‘Pittsburgh Business Times’ Selects Jelena Janjic for 2018 Innovator Award
Associate Pharmacy Professor Dr. Jelena Janjic will receive a 2018 Innovator Award from the Pittsburgh Business Times for her research in pain nanomedicine.
The founder and co-director of the University’s Chronic Pain Research Consortium, Janjic with her team of students and collaborators from Duquesne, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas in Dallas, Wake Forest University and the U.S. Air Force created the first inflammatory pain nanomedicine that could significantly reduce the need for opioids in treating pain. Janjic is an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education faculty fellow and principal scientist with the 59th Medical Wing of the Air Force.
Janjic and her team found that nanomedicines, which carry miniscule amounts of drugs, reduced pain after a single injection for more than a week in rats and other animals. The nanomedicines carry 2,000 times less medicine than a typical dose, which could reduce the need for opioids in treating various types of pain, including after-injury, surgery or even cancer.
The Pittsburgh Business Times Innovator Awards recognize individuals who have made extraordinary advances in their respective fields by challenging conventional thinking and developing products and new approaches that can change the world.
Janjic and other Pittsburgh innovators will be honored at an awards ceremony on Dec. 5, and the winners will be featured in the Pittsburgh Business Times in the Dec. 7 edition.