Page 22 - fall2017
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IN PHILANTHROPY
Rising to the Challenge
by Katy Smith and the UA Donors step up to modernize the College of Pharmacy’s
College of Pharmacy Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center
Chris Richards photo
Rendering by GLHNA
Architects & Engineers, Inc. eidi M. Mansour and Ken Coit ’67 are two for diseases like respiratory distress syndrome,
Hof 136 donors who have answered the asthma, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension,
Skaggs Challenge, a $31.5 million campaign to congenital heart disease, lung fibrosis,
transform the University of Arizona College of neuroendocrine cancers and neuroscience diseases.
Pharmacy’s Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Mansour was among the first to make a gift to
Center into a hub for innovative research and expand and renovate the Skaggs Pharmaceutical
education. Sciences Center. “It’s a no-brainer for me. I want to
Mansour, an assistant professor in the invest in moving us forward,” she says.
college, has a distinct vision for the future: Mansour secured major grants from several
bringing life-saving drugs to market using government agencies, including the Food and Drug
the center’s cutting-edge facilities and Administration, as well as Tech Launch Arizona,
classrooms. BIO5 Institute and pharmaceutical companies. Hers
In this future, the Skaggs Challenge has is one of few academic labs in the nation to design
been achieved. Mansour is teaching in spaces advanced inhaled formulations and inhaler devices
Heidi M. Mansour, left, assistant designed to foster collaborative learning for lung diseases. Some of these are in clinical
professor of pharmaceutics and and working with UA colleagues to develop trials, and others are close to reaching this stage.
drug delivery, works in her lab targeted and controlled-released drugs
with Priya Muralidharan, pharmacy
graduate student.
