DiscoveRx Magazine – Spring 2025

Spring 2025 DiscoveRx masthead, featuring Kelly Montgomery, Sarah Pagenkopf, and Matt Mabie

The Pulse

Photos of alumni Paria Sanaty Zadeh, Dalia Saleh, and Megan Coder, along with images of health apps on phones and computers
How Digital Health is Revolutionizing Pharmacy

As health care goes digital, School of Pharmacy alumni are at the forefront, exploring how wearables, AI, remote monitoring, and more can enhance pharmacy practice and patient care. Learn how pharmacists can get involved today and where the tech is headed tomorrow.

Inspiring the Future

Paria Sanaty Zadeh on the cover of the School's career guide

Careers in the Spotlight

From industry leaders to frontline care providers, the School of Pharmacy’s new career guide for future pharmacists features 25 alumni shaping healthcare.

See who’s featured >

 

Elevating Practice

Photos of Kate Rotzenberg, Michelle Chui, and Jamie Stone working, and Sarah Pagenkopf and Kate Hartkopf posing for a photoResearch Meets Practice

PearlRx — a pharmacy practice-based research network launched by the School of Pharmacy — is now the largest of its kind in the country. Learn about its statewide partnerships and impact on Wisconsin pharmacy.

Pharmacist Provider Status

As provider status continues to gain steam among pharmacists, we’re tracking the trend. Let us know how you’re implementing provider status (or planning to) for a future DiscoveRx feature.

Share your perspective

From the Dean

Steve Swanson, Dean of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy

Dean’s Column

As the Trump administration works to advance their America First administrative priorities, Steve Swanson, dean of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy, discusses two policies impacting operations at the School of Pharmacy: diversity, equity, and inclusion, and federal research funding.

Learn more from the dean >

Photo Flashback

Images from the Class of 2010's hooding ceremony and pharmacotherapy labs
A Look Back: Class of 2010

Now 15 years out from graduation, see the Class of 2010 as they were in pharmacy school, from days in the pharmacotherapy lab to their hooding ceremony.

Quick Takes

Fighting Pediatric Brain Cancer

Less than 15% of children with pediatric glioblastoma multiforme live longer than five years. Through a new grant, Assistant Professor Quanyin Hu aims to improve outcomes with a cancer-killing hydrogel.

Assistant Professor Quanyin Hu in his lab at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy

Pharmacy's Past, Digitized

From vintage ads to rare artifacts, explore nearly 1,800 pieces of pharmacy history through a newly launched digital archive created by the School of Pharmacy and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.

Salome Corn Plasters

One-Two Punch

Through a new grant, Assistant Professor Quanyin Hu is developing a two-step system to stop triple-negative breast cancer tumors in their tracks.

Quanyin Hu works in his lab at the School of Pharmacy

Watch: Research Shout-Out

In a "Three Questions with the Chancellor" video, UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin shares the School of Pharmacy research that has caught her eye.

A still from a video of Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin

Inside Look

A collage of photos from inside the lab of Professor Seungpyo Hong, showing a blue back-lit machine, Professor Hong at his desk, and researchers working with pipettes
Behind the Scenes in a Nanotech Lab

From developing an inhalable nanomedicine to creating a liquid biopsy system to track cancerous circulating tumor cells, Professor Seungpyo Hong’s lab is a bustling center of research activity. Get a peek at what this impactful work at the interface of materials science, biology, and nanotechnology looks like.

Research Impact

Senator Baldwin at WOORC

"She has a grasp on the issues we face, and she’s willing to listen," says alum Matt Mabie (BS ’98). He joined a visit by Senator Tammy Baldwin to the School's Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center (WOORC) to learn about the center's early work.

Matt Mabie speaks with Senator Baldwin at a long table

Empowering Patients

Med Wise Rx, developed by School of Pharmacy faculty, is empowering older adults in 14 Wisconsin counties — and counting — to advocate for themselves to better understand their medications.

Photos of Beth Martin, Betty Chewning, Grayson Cooley, and Amber McCaughey

The Brain on Cocaine

Why is cocaine so addictive, and why are treatments so ineffective? A new study by Professor Lingjun Li finds that cocaine’s impact on the brain goes far beyond dopamine.

Professor Lingjun Li

Decades of Epilepsy Action

Epilepsy can be challenging to treat. What resolves one patient’s symptoms might do nothing for another patient. That's what motivates Professor Barry Gidal in his research and clinical practice.

Barry Gidal sits on a window ledge and smiles

Alumni Events

Milwaukee Innovators
Wednesday, April 23

Reconnect, celebrate, and be inspired at an exclusive evening reception for Milwaukee-area alumni and friends featuring Pharmacy Badgers who are leading innovation in pharmacy. Enjoy a buffet dinner with a complimentary drink, and a taste of Madison with Babcock ice cream and fudge-bottom pie.

Madison Innovators
Tuesday, May 20

The School of Pharmacy will host an evening reception for Madison-area alumni and friends, featuring a program of alumni and faculty who are innovating in their fields. Enjoy a complimentary drink and buffet meal. Registration will open in April.

Class Notes

Spring 2025 Class Notes

Our Pharmacy Badgers are always busy, landing new professional roles, getting national recognition, expanding their families, enjoying their retirements, and more. Keep in touch with your School of Pharmacy alumni peers through class notes.

Read what’s new >
Submit your class note >

Red banner featuring a Day of the Badger logo, Bucky Badger, and the text "save the date | April 8-9"

Professional Development

CMC Project Team Leadership: The Science, Principles, and Practices for Successful Technical Teams
Webinars Thursdays April 18-May 22
In Person October 6-9

CMC Essentials for Team Leaders in Biologics Product Development
In Person May 19-22

Fundamentals of Solid Dosage Form Development
In Person June 2-5

Stay Connected

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DISCOVERX Staff

Editor-in-Chief  |  Katie Gerhards
Photographer  |  Sally Griffith-Oh
Contributing Photographers | Paulius Musteikis, Sharon Vanorny, Andy Manis, Sirtaj Grewal, Todd Brown, Deanne Fitzmaurice, Patti Raine, Irina Ovchinnikov
Contributing Writers  |  Katie Ginder-Vogel, Nicole Etter, Archer Parquette, Susan Smith
Editorial Interns |  Logan Underwood
Editorial Advisors  |  Alyson KimDavid Mott

DiscoveRx magazine is a quarterly digital publication by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy.

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