College of Pharmacy partners with Sarah Cannon Research Institute

College of Pharmacy partners with Sarah Cannon Research Institute

The Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center has signed a contract with SCRI Development Innovations to conduct research for an ongoing oncology clinical trial

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 06/02/2026

In 2026, the College of Pharmacy's Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center (PSRC) signed a contract with SCRI Development Innovations, the contract research organization for Nashville-based Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), to carry out pharmacokinetic research for an ongoing oncology clinical trial of tucatinib and doxorubicin for breast cancer patients.

SCRI is one of the world's leading oncology research organizations conducting community-based clinical trials. SCRI is a leader in drug development and has contributed to pivotal research that has led to the majority of new cancer therapies approved by the FDA in the past decade.

In the clinical trial, SCRI is looking at the safety and efficacy of using two chemotherapy drugs, tucatinib and doxorubicin, in combination, in hopes that the tucatinib may buffer some of the cardiac toxic effects of doxorubicin, said Dr. Scott Akers, executive director of the PSRC and associate dean of research.

As the doctors are exploring a new way to use doxorubicin, they are veering away from the recommended dosage amounts, and thus need bioanalysis to know the concentration of the drug in the patient's blood at various times during their treatment, he said.

Akers and Leslie Williams, a third-year pharmacy student from Las Vegas, Nevada, worked in March to develop the analytical method to measure the compounds and the pair are processing the clinical samples this summer to measure the concentration of doxorubicin in the patient's plasma at various times during their treatment.

The concentration in the blood varies based on when the drug was administered, how long the patient has been in treatment and other patient parameters and adverse effects, said Williams.

"This new contract opens up new opportunities," said College of Pharmacy Dean Tom Campbell. "Sarah Cannon has been a good partner of ours for a number of years, but this is the first time we have been engaged with them from a research perspective. We can offer them a reliable and proven local lab for bioanalysis, rather than them having to send samples across the country."

Lipscomb's PSRC specializes in pharmacokinetics, which is the study of how the body processes and excretes a drug. Metabolism and excretion rates impact how effective a drug can be and over what time period.

The PSRC has been conducting pharmacokinetic analysis for 20 years through various grants and contracts with healthcare organizations such as Vanderbilt University's hospitals, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, American Heart Association, Northwestern University, the Cleveland Clinic and National Institutes of Health.