Featuring: Nicole Cernaro, PharmD, PGY-2 Pediatric Pharmacy Resident By: Urooj K. Malik, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 Nicole Cernaro is a PGY-2 Pediatric Pharmacy Resident at St. Peter’s University Hospital located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She recently completed her PGY-1 pharmacy residency from St. Peter’s University Hospital as well. Nicole earned her Doctorate in Pharmacy…

Featuring: Urooj K. Malik, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 By: Isabelle Lim, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 Urooj is a sixth-year pharmacy student at St. John’s University. Throughout her time at St. John’s Urooj has held positions in organizations like the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists, Phi Lambda Sigma, International Society of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes, Lambda Kappa…

Congratulations to the sixth-year pharmacy students for graduating and to the rest of the student body for completing another year of pharmacy school! I am humbled and honored to announce my new position as the Editor-in-Chief of the Rho Chi Post for the upcoming year. It is with the continued dedication of the Editorial Team…

On behalf of the Rho Chi Post, we are excited to announce our Inaugural LEADS Initiative Edition of the Rho Chi Post Newsletter. The LEADS Initiative is a pilot program, in collaboration with the Rho Chi Honor Society – Beta Delta Chapter, looking to promote the professional development of younger pharmacy students by pairing them…

Featuring: Vassilia Plakas, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 and Frances Alexis Dela Cruz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024By: Isabelle Lim, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 *Meet Vassilia (Lia) Plakas Lia is a fifth-year pharmacy student and the current President of the Rho Chi Honor Society – Beta Delta Chapter. Lia decided to pursue pharmacy as a result of…

By: Jennifer Galvet, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) are a family of receptor tyrosine kinases expressed on the cell surface of both developmental and adult cells. Aberrant expression of FGFRs has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers and is considered an oncogenic signaling pathway.1 FGFRs are activated by…

By: Yu Jeng Lee, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023               Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects both the upper motor neurons (UMN) and lower motor neurons (LMN). This disease causes muscle weakness, which progresses to disability, and subsequently death, primarily due to respiratory failure.1,2 …

Featuring: Kamran Khan, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023By: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023 Kamran Khan is a sixth-year pharmacy student at St. John’s University. Growing up, Kamran had a lot of family members in healthcare, instilling an interest in medicine from an early age. While at St. John’s, Kamran got to experience many different career…

By: Brian Chung, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024, Peter Chung, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024, and Kevin Kim, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that affects an individual’s plasma cells. Plasma cells are white blood cells located in the bone marrow that are responsible for producing antibodies, also known as immunoglobulins.1  Immunoglobulins…

By: Sairah Sheikh, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 ​              As Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases started to decrease in the United States (US), many Americans breathed a sigh of relief. However, on May 17, 2022, fear of a new infectious disease struck the nation. The first case of the monkeypox outbreak in the US was reported…

Featuring: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023By: Isabelle Lim, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 Justin Budz is a sixth-year pharmacy student at St. John’s University. While at St. John’s, Justin participated in multiple organizations, which ultimately led him to discover the career path he wanted to pursue. Most notably, Justin served as the Development and Outreach…

By: Nancy Yousry, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               Vitamin D is a multifaceted nutrient needed to maintain homeostasis and proper health. In addition to its role in building and maintaining healthy bones, vitamin D also regulates many important cellular functions in the body, serving as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and neuroprotective agent.1 In general, the two…

By: Jennifer Galvet, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               Farxiga (dapagliflozin) is a first-in-class, oral, once daily sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor indicated for improving glycemic control in type 2 diabetes (T2D), reducing the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death and hospitalization in heart failure (HF), and reducing the risk of sustained eGFR decline in chronic kidney…

Featuring: Amanda Murray, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 and Laura Cranston, B.S.PharmBy: Ashley Dao, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024 Alumni Insider’s View (AIV) is an annual program held in Washington D.C. that provides students from St. John’s University with the opportunity to explore nontraditional career pathways in pharmacy. Students are able to network with pharmacists that hold…

By: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023               Diabetes mellitus encompasses both chronic and reversible conditions that affect the body’s ability to utilize glucose. In 2019, about 28.7 million (8.7%) people in the United States (US) had diagnosed diabetes. Of this population, about 1.6 million (5.7%) people ages 20 or older and 244,000 (0.9%) people…

Featuring: Christina Swiger, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023By: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023 Christina Swiger is a sixth-year pharmacy student at St. John’s University. Christina was inspired to pursue a career in healthcare by her mother who is a store manager at a community pharmacy. Growing up, Christina was able to aid in the care…

Featuring: Colleen Bond, PharmD, BCPSBy: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023 At a young age, Dr. Colleen Bond was involved in the care of a close relative, gaining early exposure to the healthcare team dynamic. The one question that no one was able to clearly answer was how medications were able to work in the…

By: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023                  In the United States (US), heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women of most racial and ethnic groups, followed by cancer and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).1 About 659,000 people in the US die from heart disease each year, which encompasses about 1 in…

Featuring: Nicole Maisch, BS, PharmDBy: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023 Growing up with close relatives in healthcare, Dr. Nicole Maisch was inspired to pursue a career in pharmacy practice. Dr. Maisch graduated from Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences with her PharmD and then completed a PGY1 residency at the University of Massachusetts…

By: Kirby An, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023               Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) is a virus that took the world by storm with its initial discovery in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. On January 20, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed the first case of Covid-19 in the United States (US) after a 35…

By: Aamir S. Dave, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023 Judith L. Beizer, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP, AGSF Alzheimer’s and Dementia              Dementia is characterized by the loss of memory and other cognitive abilities that interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurological disease and is the most common type of dementia, accounting for greater than 60-80%…

By: Justin Budz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023              On January 19th, 2020, a 35-year-old man in an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Washington was the first to be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be infected with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2…

By: Fatima Amjad, PharmD candidate c/o 2022              Pharmacists have truly taken on the role of superhero during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As of April 6, 2022 more than 239.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered by community pharmacies across the United States.1 Community pharmacists have gone above and beyond immunizing eligible…

By: Natalia Jucha, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022 and Helen Li, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023              Celiac disease is classified as an autoimmune disorder and occurs in individuals who cannot tolerate gluten. Dietary gluten induces an immune response and causes damage to the small intestine, particularly the duodenum and proximal jejunum. A small peptide called gliadin,…

By: Ashely Dao, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               In early 2021, about 6 in 10 American adults had a chronic disease. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States with 1 in 3 deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases (CVD).¹ The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has emphasized the impact…

By: Daniel Levin, PharmD candidate c/o 2022               Depression is a terrible beast of an illness to battle with, and there are nearly 14 million individuals at any given moment fighting it. Only around 50% of patients struggling with depression will get some form of treatment. Sixty to seventy percent of patients who do get…

By: Jun Suh Hong, PharmD candidate c/o 2022               Aspirin belongs to a class of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Known by many for its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as its association with gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, aspirin plays an essential role in stroke prevention. As such, it has a crucial role in…

By: Pallak Sharma, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022 and Mia Cord-Cruz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               Ketamine (Ketalar®) is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as a general anesthetic, with additional indications listed within its package insert.1 Ketamine is a highly abused “street drug”, especially in China. To demonstrate, in Hong…

By: Sharon Joseph PharmD Candidate c/o 2022 and Salma Hewady, PharmD               Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a single-stranded retrovirus that attacks the immune system, predisposing the host to opportunistic infections and malignancies. If not properly treated, HIV can progress to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Goals of therapy include restoration of immune function, suppression of…

By: Mandy Zheng, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024               “Where can I find Zantac?”. From April 2020 to May 2021, the answer was, you cannot. On April 1, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered for all ranitidine (Zantac®)- containing products to be removed from the U.S. market.¹ Ranitidine was a popular over-the-counter (OTC) and…

By: Anjali Rana, PharmD Candidate c/o 2025 and Katharine Russo, PharmD               The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to pose challenges, both nationally and worldwide. Many countries that were facing public health crises prior to COVID-19 have subsequently seen a worsening of these crises, as much of the funding and attention previously available has…

By: Jason Ifeanyi, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               The liver is one of the most commonly transplanted solid organs in the United States (US) today. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a mission-driven non-profit that leads the network of transplant hospitals, organ procurement organizations, and thousands of volunteers who are dedicated to saving…

By: Lyana Sayilar, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               Multiple myeloma is characterized by an accumulation of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow and the formation of tumors in bones. An insufficient quantity of healthy blood cells are produced in the bone marrow leading to a weakened immune system.1 The exact cause of multiple myeloma…

By: Richa Tamakuwala, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               There has been a dramatic rise in the number of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), such as permanent pacemakers and implantable cardioverter‐defibrillators (ICDs), due to an increasing aging population and clinical trials showing benefits in mortality and morbidity.  Multiple studies investigating the use of ICDs…

By: Jason Ifeanyi, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               Epilepsy is a highly prevalent neurological disorder caused by unusual nerve cell activity, and is among one of the most common disease states encountered today in clinical practice. Each year around 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with epilepsy.1 Epilepsy is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as…

By: Jordan Plair, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022 and Marina Beshara, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              While the focus over the last year has been fixated on the deadly coronavirus, the importance of a long-standing health pandemic exacerbated by salt intake cannot be overlooked. Hypertension, more commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a medical…

By: Arya Firoozan, PharmD Candidate c/o 2023              Overactive bladder (OAB) is a condition that causes a sudden and frequent urge to urinate. It is also associated with incontinence and nocturia. Nocturia refers to waking up at night due to the urge to urinate. OAB is diagnosed if there is no other current infection or…

By: Jennifer Galvet, PharmD Candidate c/o 2024              Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a systemic inflammatory condition that primarily affects a person’s back.¹ It is a form of arthritis that affects the spine and causes inflammation of the spinal joints, leading to severe, chronic pain and discomfort.² Ankylosing spondylitis can also impact other areas of the…

By: Rubab Hassan, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that causes muscle degeneration and weakness along with various other symptoms. It is predominantly caused by deletions of one or more exons, which lead to mutations of the dystrophin gene. Dystrophin stops muscle fibers from being degraded by proteases.…

By: Nishanth Viswanath, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              Multiple myeloma (MM)  is a hematological malignancy characterized by an accumulation and proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells in the bone marrow. 1 Throughout the course of the disease, malignant plasma cells induce an overproduction of non-functional immunoglobulin (paraproteins), which is evident during urine and blood screenings. 2…

By: Oluwafemi Popoola, PharmD Candidate c/o 2021, SUNY Binghamton School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences              A patient with past medical history of von Willebrand’s disease (VWD) and myasthenia gravis on chronic prednisone therapy, presented for follow-up for VWD at the hematology/oncology clinic. The provider considered having the patient undergo a “desmopressin challenge” with desmopressin…

By: Daniela Farzadfar, PharmD,PGY-1 Resident at Long Island Jewish Medical Center              In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease- 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic. 1 To date, over 30 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States and drug companies have been scrambling to develop therapies for the…

By: Lyana Sayilar, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              On August 31, 2020, the FDA approved the first automated diabetes management device for patients aged 2 to 6-years old. The MiniMed 770G System automatically adjusts basal insulin doses based on glucose levels, facilitating the lives of the patient and caregiver. Prior to its approval, patients and/or…

By: Pooja Dasgupta and Sonya Wadhawan, PharmD Candidates c/o 2025              The coronavirus, also known as SARS CoV-2 or COVID-19, has widely affected various people globally. The study of SARS CoV-2 has shifted from studying individuals and their unique symptoms during their disease duration to studying different populations and their backgrounds that increase the risk…

By: Jeng Lee, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               Throughout the past decade, there has been an increase in the prevalence of medical and recreational consumption of cannabis, also referred to as marijuana. 1 These numbers are expected to rise over the upcoming years in the United States as marijuana use is currently legalized in 33…

By: Cindy Van, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022, Shireen Farzadeh, PharmD, BCPS              Insomnia is a condition characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both, despite an adequate opportunity to sleep. Consequently, insomnia can lead to daytime fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and irritability. This condition can be categorized into short-term and chronic insomnia. While short-term insomnia…

By: Tanay Maddula PharmD Candidate c/o 2022               Rybelsus (oral semaglutide) was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2019 to help control blood sugar in adult patients with Type 2 Diabetes alongside diet and exercise. It is the first oral GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) agonist as typical drugs of this…

By: Bisma Sekhery, PharmD Candidate c/o 2021              Fostemsavir (Rukobia) is a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved antiretroviral agent for the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It was approved in July 2020 for multidrug-resistant HIV-1. It is a pro-drug, metabolized to its active moiety, temsavir, which binds to the gp120 subunit within…

By: Zarnab Jillani PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              The link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a new and ongoing debate given the etiology of AD is still not fully understood. Diabetes continues to be a major public health crisis as diagnoses around the world continue to rise. Diabetes is a chronic disease that…

By: Pallak Sharma, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022 and Rebecca Samuel, PharmD Candidate c/o 2022              Statins, some of the most well-known cholesterol lowering medications, have been demonstrating increasing evidence of safety and benefits to the elderly patient population. 5 Statins are a class of medication that can help lower the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)…