Each month, the editors of three of the ASPET journals choose their Highlighted Trainee Authors. These early-career scientists are recognized for their innovative research published in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Drug Metabolism and Disposition, and Molecular Pharmacology. This feature showcases selected young scientists, demonstrates what drives them, and reveals why pharmacology is important to them. This month we are featuring the February 2026 Highlighted Trainee Authors.
Abiodun Wahab
The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Abiodun Wahab is a fourth- year doctoral candidate at the University of Alabama, where she is pursuing her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Advanced Drug Delivery. Early training in veterinary medicine sparked her interest in how diseases and treatments affect multiple organ systems. In addition to scientific training from advisors, direct exposure to chemotherapy-induced toxicity, and the limited treatment options available to prevent it, further strengthened her interest in translational pharmacology, as well as improving treatment safety while preserving therapeutic effectiveness.
Chemotherapy, although highly effective in killing cancer cells, often causes unintended damage to healthy tissues. Many of these toxicities, including acute kidney injury, currently have no FDA-approved pharmacotherapeutics. As a result, clinicians sometimes must reduce or pause chemotherapy treatment to allow patients time to recover from off-target effects.
Wahab’s published research, “Naringenin-functionalized polyester nanoparticles improve oral urolithin A delivery and protect against cisplatin-induced kidney injury via heme oxygenase-1 activation and mitochondrial quality control,” focuses on delivering urolithin A nanoparticles as an adjunct anti-inflammatory to standard chemotherapy to reduce unwanted off-target toxicities. This approach aims to allow cancer patients to continue therapy with no interruptions, while simultaneously alleviating side effects associated with these drugs. She hopes that her work will contribute to ongoing efforts to make pharmacological treatment safer and more tolerable for patients, especially in oncology.
Wahab plans to pursue a career in translational pharmacology focused on alleviating chemotherapy-induced toxicities. “In the future,” she said, “I aim to continue working at the intersection of pharmacology, veterinary medicine, and disease biology to help advance safer and more patient-centered treatment approaches for both humans and animals.”
For Wahab, having her research published in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics is a privilege and a strong source of motivation as she continues her training.
Illia Gelman
Illia Gelman is a first-year PhD student in the Biomedical and Molecular department at Queen’s University at Kingston in Canada. Ever since he was a child, he’s always had a fascination with nature, and gaining laboratory experience in high school was what cemented his passion for biomedical sciences. Learning about and trying patch-clamp increased his interest in electrophysiology. Gelman finds inspiration from his mentors Dr. Shetuan Zhang and Dr. Xiaolong Yang, who constantly share their expertise and help fuel his passion for research.
Drugs are developed to target a specific protein or function of the cell. Nonetheless, all these different drugs can have varying effects and/or mechanisms of action. Gelman’s published article, “Amiodarone irrecoverably impairs the function of human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channels,” focuses on Amiodarone, an antiarrhythmic drug that is oftentimes the first choice for the treatment of various arrhythmias. The research shows an entirely new mode of interaction between amiodarone and the hERG channel.
“I hope that my research will help better shape cardiovascular healthcare by expanding our understanding of the drugs being used and, perhaps, even guide further drug development,” Gelman shared.
For Gelman, the most rewarding part of research has been the feeling he gets when he finally collects enough data to connect the dots, especially after long months of hard work and the occasional late night at the lab. Having experienced the highs and lows of research, Gelman’s passion for it continues to grow. He aims to stay within the biomedical field to pursue a research career.
In 2025, Gelman attended the ASPET Annual Meeting to present his research. “It was an amazing opportunity to meet the people behind the publications in ASPET’s journals, and I am proud to have my first primary research manuscript published in Molecular Pharmacology.”
Alessandra Pugliano
Drug Metabolism and Disposition
Alessandra Pugliano is a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU Leuven in collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche. Pugliano’s career path has been a deliberate journey from understanding the chemical structure of matter to exploring the complex biological behavior of drugs. Her bachelor’s research focused on the utilization of solid-state NMR to characterize Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients as co-crystals. Pursuing her Master’s in Medicinal Chemistry gave her a deep appreciation for molecular construction. A second post-graduate internship shifted Pugliano’s focus towards drug-drug interactions (DDI) and highlighted the clinical importance of evaluating the potential interactions between co-administered drugs.
The core of Pugliano’s research, “Combining the novel all-human co-cultured hepatocytes system with PBPK modeling to assess the translatability of CYP and UGT induction data,” focuses on improving DDI risk assessment through a combination of in vitro experiments and computational modeling, using human-derived models to measure these interactions and retrieve parameters defining the DDI phenomenon in the lab. She then integrates this experimental data into mathematical models, like mechanistic static and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models, to simulate various clinical scenarios and predict how these interactions will manifest in humans, helping to identify potential safety risks before clinical trials.
“I hope my research serves as a meaningful puzzle piece that, when combined with the work of my peers, helps complete the bigger picture of DDI translatability and advances the field toward more reliable risk assessment frameworks,” Pugliano shared.
In terms of her future research, Pugliano plans to continue building her expertise in complex enzymatic DDIs, such as autoinhibition and autoinduction, while further developing her practical skills in PBPK modeling. She is also interested in expanding her focus to include transporter-mediated interactions and the complexities of translating drug clearance.
For Pugliano, seeing her research published in Drug Metabolism and Disposition is a deeply rewarding experience and an incredible honor. “Beyond the personal milestone, it is a recognition of the relevance of our research and validation of the effort we put forward as a scientific community in closing critical knowledge gaps.”