New College of Pharmacy Ph.D. Graduates Plan Their Futures
| The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy has a strong graduate program in addition to its nationally ranked pharmacy school. Although most graduates go straight into the field after completing their Pharm.D., others buckle down for a few more years to obtain their Ph.D. before they forge new careers in their chosen specialties.
The still-growing doctoral program continues to evolve and is well-positioned for the future, said Brendan Frett, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences.
“The program has grown tremendously in scope and quality over the past few years,” Frett said. “We’re seeing more interdisciplinary research, more grant funding and more collaboration across labs and departments. It prepares students well — not just for academic careers but for roles in industry, regulatory science and beyond. One of the program’s strengths is its flexibility. Students can shape their training based on their interests.”
Baku Acharya, Ph.D., Bahaa Jabali, Ph.D., and Christopher Godwin, Pharm.D., Ph.D., graduated this past spring with Ph.D. degrees in pharmaceutical sciences. This track aligns more closely with pharmaceuticals and drug development, using innovative research to improve drug treatments and optimize patient outcomes.
Acharya, a Nepalese native, grew up in a family of doctors and was inspired to pursue drug design and cancer research after losing her grandmother to cancer. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in her home country before completing a Master of Science degree at Mississippi State University.
Acharya’s doctoral work at UAMS focused on kinase inhibitors as a targeted cancer therapy. Kinases are a type of enzyme found in human cells that help control important functions, such as cell signaling, metabolism, division and survival. Certain kinases are more active in some types of cancer cells and blocking them may keep the cancer cells from growing.
“My research is in drug design, be it cancer or infections,” she said. “Patients undergoing chemotherapy frequently experience a wide range of side effects. So, our idea is to develop a targeted therapy that helps minimize the risks or side effects associated with chemotherapy and even have a more potent drug than we already see in the clinics. The ability to contribute to this field, to help this field advance, is what excites me. We can make an impact.”
Acharya was the first student Frett mentored who worked alongside him in the lab. Frett, a member of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, also focuses his research on the design and development of cancer-fighting drugs.
“Dr. Acharya was focused on translational science and always kept the big picture in mind,” Frett said. “She was constantly thinking about how our work could directly impact patient care.”
Acharya said her personal and professional skills have improved since coming to UAMS.
“It has definitely helped me grow as a scientist,” she said. “I knew this would be hard, and I had glimpses in my master’s, but I didn’t know it was this challenging until I got into the Ph.D. program and started taking ownership of projects and navigating ups and downs. In addition to being a better scientist, my critical thinking and my writing skills have vastly improved. So, there’s been a lot of improvement since I came to UAMS.”
Jabali, a Palestinian native living in Little Rock, already had extensive field experience before arriving at UAMS, owning a pharmacy for over a decade. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees there before emigrating to Spain and then the United States. Now, he has a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the College of Pharmacy.
His research involved looking for new treatments in lung cancers, specifically non-small cell lung cancer. Over time, cancer cells become resistant to certain treatments, so Jabali spent time developing a new generation of drugs using different mechanisms than previous iterations.
Jabali worked alongside Frett and Hong-yu Li, Ph.D., a renowned cancer researcher. Jabali said the skills he learned in the lab were particularly valuable and altered the trajectory of his career. He learned how to synthesize oligo nucleotides — a cutting-edge chemical process involved in gene editing, diagnostics, therapeutics and research. He also worked on other innovative therapeutic strategies, such as targeted protein degradation, using PROTAC (proteolysis targeting chimera) molecules, as well as other small molecules and oligonucleotides.
“Dr. Jabali had a strong background in chemistry and pharmacy. He was extremely methodical, consistent and precise in the lab,” Frett said. “His ability to troubleshoot and think critically about chemical reactions made him a natural fit for drug discovery work.”
Jabali said he wants to do research for spinal cord injury patients, applying knowledge he gained while working on cancer cells.
“I learned a lot here at UAMS,” he said. “In terms of research it’s helped so much, because I didn’t get this experience in my home country. It was my dream to get a Ph.D. from the United States. I applied to every university that had a medicinal chemistry program, and it was my luck to end up here. It’s been a very long journey.”
Godwin was one of the first students to enroll in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program. A native of Sardis, a small community near Bauxite, he commutes to Little Rock every day for his job as a PRN pharmacist on the UAMS campus.
As a graduate student, Godwin focused on helping patients through clinical trials and took part in the radiation biology labs, which look at ways to improve various cancer treatments. He also spent time in the cardiology clinic, the neonatal ICU and general medicine clinics, as well as the specialty pharmacy. This all combined to give him a bigger perspective.
“I think the direction I’m going, especially in specialty pharmacy where a lot of the drugs are new drugs, is helping physicians understand where these things fit into practice,” he said. “That’s what I’ve gained from these three years. I got to see the preclinical trial, I got to take classes and understand, and I’ve looked at clinical trials going on at UAMS. I can see the whole process, and now I can explain that to physicians and see how that fits into therapy.”
A conversation with his mentor, Nukhet Aykin-Burns, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, is what eventually steered him towards drug development.
The two of them examined samples from a patient with resistant glioblastoma to determine how the tumor changed after each treatment. That gave Godwin the idea to start looking into more effective treatments for returning tumors. So he spent time treating cancer cells with chemotherapy drugs and allowing them to return to see how the cells themselves had changed. Over time, the cancer cells became resistant to the drug, so he began testing other drugs. He’s presented nationally and internationally on the project and plans to continue his work.
With a big-picture view of his role in the health care system as a pharmacist, Godwin wants to bridge the gaps between specialties to help cut costs and improve patient outcomes. He’s more interested in a clinical position now after graduation, preferably with a connection to academia, or something in drug development with a larger pharmaceutical company.
He credits UAMS and the College of Pharmacy’s Ph.D. program for his well-rounded education.
“There’s a lot of benefit to understanding the entire path of the health care system and knowing this information in both clinical and industry roles,” Godwin said. “This program connects at least two of those dots in the system, and I think the university does a good job of trying to connect the others through interprofessional education. That’s the goal — to improve the health of Arkansans and beyond.”
The top-down perspective is beneficial for mentors as well. The day-to-day involvement in guiding a young researcher is rigorous but fulfilling, Frett said.
“I treat these students as junior colleagues — people I’m helping grow into independent scientists,” he said. “My role is really just to give them the tools, feedback and freedom to grow. Watching them evolve has been one of the most rewarding parts of mentoring.”