Newsletter | April 2025

In 2025, the PhRMA Foundation (PhF) is celebrating our 60th anniversary. Since our founding in 1965, we have awarded more than $100 million in grants to over 2,700 researchers at hundreds of U.S. universities and institutions.

Hear directly from our 2025 award recipients about their research and career paths.

Azlann Arnett: Reprogramming CAR T Cells to Overcome Barriers in Treating Solid Tumors

Nha Tran: Empowering Older Adults with Diabetes to Discuss Deprescribing with Doctors

Bernardo Aguzzoli Heberle: Studying RNA to Find Molecular Targets for Alzheimer’s Treatment

Alan Ardito: Investigating Malaria’s Impact on the Brain to Find Therapeutic Targets

A postdoctoral fellowship at a pharmaceutical company offers a chance to get your foot into the door of industry. This Foundation webinar series highlights industry career opportunities for early career researchers at companies like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Biogen, and UCB. View all webinars.

Pfizer’s Postdoctoral Research Opportunities

As part of Pfizer’s Research & Development Postdoctoral Program, scientists engage in ground-breaking research, while making valuable connections with industry professionals. Our recent webinar gives an overview of Pfizer’s program and how to apply, and Pfizer fellows discuss their experiences and answer questions.

PhF Welcomes Two Board Members

Earlier this year, the Foundation announced the appointment to its Board of Directors of Dr. John C. Reed, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President of Innovative Medicine R&D at Johnson & Johnson, and Dr. Donatello Crocetta, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Medical Communities at UCB. Learn more.

In this blog post, PhF President Dr. Amy M. Miller describes the Foundation's efforts to fund value assessment and health outcomes research with an emphasis on patient engagement to ensure research aligns with the real-world needs and experiences of patients. Applications for the Foundation's 2026 Value Assessment and Health Outcomes Research awards will open in September. Read the blog.

Congrats to these Foundation-funded researchers on their recent work.

**Indicates research directly supported by a PhRMA Foundation award.

**Systematic review and meta-analysis of bulk RNAseq studies in human Alzheimer's disease brain tissue, Alzheimer's & Dementia

Bernardo Aguzzoli Heberle (PhF25) and Mark T. W. Ebbert (PhF17), University of Kentucky

Repair, Regeneration, and Replacement, Revisited (Redux), Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology

David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD (PhF24), University of Southern California

Delivery of genome editors with engineered virus-like particles, Methods in Enzymology

Samagya Banskota, PhD (PhF25), Boston University

**Structure-guided design of partial agonists at an opioid receptor, Nature Communications

Sarah Bernhard (PhF23), Washington University in St. Louis

Real-world comparative outcomes of EGFR-TKIs for first-line treatment of EGFR+ metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer, Cancer Treatment and Research Communications

Diana Brixner, PhD (PhF21), University of Utah

Health Disparities in HIV Care and Strategies for Improving Equitable Access to Care, American Journal of Managed Care

Diana Brixner, PhD (PhF21), University of Utah

**Assessment of In Vitro Models of the Human Buccal Mucosa for Vaccine and Adjuvant Development, Molecular Pharmaceutics

Madison Davis (PhF24), University of Texas at Austin

The aggregation tendencies of the signal peptide regions of prone and not prone to aggregate proteins, Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports

Jessica Fortin, DVM, PhD (PhF21), Purdue University

Inspecting the Triazole Scaffold as Powerful Antifibril Agents against 2N4R Tau and α-Synuclein Aggregates, ACS Omega

Jessica Fortin, DVM, PhD (PhF21), Purdue University

**Evolutionary trajectories of immune escape across cancers, bioRxiv

Shengqing (Stan) Gu, PhD (PhF23), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

**Next generation APOBEC3 inhibitors: optimally designed for potency and nuclease stability, Nucleic Acids Research

Adam Hedger, PhD (PhF22), University of Massachusetts

**Resistance to Allosteric Inhibitors, Journal of Molecular Biology Ariel Leyte-Vidal (PhF25), University of Miami

**Liposome-Enabled Nanomaterials for Muscle Regeneration, Small Methods

Jianqin Lu, PhD (PhF22), University of Arizona

**Size-transformable nanotherapeutics for cancer therapy, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B

Jianqin Lu, PhD (PhF22), University of Arizona

**Opioid use in treated and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea: remifentanil pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in adult volunteers, British Journal of Anaesthesia

Michael Montana, PhD (PhF17), Saint Louis University

**GLP-1RA and SGLT2i Medications for Type 2 Diabetes and Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias, JAMA Neurology

Huilin Tang, PhD (PhF23), University of Florida

**Deep immunophenotyping reveals circulating activated lymphocytes in individuals at risk for rheumatoid arthritis, The Journal of Clinical Investigation

Fan Zhang, PhD (PhF22), University of Colorado

Charlems Alvarez-Jimenez, PhD (PhF24) of Case Western Reserve University presented two papers at the SPIE Medical Imaging meeting in February.

David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD (PhF24) of the University of Southern California recently presented work related to his PhF grant at two international conferences: Journées Cicatrisations 2025 in Paris and an Association of Podiatrists of Malta symposium. He was also honored with Samuel Merritt University's 2025 Health Impact Award for Distinguished Alumnus and named a Distinguished Professor by USC.

Sarah Bernhard, PhD (PhF23) of Washington University in St. Louis successfully defended her PhD dissertation this month.

Diana Brixner, PhD (PhF21) retired from the University of Utah in July 2024. She is now a principal at the Millcreek Outcomes Group and serving on the Executive Board of the MarketAccess Forum.

Joshua Centore, PhD (PhF22) of the Benaroya Research Institute is headed to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall. His research will also be presented at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies meeting in June.

Piaopiao Li, MS (PhF24) of the University of Florida received the 85th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions Young Investigator Award.

Dallin Lowder, PhD (PhF22) of Baylor College of Medicine successfully defended his PhD dissertation in March.

Carol Morris (PhF24) of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences advocated for research funding on Capitol Hill in February as part of a Science Communication Fellowship with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Ding Quan (Quinton) Ng, PhD, BSc (Pharm) (PhF23) of the University of California, Irvine, successfully defended his PhD dissertation this month and received a postdoctoral researcher offer at MD Anderson Cancer Center to further his research into palliative care, cancer survivorship, health outcomes, and health service research. "This would not have been possible without the support from PhRMA Foundation," he said.

Surachat Ngorsuraches, PhD (PhF23) of Auburn University will present research funded by his PhF Mid-Career Award at ISPOR 2025 in May and the Society for Medical Decision Making meeting in June.

Nokomis Ramos-Gonzalez, PhD (PhF24) of the Washington University in St. Louis received the Toni Shippenberg Young Investigator Award for best postdoctoral talk at the 8th Kappa Therapeutics Conference in March. She also presented her work at ASPET 2025 this month and earned third place in the postdoctoral oral presentation competition for molecular pharmacology.

Huilin Tang, PhD (PhF23) completed his PhD at the University of Florida and started as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in January.

Xiyin Wang, MS (PhF24) of Mayo Clinic is presenting his PhF-funded research at two upcoming conferences. He received a travel award for the ASPET annual meeting and a Scholar-in-Training Award and DMM Conference Travel Grant for the AACR annual meeting.

Stephanie Zawada, MS (PhF23) of Mayo Clinic presented her PhF-funded research at the American Academy of Neurology Conference in April.

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