Q&A with Kenneth Hulugalla: Tailoring Nanoparticles for Better Cancer Treatment
April 29, 2026Kenneth 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.
Kenneth Hulugalla has learned not to let opportunities pass him by. Even if he doesn’t feel confident, he goes for it anyway.
“Moving from Sri Lanka to the U.S., applying for competitive fellowships like the PhRMA Foundation grant, submitting my first research paper — none of these things at the time I felt like I was ready for, but I did them anyway,” he said. “And I feel like that’s where growth happened.”
A fourth‑year PhD candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of Mississippi, Hulugalla received a PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery for his work to develop more personalized cancer treatments. He is studying how proteins in a patient’s blood interact with nanoparticle drug carriers and influence whether therapies reach cancer tumors or are removed by the immune system.
Hulugalla is investigating whether sugar-based coating on nanoparticles can help them better evade immune detection and improve treatment delivery to the tumor. He also aims to identify protein patterns in patients’ blood that predict which formulation will work best for each patient, enabling a more personalized approach to nanoparticle-based cancer treatment.
Watch this video to learn more about Hulugalla and his research.