Essential Pharmaceutics

Ashlee D. Brunaugh is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is also the President/CEO of CloXero Therapeutics Inc and a Scientific Advisor for Via Therapeutics LLC. Dr. Brunaugh holds both a Pharm.D. and a Ph.D degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon completing her education, she worked as a Senior Scientist and later Director of Strategy and Operations at Via Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical start-up located in Austin TX focused on the bridging of novel drug delivery systems from the pre-clinical to clinical stages of development. In 2021, she joined the faculty at the University of Michigan. Dr. Brunaugh’s research is focused on the elucidation of the underlying mechanisms for respiratory disease progression to determine appropriate therapeutic targets and develop novel formulation and drug delivery approaches to improve patient outcomes. In addition to her research experience, Dr. Brunaugh is a registered pharmacist and has experience practicing in hospital, community and clinical trial settings. She has several years of experience in teaching pharmaceutical science courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, including the development and implementation of a flipped-classroom basic pharmaceutics course with Drs. Smyth and Williams at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy.

Daniel Moraga-Espinoza is a Pharmacist from Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile (2010), and completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery (MPDD) at the University of Texas at Austin, U.S. (2018). Presently, Dr. Moraga-Espinoza holds the position of Assistant Professor at Universidad de Valparaíso, serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and works as an associate researcher at the Chilean Pharmacopeia Research Center. His primary research focus lies in the field of drugdelivery into the lungs and the nasal cavity through controlled release systems. He has published multiple research articles, reviews, book chapters, and patent applications. Additionally, he is member of the editorial boards of the scientific journals Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy (DDIP) (2018) and AAPS PharmSciTech journal (2018). Dr. Moraga was the recipient of the Grant FONDECYT de iniciación 11190987 for young researchers, honored as one of the leading research innovators by BRAIN Chile (2023), and serves as a regulatory consultant for the Chilean regulatory agency, contributing to the development of guidelines for the evaluation of orally and nasally inhaled drug products.

Tania F. Bahamondez-Canas is a Pharmacist from Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile (2010), and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, US (2018). She is an Associate Professor at Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile, an academic position sponsored by the Chilean Agency of Research and Development (ANID) with the grant PAI 77190010 (2019). She is also an Adjunct Professor of the Ph.D. program in Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery at the University of Texas at Austin, US. She has teaching experience in various programs from the College of Pharmacy of Universidad de Valparaíso, including undergraduate pharmacy, master's, and continuing education programs. She is the director of the Chilean Pharmacopeia Research Center (CIFAR) at Universidad de Valparaíso and PI of the Antimicrobial Pharmaceutics laboratory focusing on novel drug delivery systems to effectively fight bacterial biofilm infections. She has published multiple research articles, reviews, book chapters, and patent applications. Her work on biofilm infections and tissue engineering in chronic wounds has been funded by the ANID grants for young researchers FONDECYT 11190348 (2019) and applied sciences FONDEF ID19I10028 (2019) and FONDEF ID21I10153 (2021), and recently awarded by the Chilean regulatory agency (ISP).

Hugh D. C. Smyth is the Alcon Centennial Professor, with Tenure, in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin. Dr Smyth oversees and multidisciplinary laboratory funded through NIH, FDA, and industry that focuses on engineering new drug delivery systems with an emphasis on drug delivery to the airways. He has over 350 published works. Dr Smyth is editor of 4 books, and an inventor on numerous patents or patent applications. He has a Pharmacy and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Dr Smyth has worked as a practicing pharmacist, a scientist in industry, and has received training in several academic settings. He has been faculty at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and The University of New Mexico. He was the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) New Investigator award winner for Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technologies in 2007. He also received the PhRMA Foundation New Investigator Award in pharmaceutics in 2007. He gave the DDL Annual Lecture in 2022. He was the Editor in Chief of Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy from 2014-2022. Dr. Smyth has started several companies resulting from technologies discovered in his laboratory which are now advancing these technologies for clinical use.

Bill Williams is the Johnson & Johnson Centennial Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutics and the Division Head of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery at the College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin.  He earned a B.S. in Biology from Texas A&M University, a B.S. in Pharmacy from The University of Texas at Austin and Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutics in 1986 from The University of Texas at Austin.  Dr Williams was elected Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 2006, Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and BiologicalEngineering in 2008, and Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2019.  He was named the Inventor of the Year by the University of Texas at Austin in 2017.  He has been a member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) since its inception, as well as other professional societies including the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.  He is the co-founder of several pharmaceutical companies.  He has published over 500 peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, abstracts and book chapters, and co-edited four books in the field of pharmaceutical technology and drug delivery, including Formulating Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs, Third Edition (AAPS and Springer). He is an inventor on over 60 patents and patent applications.  Dr. Williams is the Editor-in-Chief of AAPS PharmSciTech since 2014.  He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, and he serves as a reviewer for numerous other journals.