PhRMA Foundation Recognizes 6 Clinical and Translational Science Papers with Trainee Challenge Awards

The PhRMA Foundation and the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) announced that six papers will receive Trainee Challenge Awards as part of a Clinical and Translational Science special call on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Eligible first authors will receive a $5,000 prize and payment of their article publication fee by the PhRMA Foundation, a 60-year-old nonprofit that supports early career researchers through grants and fellowships.

“Given the rapid evolution of AI and its clear potential for enhancing translational research, it’s critical that the field engage trainees early on in understanding, evaluating, and implementing AI in research,” said Foundation President Amy M. Miller, PhD. “This Challenge Award aims to amplify the voices of early career researchers using AI to advance drug development.”

The six awarded papers are available in the October issue of CTS:

• Network Modeling of Biomarker Systems in Liver Steatosis and Fibrosis, Amruta Gajanan Bhat and Murali Ramanathan
• A Comparison of AI and Population PK Models to Predict Antiepileptic Drug Concentrations Using Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Records, Tae Kyu Chung and Howard Lee
• Application of Machine Learning for Predicting Progression-Free and Overall Survival in Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma, Caroline W. Grant, Jerry Li, Swan Lin, Dana Nickens, Daniele Ouellet, and Mohamed H. Shahin
• Development of a Novel Machine Learning Method for Estimating Lifelong Chronic Disease Progression and Its Applications in Type 2 Diabetes, Yamato Sano*, Ryota Jin*, Hideki Yoshioka, Yuki Nakazato, Hiromi Sato, Akihiro Hisaka
• AI-Driven Variant Annotation of Precision Oncology in Breast Cancer, Kriti Shukla, Yue Wang, Philip M. Spanheimer, Elizabeth Brunk, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Out-of-Distribution Detection as a Risk-Control Strategy for Medical Classification Machine Learning Models, Chu Weng*, Joshua Ward*, Wesley Lin, Sherry Dong, Qi Liu, Hanrui Zhang
  *co-first authors

“These award-winning papers exemplify ASCPT’s commitment to stimulating scientific advancements and empowering researchers at all stages of their careers. By spotlighting innovative applications of AI and machine learning in translational science, the collection of papers advances therapeutic development while also preparing the next generation of clinical pharmacologists to meet the evolving needs of patients and society. We thank the PhRMA Foundation for their commitment to early career researchers and appreciate the opportunity to partner with them on this Challenge Award,” said ASCPT Chief Executive Officer Abigail W. Gorman, MBA. 

Read about why these papers were chosen in the issue’s editorial.

About the PhRMA Foundation

The PhRMA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that fosters biopharmaceutical innovation and value-driven health care by investing in the frontiers of research. The Foundation catalyzes the careers of promising researchers through competitive, peer-reviewed grants and fellowships in the fields of drug delivery, drug discovery, translational medicine, and value assessment and health outcomes research.

About the ASCPT

The American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) was founded in 1900 and consists of over 3,000 professionals whose primary interest is to advance the science and practice of clinical pharmacology and translational science for the therapeutic benefit of patients and society. ASCPT is the largest scientific and professional organization serving the disciplines of clinical pharmacology and translational science.

About Clinical and Translational Science

An official open-access journal of ASCPT, Clinical and Translational Science highlights original research that bridges laboratory discoveries with the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.