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Facility Construction Update

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Facility Construction Update

Check out some recent photos from the construction at Insight Park.

ChromaDex Licenses Additional Technology for pTeroPure® from the University of Mississippi

IRVINE, Calif. and OXFORD, Miss.
June 9th, 2011
ChromaDex Corp. (OTCBB: CDXC) and the University of Mississippi today announced the university has granted the natural products company the exclusive worldwide patent rights to a potential new therapeutic use for pterostilbene (tero-STILL-bean) as an anxiolytic or anti-anxiety agent. ChromaDex’ pTeroPure® is an ultra-pure formulation of pterostilbene, a compound found in blueberries and demonstrated to have multiple health benefits.

Continue reading the ChromaDex Press Release.

Facility Construction Continues

Check out some recent photos from the construction at Insight Park.

Pharmaceutics Professor Receives Pharmacy School’s ‘New Investigator’ Award

By Barbara Lago

photo by Kevin Bain

OXFORD, Miss. – Since joining the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in 2006, S. Narasimha Murthy has received three National Institutes of Health research grants and directed six graduate students and two post-doctoral research fellows. Under the assistant professor of pharmaceutics’ tutelage, those students and fellows have published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals, secured a few research grants on their own and received several professional honors.

Murthy’s NIH-funded research focuses on developing an electrically mediated technique to deliver iron through the skin of anemic patients. He already has invented several novel technologies to treat skin and nail diseases, including one that uses electric current to drive antifungal drugs into the plate of fingernails and toenails to treat onychomycosis. His research group also has developed a noninvasive technique to sample drugs from the skin, enabling researchers and others to determine how much of the medications reach the skin after they’re administered.

Recognizing these and other accomplishments this fall, the school presented Murthy with its inaugural New Investigator Research Award, which includes an engraved plaque and a $1,500 check. Michael Repka, Murthy’s department chair, nominated him for the award.

“Dr. Murthy has established himself as a notable researcher in the area of noninvasive drug-delivery systems by developing several innovative concepts and technologies in this field,” Repka said. “In conjunction with his prolific publishing record, he will emerge as an established researcher and enhance the national and international recognition of the department, school and university.”

Murthy, who plans to pursue his research and other endeavors with renewed vigor, said, “It is very motivating to receive this award. My special thanks to Dr. Repka, Dean (Barbara) Wells and the school’s administration.”

It is unusual for a new faculty member to have accomplished so much in so little time, said Charles Hufford, the pharmacy school’s associate dean for research.

“Although he has been on our faculty for only four years, his drug-delivery research is already well-funded by the NIH, and he has proven he is committed to the professional development of students and young investigators,” Hufford said. “He is a well-deserving first recipient of our New Investigator Research Award.”

In addition to 50 journal articles, Murthy authored seven chapters on drug-delivery systems in the “Advances in Industrial Pharmacy” textbook. He also edited two textbooks released this fall and helped edit another to be released next year. As a series editor for Taylor and Francis Publishers, he will help bring out a number of textbooks on the theme “Drug Delivery Systems: Design by Disease.”

Murthy is on the editorial board of Recent Patents on Drug Delivery and Formulation, Clinical Medicine-Determatology, Open Dermatology Journal, Chronicles of Young Scientists and Scientia Pharmaceutica. He also reviews manuscripts for 23 journals, including the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutical Research and Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

The American Pharmacists Association recognized him as one of the Top 20 reviewers in 2008 and 2009, and MIT’s Indian Business Club, a student body addressing South Asia’s business needs, presented Murthy with a Global Indus Technovators Award in 2009. The award, which focuses on “emerging technologies bound to have a far-reaching impact on the world,” recognizes “distinguished young innovators working at the confluence of technology, research and entrepreneurship.”

For more information visit the School of Pharmacy website.

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UM Breaks Ground on New Facility
to Encourage Innovative Ideas, Economic Growth

OXFORD, Miss. – Before turning ideas into innovations, the University of Mississippi Insight Park first must turn the ground. UM officials conducted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday (June 9) for the university's Insight Park.

Construction on the first Insight Park building, which will be north of Highway 6 behind the Gillom Sports Center, is scheduled to be complete next summer. The state-of-the-art facility, which aims to help businesses benefit from the intellectual environment of the university, includes a 12,000-square-foot built-out incubator.

“The university's Insight Park is a place where the best thinkers in business and the university will come together, work side-by-side and share ideas and innovative thoughts on how to create unique technologies, valuable services and new jobs in Mississippi,” said Robert Spain, executive director for the new UM Research Park.

The university has been committed to the development of a world-class research park for more than a decade, and the investment in the state's economic future could not come at a more critical time, Spain said. Together with the UM Innovation Center, the research park will help turn ideas into innovations.

To better connect ideas and people who have the entrepreneurial drive and resources to make things happen, the research park will capitalize on four clusters of existing research expertise at UM: health care, information management, defense/security and remote sensing technologies.

“The purpose of Insight Park is to ensure research outcomes are put into action – transforming what we know and how we do things”, said Alice Clark, Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs.