College Newsletter

$1.7M awarded by Health Canada for USask pilot project

Funded by Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program, USask pharmacy researchers Drs. Derek Jorgenson and Katelyn Halpape will lead a team to implement and test a new pharmacist-led interprofessional model for chronic pain management.

• Read more.

CSHP Awards

Congratulations to Dr. Holly Mansell, Nicola Rosaasen (BSP '92) and their team on receiving an award at the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists PPC Awards Ceremony.

• Read more.

Indigenous Achievement Week

Congratulations to nutrition student Chelsea Lussier on receiving the Leadership Award for the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the Indigenous Student Achievement Awards on Thursday, February 6.

• Read more.

On Bell Let’s Talk Day, our students released a video to share their mental health stories as well as provide advice from their experiences. Watch the video.

 

On Tuesdays, March 3, Jennifer Fabe (BScNutr '97, MSc '01) from McMaster Children's Hospital spoke to the NUTR 420 students on two topics: “Therapeutic ketogenic diet for treating medically refractory epilepsy” and “Should the ketogenic diet be used for weight loss and lifestyle?”

In addition to her own practice as a Clinical Dietitian, Jennifer is a leader in the Ketogenic Diet field through training and mentoring, publishing, ketogenic software development, and speaking at scientific conferences and educational events for the families of children with epilepsy.   

Dr. Jaris Swidrovich presented a webinar on Thursday, January 23 about how to have productive intercultural conversations with your patients that honour Indigenous approaches to health and wellness for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. 

Dr. Kishor Wasan’s research on the development of an oral amphotericin B therapy to treat Leishmaniasis was highlighted by the Canadian Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases as part of World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day on Thursday, January 30.

In the media

Eat Well Saskatchewan's Carrie Lambden and Brooke Bulloch (BScNutr '09) spoke to CTV Saskatoon on Monday, January 6 about the keto diet. Watch the video.

In the Friday, January 13 On Campus News, Dr. Jaris Swidrovich discussed how he has been working to share his findings and recommendations with colleagues and to implement new Indigenization initiatives in the classroom. Read more.

medSask drug info consultant Kelly Kizlyk was on Global Saskatoon Morning News to talk about strokes on Tuesday, February 11. Watch the video. 

Dr. Kate Dadachova and her team’s work on fungus and radiation was featured by multiple news organizations in February. Read more on Fox News and The New York Post.

Dr. Kishor Wasan wrote an article on pharmacy research for better patient care for the Toronto Star’s Empowering Canadian Pharmacy campaign. Read more.

Stephen Kripps (Cert. Pharmacy '46) was profiled by the Vancouver Courier News on Friday, January 10 as he approaches his 100th birthday after a long career as a pharmacist. Read more.

Brooke Bulloch (BScNutr '09) was on Global Saskatoon Morning News on Tuesday, January 28 to talk about the five key aromatics to use in cooking. Watch the video.

Kierra FineDay (BSP '18) was part of a webinar on Indigenous Peoples of Canada's Mental Health on Wednesday, January 29.

Trainee Success

Program Update

Congratulations to Dr. Lina Al-Sakran, who earned her PhD in Pharmacy (supervisor: Dr. Charity Evans) in January. She was featured as a Trainee Spotlight in February. Read more.

We welcome postdoctoral fellows Dr. Khrisha Alphonsus, who is working with Dr. Jessica Lieffers, and Dr. Parth Chandrakant Patel, who is working with Dr. Ellen Wasan.

College Awards

The following graduate students recently received awards from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition:

Alf Pepper Research Award
Mary Fraser, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Charity Evans)

Betty Corrine Riddell and W. Murray Riddell Postgraduate Pharmacy Award
Mary Fraser, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Charity Evans)

Dr. Ed Knaus Graduate Scholarship in Pharmaceutical Research
Amir Khajavinia, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Azita Haddadi)

Elizabeth Helen McLeod Scholarship (shared)
Lina Al-Kharabsheh, Nutrition MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Hassan Vatanparast)
Sarah Crawford, Nutrition MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Carol Henry)

FJ Fear Scholarship
Jaline Broqueza, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisors: Drs. Kate Dadachova and Maruti Uppalapati)

Ford Postrgraduate Scholarship
Sarah Fatani, Pharmacy PhD (Supervisors: Drs. Anas El-Aneed and Marcel D’Eon)

Gordon McKay Graduate Student Travel Award in Analytical Chemistry
Stephanie Vuong, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisors: Dr. Jane Alcorn and Andrew Lyon)

Mary Isabel Irwin Scholarship
Mojtaba Shafiee, Nutrition PhD (Supervisor: Dr. Hassan Vatanparast)

Ramsey Postgraduate Fellowship
Kelly Kizlyk, Pharmacy MSc (Supervisor: Dr. Kerry Mansell)

Trainee Presentations and Awards

PhD student Jennifer Chami (supervisors: Drs. Jane Alcorn and S. Fowler) will present her poster Cannabidiol in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Assessment of Current use in Saskatchewan and Phase 1 Dose Escalation Study at the 2020 CoMRAD Symposium in Saskatoon on March 16, 2020.

Congratulations to postdoctoral fellow Dr. Khrisha Alphonsus, who was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Matching Funding Award.

Research Funding

Robert Laprairie was awarded a CIHR Project Grant for Development of Novel Type 1 Cannabinoid Receptor Positive Allosteric Modulators for Infantile Spasms.

Charity Evans is a co-applicant on a successful CIHR Project Grant for Understanding and Optimizing Opioid Use in Long Term Care (Co-PIs Maxwell and Bronskill, UofWaterloo).

Hassan Vatanparast and Sylvia Abonyi (Community Health and Epidemiology) with co-applicant Sarah Oosman (Rehabilitation Science) were awarded a SHRF Collaborative Innovation Development Grant for Promoting wellness through oral and nutritional health of older Métis adults in a northern Saskatchewan Métis community.

Hassan Vatanparast, Carol Henry and colleagues were awarded a Queen Elizabeth Scholars grant from Universities Canada for Strengthening capacity to tackle non-communicable disease in the Caribbean.

Jim Fang and colleagues received approval for the CLS project Biopolymer and Nutrition Compositional Probing of Saskatoon Berries and Seeds.

Recent Publications

• Blackburn, D. F., Evans, C., Mansell, H., Taylor, J., Jorgenson, D., Mansell, K., Shevchuk, Y., Aladwan, S., Zhao, G., & Wright, M. (2019). Impact of the SIMPL-SYNC Refill Synchronization Program on medication adherence: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.
• Lamb, D. A., Bungard, T. J., Lowerison, J., Semchuk, W. M., Thomson, P., Brocklebank, C., & Bolt, J. (2020). Jurisdictional Guidance on DOAC Use—Will It Affect Practice? A Comparison of European, American, and Canadian Product Monographs. In Annals of Pharmacotherapy (Vol. 54, Issue 3, pp. 277–282). SAGE Publications Inc.
• Hossain, M., Das, U., & Dimmock, J. R. (2019). Recent advances in α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds as mitochondrial toxins. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 183, 111687.
• Buxton, K., Lix, L. M., Champagne, A., Evans, C., Shevchuk, Y., Teare, G., Mansell, K., & Blackburn, D. F. (2019). Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose in and Hypoglycemia-Related Hospitalization in a Population-Based Cohort of Canadian Patients With Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes. Canadian Journal of Diabetes.
• Jiang, Z., Albanese, J., Kesterson, J., Warrick, J., Karabakhtsian, R., Dadachova, E., & Phaëton, R. (2019). Monoclonal Antibodies Against Human Papillomavirus E6 and E7 Oncoproteins Inhibit Tumor Growth in Experimental Cervical Cancer. Translational Oncology, 12(10), 1289–1295.
• Cohen, J., Wei, Z., Phang, J., Laprairie, R. B., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Cannabinoids as an Emerging Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use Disorders. In Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology (Vol. 37, Issue 1, pp. 28–34). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
• Jiao, R., Allen, K. J. H., Malo, M. E., Helal, M., Jiang, Z., Smart, K., Buhl, S. V., Rickles, D., Bryan, R. A., & Dadachova, E. (2019). Evaluation of novel highly specific antibodies to cancer testis antigen Centrin-1 for radioimmunoimaging and radioimmunotherapy of pancreatic cancer. Cancer Medicine, 8(11), 5289–5300.
• Kovalchuk, I., Pellino, M., Rigault, P., van Velzen, R., Ebersbach, J., R. Ashnest, J., Mau, M., Schranz, M. E., Alcorn, J., Laprairie, R. B., McKay, J. K., Burbridge, C., Schneider, D., Vergara, D., Kane, N. C., & Sharbel, T. F. (2020). The Genomics of Cannabis and Its Close Relatives. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 71(1), annurev-arplant-081519-040203.
• Helal, M., Allen, K. J. H., van Dijk, B., Nosanchuk, J. D., Snead, E., & Dadachova, E. (2020). Radioimmunotherapy of Blastomycosis in a Mouse Model With a (1→3)-β-Glucans Targeting Antibody. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, 147.
• Jin, W., Purves, R., Krol, E., Badea, I., & El-Aneed, A. (2020). Mass Spectrometric Detection and Characterization of Metabolites of Gemini Surfactants Used as Gene Delivery Vectors. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 31(2), 366–378.
• Lieffers, J. R. L., Finch, S. L., Banow, R., & Loy, K. (2019). A Course-Based First-Year Research Experience for Undergraduate Nutrition Students. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
• Malo, M. E., Frank, C., & Dadachova, E. (2019). Radioadapted Wangiella dermatitidis senses radiation in its environment in a melanin-dependent fashion. Fungal Biology.
• Mehdizadeh, A., Vatanparast, H., Khadem-Rezaiyan, M., Norouzy, A., Abasalti, Z., Rajabzadeh, M., & Nematy, M. (2020). Validity and reliability of the Persian version of Nutrition Screening Tool for Every Preschooler (NutriSTEP®) in Iranian preschool children. Journal of Pediatric Nursing.
• Laprairie, R. B., Bagher, A. M., Rourke, J. L., Zrein, A., Cairns, E. A., Kelly, M. E. M., Sinal, C. J., Kulkarni, P. M., Thakur, G. A., & Denovan-Wright, E. M. (2019). Positive allosteric modulation of the type 1 cannabinoid receptor reduces the signs and symptoms of Huntington’s disease in the R6/2 mouse model. Neuropharmacology, 151, 1–12.
• Ling, B., Xiao, S., Yang, J., Wei, Y., Sakharkar, M. K., & Yang, J. (2019). Probing the antitumor mechanism of Solanum nigrum L. Aqueous extract against human breast cancer MCF7 cells. Bioengineering, 6(4).
• Poudel, A., Gachumi, G., Badea, I., Bashi, Z. D., & El-Aneed, A. (2020). The simultaneous quantification of phytosterols and tocopherols in liposomal formulations using validated atmospheric pressure chemical ionization- liquid chromatography –tandem mass spectrometry. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 183, 113104.
• Whiting, S. J., Li, W., Singh, N., Quail, J., Dust, W., Hadjistavropoulos, T., & Thorpe, L. U. (2020). Predictors of hip fractures and mortality in long-term care homes in Saskatchewan: Does vitamin D supplementation play a role? Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 200, 105654.
• Bukambu, E., Lieffers, J. R. L., Ekwaru, J. P., Veugelers, P. J., & Ohinmaa, A. (2019). The association between the cost and quality of diets of children in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-019-00264-7
• Pacelli, C., Selbmann, L., Zucconi, L., Coleine, C., De Vera, J. P., Rabbow, E., Böttger, U., Dadachova, E., & Onofri, S. (2019). Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces antarcticus to Simulated Mars and Space Conditions on Rock Analogs. Astrobiology, 19(2), 209–220.
• Jiao, R., Allen, K. J. H., Malo, M. E., Rickles, D., & Dadachova, E. (2020). Evaluating the combination of radioimmunotherapy and immunotherapy in a melanoma mouse model. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(3).
• Smolyakova, A. M., Zagzoog, A., Brandt, A. L., Black, T., Mohamed, K., & Laprairie, R. B. (2020). The Endocannabinoid System and Synthetic Cannabinoids in Preclinical Models of Seizure and Epilepsy. In Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology (Vol. 37, Issue 1, pp. 15–27). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
• Das, S., Gul, H. I., Das, U., Balzarini, J., Dimmock, S. G., & Dimmock, J. R. (2019). Novel Conjugated Unsaturated Ketones with Submicromolar Potencies Towards some Leukemic and Colon Cancer Cells. Medicinal Chemistry, 15(4), 430–438.
• McBreairty, L. E., Kazemi, M., Chilibeck, P. D., Gordon, J. J., Chizen, D. R., & Zello, G. A. (2020). Effect of a pulse-based diet and aerobic exercise on bone measures and body composition in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: A randomized controlled trial. Bone Reports, 12, 100248.
• Abuhussein, O., & Yang, J. (2020). Evaluating the antitumor activity of sphingosine-1-phosphate against human triple-negative breast cancer cells with basal-like morphology. Investigational New Drugs.
• Lövestam, E., Vivanti, A., Steiber, A., Boström, A. M., Devine, A., Haughey, O., Kiss, C. M., Lang, N. R., Lieffers, J., Lloyd, L., O’Sullivan, T. A., Papoutsakis, C., Thoresen, L., Orrevall, Y., Corish, C., Eisenbraun, C., Hanning, R., Kristiansen, I., Lorentzen, S. S., … Peerson, C. (2019). The International Nutrition Care Process and Terminology Implementation Survey: Towards a Global Evaluation Tool to Assess Individual Practitioner Implementation in Multiple Countries and Languages. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(2), 242–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.09.004
• Mohammadi, M., Khanmohammadi Khorrami, M., Vatani, A., Ghasemzadeh, H., Vatanparast,, Bahramian, A., & Fallah, A. (2020). Rapid determination and classification of crude oils by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and chemometric methods. Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 232, 118157.
• Dawicki, W., Allen, K. J. H., Jiao, R., Malo, M. E., Helal, M., Berger, M. S., Ludwig, D. L., & Dadachova, E. (2019). Daratumumab-225Actinium conjugate demonstrates greatly enhanced antitumor activity against experimental multiple myeloma tumors. OncoImmunology, 8(8).
• Garai, S., Kulkarni, P. M., Schaffer, P. C., Leo, L. M., Brandt, A. L., Zagzoog, A., Black, T., Lin, X., Hurst, D. P., Janero, D. R., Abood, M. E., Zimmowitch, A., Straiker, A., Pertwee, R. G., Kelly, M., Szczesniak, A. M., Denovan-Wright, E. M., Mackie, K., Hohmann, A. G., Laprairie, R.… Thakur, G. A. (2020). Application of Fluorine- And Nitrogen-Walk Approaches: Defining the Structural and Functional Diversity of 2-Phenylindole Class of Cannabinoid 1 Receptor Positive Allosteric Modulators. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 63(2), 542–568.
• Hossain, M., Das, S., Das, U., Doroudi, A., Zhu, J., & Dimmock, J. R. (2020). Novel hybrid molecules of 3,5-bis(benzylidene)-4-piperidones and dichloroacetic acid which demonstrate potent tumour-selective cytotoxicity. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 30(3), 126878.
• Garg, R., Mills, K., Allen, K. J. H., Causey, P., Perron, R. W., Gendron, D., Sanche, S., Berman, J. W., Gorny, M. K., & Dadachova, E. (2020). Comparison of various radioactive payloads for a human monoclonal antibody to glycoprotein 41 for elimination of HIV-infected cells. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 82–83, 80–88.
• Lövestam, E., Vivanti, A., Steiber, A., Boström, A. ‐M., Devine, A., Haughey, O., Kiss, C. M., Lang, N. R., Lieffers, J., Lloyd, L., O’Sullivan, T. A., Papoutsakis, C., Peersen, C., Thoresen, L., Orrevall, Y., Corish, C., Eisenbraun, C., Hanning, R., Kristiansen, I., … MacLean, A. K. (2020). Barriers and enablers in the implementation of a standardised process for nutrition care: findings from a multinational survey of dietetic professionals in 10 countries. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 33(2), 252–262.
• Kary, S. J., Dumont, Z., Tangedal, K., Bolt, J., & Semchuk, W. M. (2019). Measuring competency of pharmacy residents: A survey of residency programs’ methods for assessment and evaluation. Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 72(5), 343–352.
• Wesolowski, C. A., Wanasundara, S. N., Babyn, P. S., & Alcorn, J. (2019). Comparison of the gamma-Pareto convolution with conventional methods of characterising metformin pharmacokinetics in dogs. Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics, 47(1), 19–45.
• Lövestam, E., Steiber, A., Vivanti, A., Boström, A. M., Devine, A., Haughey, O., Kiss, C. M., Lang, N. R., Lieffers, J., Lloyd, L., O’Sullivan, T. A., Papoutsakis, C., Peersen, C., Thoresen, L., Orrevall, Y., Corish, C., Eisenbraun, C., Hanning, R., Kristiansen, I., … MacLean, A. K. (2019). Use of the Nutrition Care Process and Nutrition Care Process Terminology in an International Cohort Reported by an Online Survey Tool. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(2), 225–241.