Jack Lewellyn: The Cockrell School of Engineering announces a new graduate program in partnership with two other UT Colleges. I’m your host this week, Jack Lewellyn, and this is the Texan Recap. Here’s what you missed this week.
A collaboration between three UT Colleges brings in a new program for graduate students. General News Reporter, Emily Krupa is here with the story. Thanks for being here today, Emily.
Emily Krupa: Thank you for having me.
Lewellyn: So just to start us off, would you mind giving us some more info on this new program?
Krupa: Yes. So this program is called the pharmacoengineering program, and it’s a collaboration between the Cockrell School of Engineering, College of Natural Sciences and College of Pharmacy.
So, grad students in this program can take classes offered by all three schools, and it’s a graduate portfolio program, which is kind of like the equivalent of a certificate or minor for undergraduates, so they’ll get this graduate degree, but also a pharmacoengineering program on their transcript.
Lewellyn: You spoke to the program director for this new venture as well. What did they tell you?
Krupa: So the program director, Dr. Pengyu Ren, really walked me through the drug creation process, which starts with finding the right molecules to treat a disease, and then designing the best way to deliver the drugs, whether it’s through a vein injection or a pill, and then testing those pharmaceutical drugs.
Dr. Ren really emphasized that drug creation is time consuming and expensive. So the pharmacoengineering program is really aimed at teaching students different methods so that when they do go out into the field, they can make the drug creation process more efficient by applying what they learned.
Lewellyn: To build off of that, could you actually tell me more about that drug creation process for this disease treatment?
Krupa: So, students in this program get training in different parts of the drug creation process where natural sciences, biomedical engineering, and pharmacy all come together. So, a biomedical engineering student in this program can take pharmacy classes, and the idea is that this experience will equip them with knowledge to work with experts in all sorts of areas of the drug creation process.
Dr. Ren said some of the skills students will learn to focus on modern technology like computer modeling and using AI. And with computer modeling, you can test how well drugs will work and then narrow down the number of drugs that you’re actually going to physically test during research and development, and this process really helps save time and money.
Lewellyn: You also spoke to another UT professor about the program. What did they have to say?
Krupa: Yes, so I spoke to Dr. Tyrone Porter, who is the department chair of biomedical engineering. He said the program will be a bridge for students to learn skills in many different areas of the drug creation process.
This way they can communicate with experts in pharmacy, but also in engineering and biology. Dr. Porter said the communication aspect is important because these students are multidisciplinary experts who can cross the bridge of different areas of drug creation, making the whole process more efficient.
Lewellyn: Alright. Beyond that, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Krupa: Yes. The pharmacoengineering program starts this fall semester, so fall 2025. And it’s really aimed at preparing students. So once they do go into the field, they can find ways to effectively and efficiently make drugs that’ll target cancer, neurological disorders, viral infections, and cardiovascular diseases.
Lewellyn: Excellent. Alright, once again, that was general news reporter, Emily Krupa. Thanks for being here today.
Krupa: Thank you.
Lewellyn: And that’s the Texan Recap for the week of March 24th. I’m Jack Lewellyn.
The Texan Recap is a production of the Daily Texan Audio Department. If you like this episode, make sure to subscribe to the Daily Texan on your streaming platform of choice, and follow us on Twitter @texanaudio. This episode was hosted and edited by me, Jack Lewellyn.
Special thanks to Emily Krupa for their reporting. And as always, cover art is by Emma Berke, and music is by Top Flow Productions. To read the news stories in this episode or see more from the Texan, head on over to www.thedailytexan.com. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next week.
