College of Pharmacy researchers receive Center for Biological Defense award

Jeffrey Hughes, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, has received a $125,000 award through the Center for Biological Defense at the University of South Florida.

Hughes will investigate a novel therapeutic agent for anthrax exposure using naturally occurring antibiotic peptides called defensins, which have a broad range of activity against numerous bacteria.

The defensins, normally located in skin and mucus, fight bacteria and viruses. Hughes will perform in vitro studies to determine if increasing the lung concentration of these antibiotic peptides is a viable method for killing or inhibiting bacterial growth.

In the second phase of the study, Hughes and co-investigators Hartmut Derendorf, Ph.D., chair of pharmaceutics, and William Millard, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacodynamics, will construct a plasmid vector, a delivery system that promotes the transfer of genes into cells for the local expression of defensins into the lungs.