AAPS Foundation Recognizes Faculty and Student Research

The AAPS Foundation announced on July 16 the 2015 New Investigator Grant andGraduate Student Fellowship winners selected from more than 125 applications from across the globe.

“There are few sources for start-up researcher funding dedicated to pharmaceutical sciences, and the AAPS Foundation is proud to support graduate PhD training and promoting the career development of young investigators through these competitive endowments,” noted Chair of the Graduate Student Fellowship and AAPS past-president Danny D. Shen. “The Graduate Student Fellowship award provides timely funding for students at the early to mid-stage of their graduate training, while the Investigator Grant is meant to support critical pilot studies to demonstrate the feasibility of a new and novel direction of research.”

AAPS Foundation New Investigator Grant Winner
The New Investigator Grant is a $40,000 grant awarded to a faculty member at a US institution to further innovative, impactful research. The award was presented to Anthony J. Kim, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Maryland for novel therapeutic strategies to target invasive brain cancer.

AAPS Foundation Graduate Student Fellowships
Graduate Student Fellowships recognize student excellence in their academic performance and validates that their research is deemed outstanding by an expert panel of outside pharmaceutical scientists. Awards were presented to five AAPS student members; each received $10,000.

Winners
James I. Andorko
University of Maryland
Impact of Degradable Polymers on Lymph Node Function and Systemic Immunity

Haiyan Dong
Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
The Architecture and Biological Function of Dual Cyclized Aptamer-Coated Nanomaterials: Enhanced Specificity and Theranostics with Multifunctional Primer-integrated Molecular Beacon for Capturing Circulating Tumor Cells and Metastasis Prevention

Madeline Krentz
University of Kentucky
Gene Expression Profiles Reveal Alternative Targets of Therapeutic Intervention for the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers

Laura Isabel Mosquera-Giraldo
Purdue University
A molecular perspective for the understanding of the effectiveness of cellulose polymers at inhibiting drug crystallization

Laura Northrup
University of Kansas
Tolerogenic adjuvants for antigen-specific treatment of multiple sclerosis

Honorable Mentions were awarded to five students:

Zhijin Chen
University of Missouri–Kansas City
Discovery and application of IGF2R-specific peptide for liver fibrosis therapy

Xiao Wen Guan
University of Buffalo, New York

Monocarboxylate Transporters (MCT) as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Treatment

Krystina Hess

University of Maryland
Self-Assembled Nucleic Acid Particles to Drive Immune Tolerance

Behnoush Khorsand-Sourkohi

University of Iowa
A Novel RNA Based Biomaterial for Bone Regeneration

Adil Rasheed
University of Toronto, Canada

The modulation of endothelial progenitor cell function by the liver X receptors as a treatment for atherosclerosis

Source: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)