Researchers Awarded $2.1M to Train Scientists in Biomolecular Pharmacology
Hui Feng, MD, PhD, and Venetia Zachariou, PhD, have received $2.1M from the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to fund their five-year, T32 grant project, “Training in Biomolecular Pharmacology.” It will allow support for four new trainees each year for two-year terms.
L to r: Venetia Zachariou, Venetia Zachariou, PhD, and Hui Feng, MD, PhD.
The predoctoral Training Program in Biomolecular Pharmacology was launched at the school in 1991 by David Farb, PhD, with an aim to train emerging leaders in interdisciplinary discovery-based approaches to targeting therapeutics and now has evolved to encompass the next generation of technologies targeting precision therapeutics.
“Our overarching goal is to prepare the next generation of independent investigators, industry leaders, educators and policy makers in pharmacological sciences through individualized and multidisciplinary research training, collaborations, networking and career development in the laboratories of nationally and internationally recognized faculty,” explains Feng, associate professor of pharmacology and medicine as well as director of the school’s Laboratory of Zebrafish Genetics and Cancer Therapeutics.
Predoctoral trainees will be exposed to various scientific fields and methodologies combining pharmacology with chemistry, structural and cell biology, biomedical engineering, biochemistry and genomics through innovative research, coursework, seminars, workshops, journal clubs (featuring authors of leading publications in the respective field), retreats and other activities.
Specifically, trainees for this T32 grant enter via the pharmacology program in the department of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics or the MD-PhD Program. According to Zachariou, the Edward Avedisian Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics, an integrated curriculum provides students with enriched training in pharmacology coordinated with specialized training in their primary discipline. “The core curriculum stresses fundamental pharmacological principles including interactions of bioactive molecules, drug delivery for novel therapeutics, animal models relevant to therapeutics and opportunities for advanced drug discovery.”