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In recent years, steady progress has been made in synthesizing and characterizing engineered nanoparticles, resulting in several approved drugs and multiple promising candidates in clinical trials. Regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency released important guidance documents facilitating nanoparticle-based drug product development, particularly in the context of liposomes and lipid-based carriers. Even with the progress achieved, it is clear that many barriers must still be overcome to accelerate translation into the clinic. At the recent conference workshop "Mechanisms and Barriers in Nanomedicine" in May 2023 in Colorado, U.S.A., leading experts discussed the formulation, physiological, immunological, regulatory, clinical, and educational barriers. This position paper invites open, unrestricted, nonproprietary discussion among senior faculty, young investigators, and students to trigger ideas and concepts to move the field forward.

Objective: Use of traditional scoring metrics for residency recruitment creates racial and gender bias. In addition, widespread use of pass/fail grading has led to noncomparable data. To adjust to these challenges, we developed a holistic review (HR) rubric for scoring residency applicants for interview selection., Design: Single-center observational study comparing the proportion of underrepresented in medicine (URM) students and their United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) scores who were invited for interview before (2015-2020) and after (2022) implementation of a holistic review process., Setting: General surgery residency program at a tertiary academic center., Participants: US allopathic medical students applying for general surgery residency., Results: After initial screening, a total of 1514 allopathic applicants were narrowed down to 586 (38.7%) for HR. A total of 52% were female and 17% identified as URM. Based on HR score, 20% (118/586) of applicants were invited for an interview. The median HR score was 11 (range 4-19). There was a fourfold higher coefficient of variation of HR scores (22.3; 95% CI 21.0-23.7) compared to USMLE scores (5.1; 95% Cl 4.8-5.3), resulting in greater spread and distinction among applicants. There were no significant differences in HR scores between genders (p = 0.60) or URM vs non-URM (p = 0.08). There were no significant differences in Step 1 (p = 0.60) and 2CK (p = 0.30) scores between those who were invited to interview or not. On multivariable analysis, USMLE scores (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.98-1.03), URM status (OR 1.71 95% CI 0.98-2.92), and gender (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.60-1.45) did not predict interview selection (all p > 0.05). There was a meaningful increase in the percentage of URM interviewed after HR implementation (12.9% vs 23.1%, p = 0.016)., Conclusion: The holistic review process is feasible and eliminates the use of noncomparable metrics for surgical applicant interview invitations and increases the percentage of URM applicants invited to interview., (Copyright © 2023 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Two challenges frequently faced by schools of pharmacy are the training of a workforce that reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of the populations they serve, as well as raising public awareness of the mission and impact of pharmacy schools. One underutilized strategy in addressing these challenges is directly engaging high school students, whose race and ethnicity more closely reflect the increasing diversity of the US population, in immersive research experiences at schools of pharmacy. Motivated by the multidisciplinary nature of pharmaceutical sciences that involve integration of various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy created the Young Innovators Program (YIP). The program is an eight-week paid summer internship that immerses participants in cutting-edge and innovative research. Through careful planning, strategic collaboration, and a purposeful recruitment process, we believe pharmacy education could benefit from the expansion of immersive programs that promote the engagement of racially and ethnically diverse high school students in real-world research., (© 2020 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.)