Commencement spotlight: Paul Lungu

NEOMED’s Commencement Ceremony was held Saturday, May 6, at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall. Among the graduating class was Paul Lungu, who earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He recently shared his story with The Pulse.

Romanian pediatrician Maria Gaspar used to travel around rural Transylvania by horse and buggy to immunize children, and examine and treat their various ailments.

Her dedication to her patients inspired her grandson, Paul Lungu, Pharm.D. (’23), to follow her footsteps into the health professions.

“Since supplies were limited and shortages were common, my grandma would often have to travel back to her medical office to have her equipment sterilized and cleaned, and so the days were long,” he said. “It didn’t matter what the weather brought that day. Whether it was rain, snow, or sunshine my grandma was perseverant and outgoing, always seeking to treat every patient she could with the highest quality of care.

“My grandma’s determinism in all she does, motivated me to follow her example of servant leadership by pursuing a career in the health professions,” he added.

Dr. Lungu grew up in Parma, Ohio, with his grandmother, his parents and “two great siblings [Titus and Lydia] that I share so many great memories with.”

He credits his tight-knit family for his success.

“My parents, Horatiu and Magdalena, immigrated from Cluj, Romania (recognized as the capital of Transylvania and home of Dracula), several decades ago and have made many sacrifices for me and my siblings to help us succeed in so many ways. I would not be who I am and where I am today without my family’s efforts and I thank God for them every day,” he said.

The Biggest Miracle

Another source of inspiration for Dr. Lungu’s decision to pursue a career in the health professions was his own illness as a child.

“When I was an infant, my neurologist suspected that I had cerebral palsy,” he shared. “The prognosis was that I would have significant limitations and be feeding from a peg tube the rest of my life. At the time my parents had been finishing up school for physical and occupational therapy and my dad built me some equipment to help with my therapy. One day I miraculously lifted myself in my bed and I ended up developing as a completely healthy infant. This is God’s biggest miracle in my life, which is an important part of my life’s story. When I grew older and my family told me the details of this story, I realized how much potential I had. I came to realize that the sky was the limit to paying it forward to achieve my dream of compassionately caring for others’ physical, mental or spiritual needs, whether that would be through medicine or another profession.”

A pivotal experience that led him to choose pharmacy rather than medicine came after his sophomore year at Cleveland State University, from which graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences. He was working in the lab of Jon Sprague, R.Ph., Ph.D., at Bowling Green State University, studying the role of atglistatin in mediating hyperthermia induced by methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, or Ecstasy).

“This experience captivated me and offered a bright perspective on all that the profession of pharmacy has to offer, including finding creative solutions to addressing public health challenges, especially in light of the opioid epidemic,” Dr. Lungu said. “Additionally I really enjoyed my upper-level applied chemistry courses in my junior and senior year of college, alongside a few other research experiences that grew my passion for the ‘therapeutic side of medicine,’ namely pharmacy.”

While he is interested in public health and forensics applications of pharmacy, his future aspirations lie in the field of clinical pharmacogenomics, which studies how genes impact individual responses to drugs.

“There are so many exciting avenues to pursue in the realm of clinical pharmacogenomics. There are so many applications for pharmacogenomics in the fields of oncology, cardiology, pain management and infectious disease to name a few,” Dr. Lungu enthused. “I am fascinated how every person breaks down the same prescribed [medication] for the same disease state differently, and I believe we will be better able to use this information to influence medication prescribing as more studies are done in the future. I have seen so many opportunities for pharmacists to be involved with the implementation of pharmacogenomic testing in the community pharmacy setting, hospital setting and outpatient setting as well.”

That interest in pharmacogenomics led to a summer research fellowship with Xinwen Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, who he lists as “great mentor,” and research assistant Katya Chiti.

“Together we studied the metabolism of sacubitril, the first medication in the combination pill Entresto (Sacubitril/Valsartan), recommended as a first-line treatment for patients with heart failure,” Dr. Lungu explained. “Dr. Wang served as a great mentor for me and my colleague, Katya, and I was able to learn more about the genetic variants responsible for how we process this medication. But most importantly I learned how to work well in a team occupying various roles.”

He further explored the field of pharmacogenomics during a clinical rotation with Dr. Jennifer Hockings.

“I wrote several pharmacogenomics (PGx) clinical notes that involved evaluating patients’ clinical status, medications, drug-drug interactions, as well as PGx test results. I learned to base recommendations using the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines alongside other standard of care clinical guidelines,” he said. “I found this experience really rewarding in being able to help optimize patients’ medication therapy by being able to evaluate how different patients break down and process similar medications for various mental health conditions. Throughout my experience, I continued to learn the importance of compassionately and patiently working with patients.”

Another valuable lesson?

“The ability to pay for the PGx test was an important consideration for many patients that Dr. Hockings and I worked with. Therefore, I will strive to take the potential cost of care into consideration as a practicing pharmacist,” he said.

Dr. Lungu will begin his pharmacy residency at Cleveland Clinic Akron General this summer.

Advice to His P1 Self

“I would tell myself to stress less, relax more, and to continue enjoying the adventure on the journey that I am on,” he said. “In my experience when you are passionate about anything, humble, and have a hard work ethic, the outcomes of your efforts will be better than what you initially thought, and the journey will likely lead you to uncovering greater plans and dreams.”