This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored Feb. 2 at a ceremony for UNMC’s 2014 Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.
- Name: David Oupicky, Ph.D.
- Title: Parke-Davis Professor of Pharmaceutics
- Joined UNMC: 2013
- Hometown: Prague, Czech Republic
Describe your research briefly in layman’s terms.
Successful treatment of diseases with drugs requires that the drugs are able to find the right place in the body, stay there for an adequate period of time, and then be safely removed. My research focuses on developing nanomaterials and technologies that enable selective delivery of a broad range of drugs to better treat multiple diseases. This type of research is by definition highly interdisciplinary, and so my research ranges from chemical synthesis and characterization all the way to biological testing of the developed nanomaterials in appropriate disease models.
How does your research contribute to science and/or health care?
Most of what my lab does focuses on novel types of therapeutics for which there are currently no effective methods of delivery. When successful, our research will enable their use in multiple health care applications.
What is the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you, professional or personal?
Hard work and persistence trumps pure talent.
List three things few people know about you.
- I am from the Czech Republic and moved to the U.S. only in 2002. Interestingly, Nebraska has the highest percentage of people of Czech origin in all the U.S., so moving to Omaha in 2013 felt like moving back home.
- I am a big dog lover and a proud owner of a white standard poodle and a soft-coated Wheaten terrier.
- I wish Ferrari made cars for tall people like me.
Congratulations, David. This is a wonderful and well deserved recognition.
Ted