Four students from the USC School of Pharmacy have won major awards for their presentations at three recent national professional meetings.

“It is an honor for our school to have so many winners at such prestigious meetings around the country this fall. I applaud the good work of these students and the faculty who mentor them,” said Dean R. Pete Vanderveen, the John Stauffer Decanal Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists recognized two USC students for their exceptional work, taking top prizes among a field of entrants from around the globe. Both winners presented their research in the Graduate Student Symposium in San Antonio Oct. 31.

Liyun Yuan, a student of Wei-Chiang Shen, the John A. Biles Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, presented research in the field of drug delivery and pharmaceutical technology.

Alexandra Jane Schiewe, a student of associate professor Ian Haworth, discussed findings in the area of drug design and discovery.

The students are both pursuing Ph.D. degrees in the department of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences. Each student was honored with a plaque, a cash prize and complimentary registration to the meeting.

Earlier last month, Jacqueline Fu, a fourth-year Pharm.D. student, won first prize at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy meeting in St. Louis. Fu’s poster presentation was a retrospective analysis of transplant patients.

In September, Jian Wang, who is studying for his Ph.D. under the direction of Gilbert J. Burckart, the Hygeia Centennial Chair in Clinical Pharmacy, won a Student/Trainee Abstract Award at the American College of Clinical Pharmacology annual meeting in Boston.

Like Fu, Wang’s poster looked at the role of pharmacogenetic information in the customization of therapeutic regimens for transplant patients. Wang’s work focused on liver and lung transplants.

The work presented by both Fu and Wang was done at the USC Pharmacogenetics/Immunogenetics Laboratory, located at the National Institute of Transplantation, in collaboration with a team at the University of Pittsburgh. Burckart is co-director of the USC lab.