Researcher Stories
Get to know the PhRMA Foundation’s award recipients.
Tailoring Nanoparticles for Better Cancer Treatment
Kenneth Hulugalla, a PhD candidate at the University of Mississippi, is studying how proteins in a patient’s blood interact with nanoparticle drug carriers and influence whether therapies reach cancer tumors.
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Combining Strategies to Stop Cancer Growth
Masuda Akther, a PhD candidate at Rutgers University, is developing a combination therapy designed to target two vulnerabilities of cancer cells.
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From Center Stage to the Neuroscience Lab
Abigail Schwarz, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is researching a psychedelic-like compound for the treatment of chronic pain and opioid use disorder.
Watch NowDesigning a ‘Superhero Bacteria’ to Relieve Gut Stress
Gracelyn Richmond, a fifth-year PhD candidate at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, aims to create therapeutic products that could improve gastrointestinal symptoms by leveraging bacterial interactions in the gut microbiome.
Awardee Spotlight
Bojing Jiang, MS, MPhil
- Washington University in St. Louis
“Support from the PhRMA Foundation empowers me to develop precise and safe peptide-based delivery platforms that activate tumor immunity, reduce systemic toxicity, and translate fundamental engineering innovations into clinically impactful cancer immunotherapies.”
Developing a Platform for Personalized Cancer Vaccines
Xinyi Tu, a PhD student at Arizona State University, is developing a cancer vaccine platform that uses nanoparticles to deliver vaccine ingredients to the immune system.