After storied career, KU Pharmacy Professor Emeritus Valentino Stella is focused on the impact his work has on others

By Emily Becker

The research and teaching career of Dr. Valentino Stella has spanned over four decades. He holds 59 U.S. patents and is the inventor or co-inventor of seven drugs that are currently on the market, three of which were developed while he was a faculty member at the KU School of Pharmacy. 

Stella believes that his greatest accomplishment is the impact he’s made on the lives of others; an impact that ranges from the global to the personal. He estimates his work on one of the earliest drugs to treat AIDS has saved 5-10 million people. 

However, it’s a more personal story of the implication of his work that has stuck with him the most. When Rob Myers’ daughter was rushed to a hospital after a fall, she was treated with an anti-seizure drug. Myers was an undergraduate Pharmacy student at KU, and he helped Stella develop the drug that eventually helped his daughter.

“Thinking about the forever is so important,” Stella said. “If you want to have your name on a building, remember that building will be torn down. When you give a scholarship to a kid and they go on and save millions of lives, that’s forever.” 

Supporting researchers and fueling innovation are two of the School of Pharmacy’s priorities in the current campus fundraising campaign. Learn more and make a gift to the KU School of Pharmacy.