Researcher Stories
Get to know the PhRMA Foundation’s award recipients.
Building Better Gene Therapies Through Bioengineering
Kijung Kwak, a PhD student at the University of Maryland-College Park, received a 2026 PhRMA Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery for his research to develop a more effective way to deliver gene therapies to the brain for Parkinson’s disease.
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Balancing Curiosity and Patience in the Pursuit of New Treatments
Julia Bleier, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medicine is developing a new way to target a key brain receptor involved in brain disorders such as anxiety, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease.
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Designing Better Tuberculosis Medicines for the Patients Who Need Them Most
Pareeta Kotecha, a PhD student at the University of Florida, is researching the real-world impacts of GLP-1 medicines in children and adolescents with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Read MoreDeveloping a Cell Therapy to Fight Infection in Vulnerable Patients
An MD-PhD student at Brown University, Melanie Martinsen is researching a potential cell-based therapy for patients vulnerable to infection due to low levels of neutrophils, infection-fighting white blood cells.
Awardee Spotlight
David Nie, PhD
- Yale University
“It’s an honor to be selected as a PhRMA Foundation awardee. This recognition is a powerful catalyst for my research on the next generation of anti-cancer therapeutics and reinforces my commitment to advancing the frontiers of cancer drug discovery.”
Inspired by Women in Science, Driven to Fight Cancer
Shannuo Li, a PhD student in molecular pharmaceutics at the University of Utah, aims to develop new therapies for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that often returns after treatment.