UConn Student Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences

“Summer 2021’s pharmaceutical-focused research projects highlight the diverse opportunities for undergrad research for students in the School of Pharmacy and across UConn.”

excerpted from UConn Today

“The department of pharmaceutical sciences has a rich history of mentoring and training undergraduates in research. The multi-disciplinarily nature of our department provides a variety of options to students interested in research in areas such as drug discovery, mode of action, drug formulation and safety. Exposure to research in pharmaceutical sciences not only creates awareness among undergraduate students about the value of scientific inquiry, but also helps them explore career fields” says José Manautou, Department Head.

“Summer 2021’s pharmaceutical-focused student research projects highlight the diverse opportunities for undergraduate students in the School of Pharmacy and across UConn,” says Brian Aneskievich, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and undergraduate research coordinator. “Students work closely with faculty members in their labs benefiting from the experience, counsel and professional workplace.”

IMS faculty members Xiuling Lu and Bodhi Chaudhuri served as mentors to three of these student researchers. Click the link for each student to view the presentation of their one-minute videos from both UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Pharmacy.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) Awardee Joshua Yu (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS, ’23) Project Title: Overcoming Acute Myeloid Leukemia Resistance through Nanoparticle-Mediated Inhibition Faculty Mentor: Dr. Xiuling Lu, Pharmaceutical Sciences

“Joshua has a strong interest in integrating his background in molecular cell biology with our focused area of drug delivery. He is exploring to uncover the mechanism of effective leukemic stem cell inhibition using our developed nanoparticles carrying an anti-cancer drug, as an extension of his Holster Scholar project last summer. We look forward to the great outcome through Joshua’s dedication, careful thinking and persistent effort into this work.” – Dr. Lu View Joshua’s video here

UConn Holster Scholars Ananya Aggarwal (STEM Scholar, Pre-Dental, CLAS, ’24) Project Title: Synthesizing a Cisplatin Loaded Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle for the Intraperitoneal Treatment of Ovarian Cancer Faculty Mentor: Dr. Xiuling Lu, Pharmaceutical Sciences “As a highly motivated and dedicated young researcher, Ananya exhibited her maturity since she started her freshman year. This relatively independent research is built upon our lab’s platform technology using tumor-specific nanoparticles to target peritoneal metastasis. Ananya proposed to optimize the preparation of drug loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles for improving the delivery of the anti-cancer drug cisplatin. She has a thoughtful study plan and has been working diligently in the lab. I believe she will have a fruitful summer.” – Dr. Lu

View Ananya’s video here

Lyla White (STEM Scholar, Pharmacy Studies, ’24) Project Title: Can 3D Printers Create Viable Personalized Therapy in the Treatment of Diabetes? Faculty Mentors: Dr. Bodhi Chaudhuri, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dr. Anson Ma, CBE/IMS

“Lyla is exceptionally bright and very proactive. When she approached me as a potential mentor, she was prepared, knew the area of research I was involved in, and had a few possible ideas for where to go next. There are several unknowns in her project and she will have to troubleshoot the novel solutions that will extend the scientific underpinning of this 3D printing approach. I like the ambitiousness of the project and that it has real clinical implications for patients with diabetes while also being a model that can be applied to other active ingredients that could be incorporated into 3D printed tablets for other diseases.” – Dr. Chaudhuri

View Lyla’s video here

Read about all the student researchers here

“Students work closely with faculty members in their labs, benefiting from the experience, counsel, and professional workplace.”

~Dr. Brian Aneskievich, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology