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October 13, 2009

Research tickles us pink

October is draped in pink.

Everything from your co-worker's lapel pin to NFL goal posts are tinted with the signature color of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, much of it spurred by the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

So it was an appropriate time on Monday for the University of Louisiana at Monroe's School of Pharmacy to present details on its work in developing a drug that could indeed prevent and help cure breast cancer in the near future.

ULM pharmacologist Paul Sylvester, in conjunction with Beta Pharmaceutical, announced that ongoing research at the college could result in such a drug that could make it to the commercial market in less than two years.

Beta and its partner First Tech International have provided more than $1 million in grants to ULM to develop the drug.

That kind of ground-breaking research that has made the pharmacy school a jewel of higher education not only at ULM, but for the entire state, and makes an even more compelling case that state funding remain intact even as the Legislature grapples with balancing a budget that could face a $1 billion deficit.

"This is typical of the cutting-edge research going on at the university," ULM School of Pharmacy Dean Greg Leader says in a front page story in today's The News-Star. "These are the types of collaboration we would like to bring into the Monroe area to stimulate the economy."

Our entire region should take pride that such life-saving research is taking place every day in our community.

PLEASE NOTE: Some links and e-mail addresses in these archived news stories may no longer work, and some content may include events which are no longer relevent, or reference individuals and/or organizations no longer associated with ULM.