The University of Colorado Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has been recognized as one of the top 10 schools of pharmacy in the nation by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), underscoring the school’s leadership in research and scientific discovery.
“Being recognized as number 10 nationally for NIH funding reflects the remarkable hard work, dedication, persistence, and innovative spirit of our faculty, staff, post-docs, and students, who deserve all the credit in the world for achieve this accomplishment,” said CU Anschutz Pharmacy Dean Brian Tsuji, PharmD. “This distinction highlights our commitment to shifting research paradigms focused on new therapeutic strategies that advance discovery to improve the care of patients.”
The annual Blue Ridge rankings are based on the total funding awarded by the NIH to principal investigators at U.S. schools of pharmacy. Rankings are announced each February based on data from the previous federal fiscal year. CU Anschutz Pharmacy has consistently been ranked among the top 25 since the ranking's inception in 2006.
“This ranking is a testament to the excellence of our research community,” said Manisha Patel, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. “Our faculty, trainees, and staff continue to drive innovation that has meaningful impact.”
NIH funding to the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences supports an array of life-saving research which holds enormous promise to combat many different deadly diseases. These include numerous NIH-funded projects on chemotherapeutic nanomedicine, development of optimized dosing strategies for long-acting antiretroviral therapies, new insights into the dynamics of Type 1 diabetes, investigation of drug–hormone interactions in antiviral treatments during pregnancy, and continued exploration of mitochondrial mechanisms in epilepsy, among other projects. Each of these projects were selected by NIH as the top applications in the field for having the greatest potential to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness.
The current NIH funding also sustains two critical research training programs: the Colorado Undergraduate Research in Environmental Health Sciences (CU-REHS) program and the T32 Training Program in Molecular and Systems Toxicology. Both initiatives play a vital role in advancing the understanding of toxins and their impact on human health and medication outcomes, while training the next generation of scientific leaders.
"The critical significance of NIH funding for our researchers and trainees cannot be understated. Only the best researchers in the world are awarded these large grants from NIH which allow our amazing teams to find innovative solutions to the most pressing problems in health,” Dr. Tsuji said. “We are tremendously grateful to NIH and very proud of this achievement. We not only will build upon it, but now shoot for the moon to make additional NIH-funded scientific advances in therapeutics by building teams to make the greatest impact on patients in Colorado, the U.S. and the world.”
