Faculty Appointments, Promotion

College Welcomes Infectious Diseases, Cardiovascular Pharmacology Researchers to Faculty Ranks; Research Faculty Member Earns Promotion

UH College of Pharmacy recently welcomed two new faculty members to the college ranks: Research Assistant Professor M. Jahangir Alam, Ph.D., and Associate Professor of Pharmacology Yang Zhang, Ph.D. In addition, the college announced the promotion of Nicholas D. Beyda, Pharm.D., BCPS, from research assistant professor to tenure-track assistant professor.

An infectious disease microbiology researcher in the lab of UHCOP Professor Kevin Garey since 2011, Alam has been appointed research assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences and Administration (soon to be offiically renamed as the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research). Alam earned a Ph.D. in Biopharmaceutical Sciences/Microbiology from Okayama University in Okayama, Japan, and a master’s degree in microbiology and a bachelor’s degree in biology/biochemistry from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh.

He has authored/co-authored more than 50 articles in such publications as Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease. Alam is a co-investigator with Garey on a $298,938 Texas Department of State Health Service grant project entitled “Community household environmental studies on potentially pathogenic Clostridium difficile.”

Zhang has joined the college's Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he served as an assistant professor and a director for its undergraduate summer research program. His research interests include the roles of redox signaling, lipid metabolism, immune cells, adipokines and high glucose in endothelial dysfunction, smooth muscle dedifferentiation and vascular injury in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases.

Zhang has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and he currently holds two multiyear RO1 grants totaling from $3.4 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He earned a Ph.D. in cardiovascular pharmacology from Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and a B.Sc. in applied chemistry from Peking University, China, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Beyda has been with the college since 2010, first as a fellow in the two-year Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Fellowship program between UHCOP and CHI St. Luke's Health-Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, then as a research assistant professor in the lab of Professor Kevin W. Garey, Pharm.D., MPH, FASHP. Beyda has authored/coauthored papers in such publications as the American Journal of Health System Pharmacy, Annals of Pharmacotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and the Journal of Hospital Infection. Beyda maintains a clinical site at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center.