Mumper to Recieve AAPs Drug Delivery Systems Award

Monday, October 09, 2006 - Russ Mumper, Ph.D., associate professor and vice chair of the University of Kentucky Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UK College of Pharmacy, will be awarded the 2006 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Lipids-Based Drug Delivery Systems Award sponsored by Gattefosse during the upcoming AAPS meeting in San Antonio Oct. 29-Nov. 2. The award recognizes outstanding research, pertaining to lipids and their role in drug delivery.

Dr. Mumper will present his research and awarded a plaque and $5,000 at the Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery (PDD) Section Membership Meeting on Oct. 30. He also will be recognized on stage at the Opening Session on Oct. 29.

Dr. Mumper's research involves using nanotechnology to engineer small nanometer-sized particles to create improved drug therapies and vaccines. These particles are 100 nanometers in size and are made from safe lipids - the types of materials that comprise cells in the human body. His ongoing research investigates methods to engineer particles containing anticancer drugs and vaccines, how these particles interact with blood and other tissues, and methods to target these particles to specific cells in the body.

Examples of Dr. Mumpers' research include a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project using nanometer-sized particles containing the chemotherapeutic drug paclitaxel to target breast cancer cells that have become resistant to the drug. Another NIH-funded project uses these particles to target non-infectious proteins from the HIV virus to potent immune cells in the body to potentially develop a safe vaccine to prevent AIDS. Dr. Mumper also is researching how tissues and cells in the body ultimately digest, metabolize, and safely degrade the particles.

Since 1999, Dr. Mumper has received over $5.6 million in research grants and contracts as principal investigator and more than $7.5 million in collaborations. At UK, he has led the Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology's (CPST) efforts to complete full product development efforts leading to the successful submission of seven different investigational new drugs and commencement of human clinical trials with six different industrial clients. He has published more than 160 scientific publications and abstracts and has 25 patents or patents pending in the area of advanced drug delivery systems.

Dr. Mumper serves on the editorial board of three pharmaceutical journals and is an ad-hoc member of several different scientific review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He received his Ph.D. in pharmaceutics/drug delivery and a B.A. in chemistry from UK. In addition, Dr. Mumper is co-founder of NanoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Four Tigers LLC.

Source: University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy News