College of Pharmacy

Pharmacy Newsroom

June 25, 2026

Divya Varkey Elected TSHP President-Elect Designee

Divya A. Varkey, Pharm.D., M.S., UHCOP clinical professor and graduate program director for the M.S. in Pharmacy Leadership and Administration, has been elected president-elect designee of the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacy for 2026-27. Varkey brings extensive experience in pharmacy leadership, education and health-system administration to the statewide role.

Top Stories

June 17, 2026

Jerusha Daggolu: From Operating Room to Real-World Outcomes

Ph.D. candidate Jerusha Daggolu draws on her clinical background in general surgery and a patient-centered approach to study treatment outcomes for adolescents and young adults with severe mental illness.

June 17, 2026

New Discovery Uses Salt to Overcome Major Obstacle in Gene Therapy

Researchers at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy have discovered an unexpected simple strategy to improve the performance of mRNA vaccines and gene therapeutics: adding salt. The findings, published in Small, address one of the biggest challenges facing modern gene medicine — getting fragile therapeutic material to the right place inside cells.

June 10, 2026

New Research Uncovers How Deadly Childhood Cancer Grows, Highlights Potential Therapies

In two new articles published in Nature journals, Ashok Kumar, Else and Philip Hargrove Endowed Professor of Drug Discovery at UHCOP and director of the Institute of Muscle Biology and Cachexia, explains how TAK1, a protein inside RMS cells, helps rhabdomyosarcoma tumors grow. His research also found that tumor cells rely on the IRE1α-XBP1 cellular stress-response pathway to survive. Blocking either TAK1 or IRE1α-XBP1 slowed tumor growth and helped cancer cells develop into normal muscle cells.

Latest News

June 25, 2026

Divya Varkey Elected TSHP President-Elect Designee

Divya A. Varkey, Pharm.D., M.S., UHCOP clinical professor and graduate program director for the M.S. in Pharmacy Leadership and Administration, has been elected president-elect designee of the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacy for 2026-27. Varkey brings extensive experience in pharmacy leadership, education and health-system administration to the statewide role.

June 24, 2026

Alumnus Joshua Blackwell Receives Roger Anderson Leadership Award

The Houston Program (THP) honored alumnus Joshua A. Blackwell, Pharm.D., M.S. (’17), MBA, FASHP, FTSHP, BCSCP, with the 2026 Roger W. Anderson Leadership (RWAL) at the 8th Annual RWAL Celebration June 18 in Houston.

June 17, 2026

Jerusha Daggolu: From Operating Room to Real-World Outcomes

Ph.D. candidate Jerusha Daggolu draws on her clinical background in general surgery and a patient-centered approach to study treatment outcomes for adolescents and young adults with severe mental illness.

June 17, 2026

New Discovery Uses Salt to Overcome Major Obstacle in Gene Therapy

Researchers at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy have discovered an unexpected simple strategy to improve the performance of mRNA vaccines and gene therapeutics: adding salt. The findings, published in Small, address one of the biggest challenges facing modern gene medicine — getting fragile therapeutic material to the right place inside cells.

June 10, 2026

New Research Uncovers How Deadly Childhood Cancer Grows, Highlights Potential Therapies

In two new articles published in Nature journals, Ashok Kumar, Else and Philip Hargrove Endowed Professor of Drug Discovery at UHCOP and director of the Institute of Muscle Biology and Cachexia, explains how TAK1, a protein inside RMS cells, helps rhabdomyosarcoma tumors grow. His research also found that tumor cells rely on the IRE1α-XBP1 cellular stress-response pathway to survive. Blocking either TAK1 or IRE1α-XBP1 slowed tumor growth and helped cancer cells develop into normal muscle cells.

June 9, 2026

Students Ultimate Winners of UHCOP Golf Classic

More than 60 University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP) alumni, faculty, students and friends teed up for Pharm.D. student scholarship aid at the 2026 UHCOP Golf Classic June 8 at TPC Houston, which marked 47 years since the tournament was launched in 1979.