Four of the poster award winners at the Pharmacology 2025 research retreat.

Best Oral Presentation Awards

• Cole Martin
• McKenzie Gehris
• Anthony Hazelton

Best Poster Presentation Awards

• Sy’Keria Garrison
• Scott Bang
• Sabrina Daglish
• Mary Fergus
• Michael Sullivan
• Victor Losay
• Ashley Rice
• Kalynn Van Voorhies

Best T-shirt Design

• Runfan Yang

All winners receive a $100 check and a certificate.

Congratulations to all!

The post Congratulation to PHCO retreat award wininers! appeared first on Pharmacology.

Dr. Marissa Bivins in her White Lab Coat after PhD defense

Dr. Bivins will be joining the Skiba lab at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor as a Postdoctoral Researcher to investigate GPCR signaling in reproductive biology.

Publications

Antibiotic-resistance mutations in penicillin-binding protein 2 from the ceftriaxone-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain H041 strike a delicate balance between increasing resistance and maintaining transpeptidase activity.  Marissa M. Bivins*, Joshua Tomberg*, Madeleine Bagshaw, Avinash Singh, Sandeepchowdary Bala, Christopher Davies, Robert A. Nicholas. bioRxiv 2025.11.13.688206; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.13.688206

Metagenomics combined with activity-based proteomics point to gut bacterial enzymes that reactivate mycophenolate. Simpson JB, Sekela JJ, Graboski AL, Borlandelli VB, Bivins MM, Barker NK, Sorgen AA, Mordant AL, Johnson RL, Bhatt AP, Fodor AA, Herring LE, Overkleeft H, Lee JR, Redinbo MR. Gut Microbes. 2022 Jan-Dec;14(1):2107289. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2022.2107289. PMID: 35953888 PMC9377255

CIB1 depletion with docetaxel or TRAIL enhances triple-negative breast cancer cell death. Chung AH, Leisner TM, Dardis GJ, Bivins MM, Keller AL, Parise LV. Cancer Cell Int. 2019 Feb 4;19:26. doi: 10.1186/s12935-019-0740-2. eCollection 2019. PMID: 30740034 PMC6360800

Structure, function, and inhibition of drug reactivating human gut microbial β-glucuronidases. Biernat KA, Pellock SJ, Bhatt AP, Bivins MM, Walton WG, Tran BNT, Wei L, Snider MC, Cesmat AP, Tripathy A, Erie DA, Redinbo MR. Sci Rep. 2019 Jan 29;9(1):825. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36069-w. PMID: 30696850 PMC6351562

Structural Basis of Polyketide Synthase O-Methylation. Skiba MA*, Bivins MM*, Schultz JR, Bernard SM, Fiers WD, Dan Q, Kulkarni S, Wipf P, Gerwick WH, Sherman DH, Aldrich CC, Smith JL. ACS Chem Biol. 2018 Dec 21;13(12):3221-3228. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.8b00687. Epub 2018 Dec 3. PMID: 30489068 PMC6470024

Dr. Bivins’ bioRxiv paper (listed first) is also in submission at PLOS Pathogens. She is also third author on another paper currently in revision at ACS Biochemistry.

Honors, Awards & Highlights

Pharmacological Sciences T32 Training Program Awardee (2019)

UNC WinSPIRE Alumni Outreach Co-Chair (2020-2023)

We wish you all the best, Marissa!

The post Congratulations to our new PhD, Marissa Bivins! appeared first on Pharmacology.

Publications

Gentile, G., Guzman, B., Le Van, A., Jerse, A. E., Grad, Y. H., Dominguez, D., Mortimer, T. D., & Nicholas, R. A. (2025). The role of the L421P mutation in Penicillin-Binding Protein 1 (PBP1) in the evolution of chromosomally mediated penicillin resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.27.662027.

Helekal, D., Mortimer, T. D., Mukherjee, A., Gentile, G., Le Van, A., Nicholas, R. A., Jerse, A. E., Palace, S. G., & Grad, Y. H. (2025). Quantifying the impact of antibiotic use and genetic determinants of resistance on bacterial lineage dynamics. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.03.636319.

Dr. Gentile has a paper under review at mBio and another paper that was recently accepted at Nature Microbiology.

Honors, Awards & Highlights

Dr. Gentile was funded by the following T32 training grants while working in Rob Nicholas’ lab

Training in Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV T32

Pharmacological Science Training Program (PSTP) T32 

Congratulations, Gabi, we wish you all the best!

The post Congratulations to our new PhD, Gabriella Gentile! appeared first on Pharmacology.

The James W. Woods Junior Faculty Award recognizes and supports outstanding young members of the medical school clinical faculty. It provides a $3000 monetary award for one year that can be used at awardees’ discretion to further their research.

Dr. Coleman is an Assistant Professor in the Pharmacology Department whose research focuses on immune mechanisms in drug addiction and critical illness, neurodegeneration, and extracellular vesicle signaling.

You can read more about the James W. Woods awards for 2025-26 here.

There will be a seminar honoring awardees on Tuesday, October 21 at 10:30 – 11:30 AM in MBRB G-202 during Research Week.

The post Leon Coleman wins James. W. Woods Junior Faculty Award! appeared first on Pharmacology.

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

Diffuse midline glioma, a type of rare and often fatal brain cancer, affects 2,000 children and young adults in the United States every year. Thanks to research at the UNC School ofPhoto by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash Medicine and a collaboration with Madera Therapeutics, a new FDA-approved therapy offers hope to patients and their families.

Dordaviprone (Jazz Therapeutics) is a capsule patients take once a week. Research shows it shrinks the tumor and extends the lifespan of patients. It is the first therapy approved for this specific type of cancer and shows promise in treating other forms of cancer.

Lee Graves, PhD, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and an expert on anti-cancer therapeutics, and other researchers at the UNC School of Medicine were the first to discover how exactly dordaviprone (also known as ONC201) and related compounds from Madera Therapeutics, interacted with the body to stop cancer in its tracks.

Lee M. Graves, PhD

“These compounds are able to weaken the cancer cells by cutting off its internal power source,” said Graves, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Knowing what we know now, dordaviprone has great potential to transform therapies in cancer, including combinations with standard-of-care treatments, and offer hope for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers.”

What Is Diffuse Midline Glioma?

A diagnosis of diffuse midline glioma can be devastating.

The rare and aggressive brain tumor is driven by a specific genetic mutation, termed H3 K27M, in brain cells. The cancer forms in the central structures of the brain, including the brainstem and the spinal cord, resulting in headaches, difficulty with balance, blurred vision, and other neurological symptoms.

Surgery can help shrink the tumor, but its precarious location in the brain makes surgical intervention risky. Researchers and pharmaceutical companies have been trying to come up with a different approach—one that is more targeted and effective.

In 2018, Madera Therapeutics, based in Cary, NC, approached Graves to see how a recently discovered compound, ONC201, and other closely related small molecules performed in models of breast cancer. In the lab, Graves showed that ONC201 stopped cancer cell growth remarkably well.

But there was one problem: researchers didn’t know how.

How Dordaviprone Works in Cancer Cells

Tumor shrinkage after 50-weeks of exposure to ONC201. -Credit to Chi et al 2019-542

Graves took on the challenge. Along with Paul R. Graves, PhD at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, he discovered that ONC201 performs its anti-cancer function by binding to a specific enzyme within the mitochondria of cancer cells.

Here’s how it works:

• An enzyme within the mitochondria, known as caseinolytic protease P (ClpP) is locked in the “on” position by the compound.
• The enzyme then goes into overdrive, eating away at mitochondrial proteins that are responsible for creating energy in cancer cells.
• When the drug switches on ClpP, it throws the cancer cell’s energy system into decline.

“Simply put, these compounds are able to weaken the cancer cells by cutting off its internal power source,” Graves explained.

FDA Approves the First Therapy for Diffuse Midline Glioma

In May 2019, Graves and team described their findings in a paper in ACS Chemical Biology.

The paper provided crucial data about the compound’s anti-cancer properties. The makers of dordaviprone, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, cited the paper when seeking FDA approval of dordaviprone, which used ONC201 as its baseline compound.

On August 6th, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted dordaviprone accelerated approval for adult and pediatric patients age 1 and older with diffuse midline glioma harboring an H3 K27M mutation.

Potential Applications Beyond Brain Cancer

With this achievement in the books, researchers are now determined to see how to optimize and expand use of the drug.

Graves is particularly interested in how the therapy can be used in combination with other standard cancer therapies to boost efficacy. Researchers are also working on expanding its use to treat other cancers, such as breast cancer, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, and leukemia.

“Children are living quite a bit longer than expected with this drug,” said Graves. “It’s got us wondering, can we make it work even better? How can we improve the response for all cancer patients? These are some of the driving questions moving us forward.”

The research was made possible by an Innovation Grant from the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, which provided early support for testing novel cancer therapies.

“I feel very excited that it came from a pilot grant from Lineberger, which is exactly what those grants are supposed to do,” said Graves. “These grants are meant to stimulate discoveries and breakthroughs, and it allowed us to do this critical work and make a difference for cancer patients.”

Other notable contributors to this research include Nathaniel Moorman, PhD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Ekhson Holmuhamedov, PhD, adjunct associate professor in the UNC Department of Pharmacology, and Laura Herring, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and Director of the UNC Metabolomics and Proteomics Core.

Media contact: Kendall Daniels Rovinsky, Communications Specialist, UNC Health | UNC School of Medicine

First published on UNC Health/SOM Newsroom: https://news.unchealthcare.org/2025/09/unc-lab-contributed-to-fda-approval-of-first-of-its-kind-medication-for-pediatric-brain-tumor/

The post UNC Lab Contributed to FDA Approval of First-of-its-Kind Medication for Pediatric Brain Tumor appeared first on Pharmacology.

Publications

Tumor-Intrinsic Kinome Landscape of Pancreatic Cancer Reveals New Therapeutic Approaches. Xu Y, Peng XL, East MP, McCabe IC, Stroman GC, Jenner MR, Chan PS, Morrison AB, Shen EC, Hererra SG, Joisa CU, Rashid NU, Iuga AC, Gomez SM, Miller-Phillips L, Boeck S, Heinemann V, Haas M, Ormanns S, Johnson GL, Yeh JJ. Cancer Discov. 2025 Feb 7;15(2):346-362. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-1480. PMID: 39632628. PMC11805639

Kinome state is predictive of cell viability in pancreatic cancer tumor and cancer-associated fibroblast cell lines. Berginski ME, Jenner MR, Joisa CU, Herrera Loeza G, Golitz BT, Lipner MB, Leary JR, Rashid N, Johnson GL, Yeh JJ, Gomez SM. PeerJ. 2024 Aug 28;12:e17797. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17797. eCollection 2024.
PMID: 39221276. PMC11365483

Integrated single-dose kinome profiling data is predictive of cancer cell line sensitivity to kinase inhibitors. Joisa CU, Chen KA, Berginski ME, Golitz BT, Jenner MR, Herrera Loeza G, Yeh JJ, Gomez SM. PeerJ. 2023 Nov 16;11:e16342. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16342. eCollection 2023. PMID: 38025707. PMC10657565

High-Field NMR Spectroscopy Reveals Aromaticity-Modulated Hydrogen Bonding in Heterocycles. Kakeshpour T, Bailey JP, Jenner MR, Howell DE, Staples RJ, Holmes D, Wu JI, Jackson JE. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Aug 7;56(33):9842-9846. doi: 10.1002/anie.201705023. Epub 2017 Jul 18. PMID: 28639283

Honors, Awards and Highlights

UNC Cancer Cell Biology Training Program Trainee

Dr. Jenner plans to continue her research as a Postdoctoral researcher in the Yeh Lab at UNC.

We wish you all the best, Maddy!

The post Congratulations to our new PhD, Madison Jenner! appeared first on Pharmacology.