Pharmacy Faculty Member Receives First-ever Collins Medical Trust Research Grant

Associate Professor of Pharmacy Fawzy Elbarbry received a Collins Medical Trust research grant to support his complimentary and alternative medicine research on hypertension.

Elbarbry's research, titled Investigating the Anti-hypertensive Effect of Thymoquinone: Role of Modulating Arachidonic Acid Metabolism versus Anti-oxidant Effect, will seek to discover whether Thymoquinone (TQ)-containing dietary supplements for hypertension, have an underlying anti-hypertensive mechanism and how it may affect drug metabolizing enzymes. Moreover, if TQ is found to have an anti-hypertensive effect through inhibition of enzymes involved in arachidonic acid metabolism, TQ-containing complimentary and alternative medicine would be a source of drug/disease interactions. The research will also show that simple dietary constituents have the potential to impact human health and significantly reduce the cost in health care.

The Collins Medical Trust was established in 1956 by Truman W. Collins The trust supports the aid, furtherance, promotion, development, and encouragment of sponsored research, experiment and work in the cause, cure and treatment of human disease or in any field of medical research, and to aid, further and promote medical education. Preference is given to projects or proposals where researchers/investigators are newly embarking on their research career and are clearly supported by their respective mentor(s).