Researchers work in a lab at the UM National Center for Natural Products Research, which has signed a collaboration agreement with the National Institute of Complementary Medicine in Australia. Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

OXFORD, Miss. – The National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Institute of Complementary Medicine in Australia, making the NCNPR part of research collaborations on every inhabited continent.

The agreement will allow the two entities to work together on research and other scholarly activities. The Ole Miss center’s similar partnerships around the world range from numerous research alliances in North America and Asia to collaborations in Brazil and South Africa.

The NICM, which is housed within Western Sydney University, focuses on researching natural products to create new drugs, as the NCNPR does. The centers’ joint endeavors may include co-authoring publications, sharing samples for study and jointly presenting research findings.

“We are pleased to work with another institute that cares about the safety and quality of natural products,” said Ikhlas Khan, NCNPR director. “We’re hoping this global collaboration will produce more research on new products that will be at the forefront of new medicines.”

This agreement will make sharing scientific resources and ideas for solving global health issues faster and easier. Both centers will benefit from each other’s expertise as part of the cooperation; Khan cited the NICM’s focus on clinical research and the NCNPR’s expertise in chemistry and biology as complementary disciplines.

The agreement supports the Australian government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda and Global Innovation Strategy, which advance international science and research collaboration, said Alan Bensoussan, director of the NICM.

“This is an exciting opportunity for sharing our capabilities and supporting each other’s research with interlab validations, development of intellectual property and clinical testing of products,” Bensoussan said. “We look forward to future exchanges.”

Since 2000, more than 200 visiting scientists from around the world have come to the NCNPR as part of these research exchanges.

“These partnerships the NCNPR fosters not only help to spread the benefits of research, but they promote international goodwill and collaboration,” said David D. Allen, dean of the UM School of Pharmacy.

Participants discuss issues important to them in treating and managing diabetes during the recent conference in Oxford. Photo by David Allen III

OXFORD, Miss. – Capping off nearly a year of discussions with people who have diabetes and diabetes stakeholders across the state, researchers from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy invited them all to a meeting in Oxford to generate diabetes research questions as part of a research initiative.

Researchers involved in the project, called “PaRTICIpate in Diabetes Self-Management Research Collaborative: A Conference Series,” invited people with diabetes to a series of meetings throughout northern Mississippi to ask how they manage their symptoms and to help them manage their condition. All participants were invited to the culminating meeting in late June.

“The synergy of having people from all these different communities talking to one another meant that they came up with totally new and novel ideas for diabetes care,” said Meagen Rosenthal, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Administration and co-lead investigator for the project.

The patients’ discussions also underscored ways in which different communities approach diabetes prevention and management. When a participant discovered that some health resources in her community were not available in another, she and others began brainstorming ways to share the resources.

At the end of the meeting, the researchers and graduate students assisting them had more than enough data and suggestions to begin narrowing down their list of research questions.

“Now that we have these questions, the next step is to figure out how we will keep the patients engaged,” said Erin Holmes, associate professor of pharmacy administration and co-lead investigator. “We want their input on what is important to them and how we can potentially work together to move these solutions forward.”

Once the questions are finalized, the researchers will present their information to clinicians and stakeholders in several Mississippi communities in hopes of partnering to leverage the research into something greater. They also will ask patients to weigh in on which questions they are most eager to see answered.

“We want the patients to be involved, start to finish, as much as they want to be,” Rosenthal said.

As part of the researchers’ objective to ensure patients benefited from the experience, a dietician and a pharmacist attended the meeting to offer advice about how to manage diabetes symptoms, as well as to dispel myths about the disease.

“We wanted to make sure that we were not just taking from communities, but that we were giving back,” Rosenthal said. “What patients said they needed was more knowledge and more health resources.”

The feedback was tremendous, and patients are eager to remain engaged with the project, Holmes said.

“I think they feel like they learned a lot and they contributed a lot,” she said. “They played the most important role in this, and my impression is that they felt like they made a difference.”

This project was funded through a Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award, No. 3335, from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

The UM School of Pharmacy is partnering with Jackson State University to offer qualified JSU students admission to the pharmacy school. Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

OXFORD, Miss. ­­­– In an effort to provide more opportunities for aspiring pharmacists, the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy and Jackson State University have collaborated to create the Preferred Admission Program, which offers qualified JSU students admission to the UM pharmacy school.

“We saw a need to allow students around the state to complete their pre-pharmacy requirements closer to home, and in some cases, at a lower cost,” said David Gregory, associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Pharmacy. “Additionally, we are both hoping to enhance the number of students in our applicant pool.”

As per the agreement, JSU students who perform well in pre-pharmacy coursework and are involved in service activities may be admitted to the School of Pharmacy after the first semester of their freshman year. The program is set to begin this fall, with the first JSU applicants coming to the Ole Miss campus in 2019 to begin work on their Pharm.D.

Pre-health professions students from Jackson State University visit the UM School of Pharmacy earlier this year for a tour of campus and to work on a compounding activity. Photo by Chelsea Bennett

“We are elated that our bright and dedicated students have an opportunity to engage in such a prestigious program,” said Richard A. Aló, dean of the JSU College of Science, Engineering and Technology. “We look forward to witnessing the impact this partnership will have on their lives and the field of public health.”

Students admitted via the Preferred Admission Program will be on the School of Pharmacy’s standard graduation track and will be held to the pharmacy school’s academic and service expectations. The school will maintain its class size of 115 students in each of its four Pharm.D. years.

Kandis Backus

The partnership is “aligned with the university’s priorities of excellence, as well as with our mission,” UM Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter said.

“This expanded access to professional pharmacy education is an important step toward promoting STEM education and impacting the lives, health and well-being of Mississippians.”

Kandis Backus attended JSU as an undergrad and received her Pharm.D. at UM in 2017. During one of Gregory’s visits to JSU, she came along to share her experience at Ole Miss with JSU pre-pharmacy students.

“The tireless pursuit of students’ dreams is common to both schools,” Backus said. “Ole Miss wants students to succeed, and they work to help students graduate.”

This partnership comes in the midst of a statewide pharmacist shortage, which contributes to a stable job market for those graduating with Doctor of Pharmacy degrees. Mississippi has the third-highest shortage of pharmacists in the nation, according to the most recent data from the Pharmacist Demand Indicator.

“We are committed to doing all we can to make sure bright and compassionate students have the opportunity to contribute to the health care landscape,” said David D. Allen, dean of the School of Pharmacy. “This partnership is a step toward ensuring the future of our essential profession.”

Charles Cantrell, a research chemist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, examines a burning dried male flower from a breadfruit tree, which people in some parts of the world burn to repel mosquitoes and other biting insects. Photo courtesy USDA-ARS photographer Peggy Greb

OXFORD, Miss. – An ongoing partnership between the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research is looking to nature to develop environmentally safe chemicals to manage pests.

The collaboration includes roughly a dozen research projects dedicated to creating natural agrochemicals, such as insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. Charles Cantrell, a research chemist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, works with the NCNPR, a unit of the UM School of Pharmacy, to identify these natural sources that may prove useful as insect repellents.

“There is really a consumer demand for more natural insect repellents that are safer and better for the environment,” Cantrell said.

This partnership began around 2005 when Charles Bryson, an ARS botanist from Stoneville, came to the NCNPR with an idea. He told of how his grandfather would put clippings of American beautyberry, a plant native to Mississippi, in the harnesses of his stock animals while they were in his fields.

The plant repelled horseflies from the animals and repelled mosquitoes from the farmer when he rubbed its crushed leaves onto his skin.

The investigation into this particular remedy led to the discovery of a chemical called callicarpenal that was proven to repel bugs, but was ultimately too expensive for mass production. Since then, the natural products center has actively tested folk and traditional botanical remedies for repelling insects in hopes of finding chemicals that can be made into natural repellents.

“No natural repellent currently on the market is as effective as the two best synthetic repellents, DEET and picaridin,” said Stephen Duke, ARS research leader of the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit. “Finding a highly effective, all-natural insect repellent is important to many members of the public.”

One potential source of natural insect repellent is the breadfruit tree, which is native to Hawaii. The breadfruit flower repels nearby mosquitoes when dried and burned. Scientists from the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii approached the NCNPR to find out why and how this works.

To begin this study, Cantrell’s team first proved that burning the breadfruit repelled mosquitoes, and then identified the specific fatty acids in the smoke that caused this effect. The lab is working with commercial partners interested in developing these fatty acids into all-natural insect repellents.

Before the product becomes commercially available, Cantrell’s lab or the commercial partner must register the product with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Amber Reichley, a physical science technician in Charles Cantrell’s USDA Natural Products Utilization Research Unit laboratory at the National Center for Natural Products Research, prepares saffron extract for studies aimed at finding natural insect repellents. UM photo by Sydney Slotkin DuPriest

“One of the advantages of the chemicals in the breadfruit is that they can be marketed as natural products,” Cantrell said. “We do create synthetic versions of chemicals sometimes, just to improve their activity, but a lot of companies are looking for all-natural insect repellents.”

Once Cantrell’s lab identifies a potential natural repellent, he sends it to Abbas Ali, a research scientist in the natural products center, who tests the compound to see if it’s effective.

“Our goal is to find a natural alternative to DEET,” Ali said. “We are looking for something that will be safer for children.”

The university recently filed a patent application for a new natural insect repellent and is seeking a development and commercialization partner.

Another insect repellent study in progress at NCNPR uses sweetgrass, a plant native to the northern U.S. and southern Canada. Because the grass has a sweet scent, it is particularly well-suited for a commercial product.

“Local native people would braid the grass and wear it around their neck or store it in their clothing,” Cantrell said. “It gives off just enough of the chemical to repel mosquitoes, and you don’t even have to burn it.”

Not all research projects come from knowledge of traditional practices. Sometimes scientists will gather plants from around the world and conduct random screenings to test them for beneficial chemicals.

Besides finding properties for agrochemicals, these tests can also lead to the discovery of new drugs.

“The Agricultural Research Service has been a great partner of ours,” said Ikhlas Khan, NCNPR director. “One of the benefits of having USDA, NCNPR and the university faculty all in the School of Pharmacy is that discoveries from our combined resources and expertise can benefit multiple areas.”