Researcher Stories
Get to know the PhRMA Foundation’s award recipients.
Cracking the Case on Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis
Maria Hudock, an MD-PhD student at Columbia University, is researching gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes severe lung damage.
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Finding Drugs to Protect the Heart During Chemotherapy
Anh Cong, a PhD student at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is studying the sister proteins targeted by anthracycline chemotherapy drugs, which are effective against many cancers but often leave patients with heart complications.
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Targeting Cancer’s DNA Repair Process to Improve Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment
Texia Loh, a PhD student at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, is researching strategies to enhance the effectiveness of treatment for small cell lung cancer.
Watch NowImproving Antibody-Drug Conjugates for Cancer Treatment
Alina Ringaci, a PhD student at Boston University, is studying how to improve antibody-drug conjugates, a type of cancer treatment that delivers drugs directly to cancer cells.
Awardee Spotlight
Lisa Volpatti, MS, MPhil, PhD
- Northwestern University
“This award is a milestone in my career, marking my first nationally competitive grant as a faculty member. It supports our work targeting lipid-loaded macrophages — a key step toward developing better therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases.”
Understanding a Tiny RNA Modification’s Outsized Role in Cancer
Allison Siegenfeld, a postdoctoral trainee at Harvard Medical School, is studying a hallmark of cancer — the dysregulation of messenger RNA levels — to better understand how treatments can target this mechanism of action.