Researcher Stories
Get to know the PhRMA Foundation’s award recipients.
Following Her Passion for Drug Discovery, One Puzzle Piece at a Time
Kelly O’Rourke, a PhD student at Vanderbilt University, aims to uncover how a key protein helps protect the brain’s dopamine-producing cells, with the goal of finding new treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
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Designing Better Tuberculosis Medicines for the Patients Who Need Them Most
Dr. Sichen Song, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, aims to make tuberculosis treatment easier and more effective by creating medicines that are easier to store, better absorbed by the body, and require fewer pills for patients to take.
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Measuring Brain Activity to Improve Concussion Diagnosis
Dr. Taotao Wu, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, aims to develop a more objective way to measure how the brain is functioning after a concussion.
Read MoreUsing AI and Skin Cells to Advance Precision Medicine for ALS
Zizheng Li, a fifth-year PhD student at the University of California, San Francisco, is using an unconventional approach to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Awardee Spotlight
Emeka (Elvis) Duru
- University of Utah
“I am deeply honored to receive the PhRMA Foundation grant. As a pharmacist who has witnessed patients forgo medications they couldn’t afford, this fellowship supports my research on insurance barriers to obesity pharmacotherapy and my commitment to making life-changing treatments accessible to all.”
Improving Existing Antibiotics to Fight Tuberculosis
Mary Nantongo, a PhD student at Case Western Reserve University, aims to develop therapeutics to better manage drug-resistant tuberculosis, which has a tremendous impact on families and communities in her home country of Uganda.