The Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will mark a five year milestone of service to the University and pharmaceutical industry in December 2008. Most of our living alumni probably do not remember the original Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Experiment Station that operated from 1913–1933 under the direction of Edward Kremers.
Since the statute that established the original Station remained in place, the Station was re-established in conjunction with construction of Rennebohm Hall, with operations beginning in December 2003. The newly established Station was named in honor of Lenor Zeeh (1914-2008) for his dedication and support of the School and the profession of pharmacy. An updated mission was also instituted: To serve the needs of pharmaceutical development, on and off campus, through a program of educational and related laboratory services.
This modern mission has become the basic operating principle of the Station over the last five years. Today, the Station serves a key role in the effective selection and early development of potential new medicines—locally, for UW-Madison researchers and Madison area start-up companies; regionally, for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the Midwest biotechnology corridor; nationally, for several pharmaceutical companies; and globally, for one pharmaceutical company to date—enabling these potential new medicines to progress to their next development milestone. By having this capability based in the School of Pharmacy, the Station can facilitate all aspects of a development project and access a network of campus-wide expertise to address complex and even non-traditional research and development challenges.
The Station currently employs six full-time staff representing more than 50 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. The unique capabilities and services provided by the Station feature customized development programs with a strong emphasis on maintaining cutting-edge capabilities in physical/chemical characterization of new drugs. Maintaining expertise in this discipline continues the legacy of Physical Pharmacy established in 1948 at the School of Pharmacy.
Another key feature of the Station is collaboration, in particular with the drug discovery and drug delivery faculty in Pharmaceutical Sciences. One industry-sponsored program includes hands-on experience for graduate students from Professor Lian Yu’s laboratory assisting with the characterization of new chemical entities. An additional graduate student training opportunity is currently evolving and partially supported by the Zografi Educational Advancement Fund in Pharmaceutical Sciences. This fund was established in honor of Professor George Zografi upon his retirement. Thomas Diezi from Professor Glen Kwon’s lab spent this summer working in the Station to develop additional drug characterization capabilities and also implemented a new analytical technique for a client-sponsored project. Through the continued generosity of our benefactors, we hope to grow the Zografi Fund to support these types of activities year-round.
The educational portion of the Station mission also involves collaboration with Extension Services in Pharmacy to provide several short courses for industry scientists. These programs have been developed to address the specific unmet needs of industry in educating qualified pharmaceutical scientists. This series of courses under the theme of applied drug development is targeted to evolve into a capstone certificate program.
Building upon a recognized strength in the applied science of Physical Pharmacy and fully aligned with the principles of the Wisconsin Idea, “that education should influence and improve people’s lives beyond
the university classroom,” the Station has emerged from a 70 year sabbatical and is well on its way to becoming an established authority for drug development.