PhD Candidate Finds Diverse Opportunities in Tight-Knit Community

Spring 2009

While one would certainly expect great minds to be at work in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research divisions at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, PhD candidate Maria Florencia “Flori” Sassano found something more—a close-knit community of researchers, professors, and students across multiple disciplines and even across schools and divisions.

After earning her BS in biochemistry and BA in chemistry from the College of Charleston, Sassano, a native of Buenos Aires, wanted to find a graduate program that was chemistry-oriented toward health, which led her to medicinal chemistry.

Sassano was invited to five schools for recruitment weekends, but something stood out about UNC.

“The medicinal chemistry program at UNC was among my top choices, and after my first visit I was convinced that we were the right fit,” Sassano said.

Sassano will defend her thesis on psychoactive drug development this fall under the guidance of Michael Jarstfer, PhD, an associate professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products.

She has been awarded the Amgen Fellowship on her third year and she is the GSK fellow for 2008-2009. Sassano says that even though the university offers many diverse opportunities for its students, the School still manages to keep a sense of companionship among its students so they don’t get lost in the shuffle.

“It’s a constantly growing department but you don’t lose your identity as a student,” she says.

The collaborative atmosphere at the University has been important for Sassano. She has worked not only in the School of Pharmacy but also with the BRITE Institute at North Carolina Central University, NIH screening centers, and the NIMH Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. Within the university, she is working with Jarstfer, the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, the Department of Psychiatry, the NDRC Mouse Behavioral Phenotyping Laboratory and the Division of Medicinal Chemistry on a project funded by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

Sassano’s focus is on developing new drugs and determining their clinically relevant behavioral effects to address deficits in complex behaviors present in disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Her main interests are behavioral studies and the drug discovery process, and she is trying to find a setting where she can work on both the drug discovery process and the behavioral studies that follow the early steps of developing drug leads.

Her exposure to different specialties at UNC helps bring that goal closer to reality, she says.

“The enthusiastic vision provided by the School has broadened my perspective for possible career paths, including the academic field among my main interests,” Sassano says. “Being exposed to all this [at UNC] has given me a wide background. At some universities it would’ve been harder. Here, people are willing to share information, infrastructure, and knowledge, and help you achieve academic excellence.”

For Sassano, that multidisciplinary environment is key to a successful graduate school experience.

“It is a privilege as a UNC student to be exposed to different points of view and driven by eminencies in their fields,” she says.

Sassano’s own passion for her work is also a driving force. “You may not see the end point every day, but loving your project is key. [But] passion alone does not get you anywhere — you have to have the appropriate setting. The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy provides that intangible value which differentiates us from the rest.”