans after graduation. Kirk also initiated the development of an “Absentee Voter Action Guide” that instructed students from every state on how to register to vote, obtain an absentee ballot and explore general information about U.S. elections.

Kirk said he plans to emphasize the importance of effective collaborative communication skills among members, to provide advocacy education materials to APhA-ASP Region 3 schools of pharmacy and to better prepare individuals to advocate for and strengthen the profession of pharmacy in the eyes of the public and health care industry.

Dr. Larry D. Calhoun, dean of the college, lauded Kirk for his leadership.

“Loren represents a group of our students who are passionate about being politically active,” Calhoun said. “They realize that health care professionals cannot sit on the sidelines and expect real, meaningful change to occur. I am proud of Loren’s leadership in this regard.”