Alexis Stoorza & Grant Berkbigler Awarded College of Pharmacy Fellowships

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry extends its congratulations to PhD candidates Alexis Stoorza and Grant Berkbigler, who were both awarded competitive College of Pharmacy fellowships!

Both students are from Prof. Adam Duerfeldt’s lab, which focuses on the development of new therapeutic leads for bacterial infections and ocular diseases. You can read more about the work of Duerfeldt Labs here.

Alexis was awarded a Bighley Fellowship. The Bighley Graduate Fellowships are awarded to full-time CoP PhD graduate students who have great potential and are conducting research in basic and applied pharmaceutical sciences. Alexis’ research focus is on the development of novel antivirulence probes as a novel strategy to fight against ever-growing antimicrobial resistance. 

Grant was awarded a Rowell Fellowship. The Ted Rowell Graduate Fellowships are awarded to full-time CoP PhD graduate students who are conducting research in basic pharmaceutical sciences with an emphasis in nutrition or drug delivery systems. Grant’s research is centered around developing small-molecule drug leads for common retinal diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration.

Alexis had this to say of being of the award: “I want to thank the CoP Fellowship Committee for selecting me for the Bighley Graduate Fellowship. I am honored to have our work on antivirulence strategies recognized and wanted to highlight our great collaborators in the Carlson Lab (UMN) and Spinola Lab (IU).”