Dwight Anderson, B.S., ’17

Dwight Anderson graduated from the BSPS program in December 2017 with a 3.89 GPA. During his time at URI, he was an undergraduate researcher under Dr. Slitt and researched non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice. He also participated in Pfizer’s summer student worker program in Cambridge, MA. Here he researched adipose tissue and its role in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

After graduation, Dwight went on to accept a role at Sagamore Sales & Marketing as an inside sales representative. Here he sells ORTHOVISC and MONOVISC knee injections from Johnson & Johnson to orthopedic physician practices. After a year as an inside sales representative, he took on the title of team-lead and now manages the team of six inside sales representatives.

Patrick Dumas, B.S., ’16

Patrick Dumas is a Health Policy Advisor for Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. As a Health Policy Advisor, Patrick assists the Congressman with writing and researching health care legislation, providing vote and cosponsor recommendations, and engaging with various health care stakeholders on relevant matters. Prior to serving in this roll Patrick worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a research associate for Pfizer (Groton, CT) and Sanofi Genzyme (Waltham, MA) and as a senior consultant for PhRMA in Washington DC. Patrick graduated from the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy BSPS program in 2016.

Meagan Hamblin, B.S., ’16

Meagan Hamblin is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford School of Medicine investigating bacterial infections and the human immune response, with the goal of identifying new strategies to treat infectious diseases. While at URI, Meagan majored in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biology (B.A.) and was able to secure paid summer research experiences in the College of Pharmacy. She was also a resident assistant and on the women’s club lacrosse team. After graduation, Meagan worked as a research technician at the Broad Institute with a team of MIT researchers to develop strategies for improving antibiotic efficacy. She then was accepted to multiple Ph.D. programs and was awarded the NSF graduate research fellowship to fund her graduate education. Meagan is passionate about infectious disease treatment and mentoring young female scientists.

Frederick Georges Bernard Nguele Meke, B.S., ’17

Frederick graduated from the URI BSPS program in 2017. During his undergraduate studies, he performed research with Dr. Cho and Dr. DeBoef to synthesize carcinogenic compounds for the structural analysis of their DNA adducts. Now he is a PhD candidate at Purdue university, where he is mentored by Dr. Zhong-Yin Zhang in the department of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology. His doctoral work focuses on uncovering novel biology and oncogenic properties of protein tyrosine phosphatases. To do this, Frederick develops novel mouse models and synthesizes small molecule inhibitors to use in vitro and in vivo.

Zoe Perkins, B.S., ’19

Zoe Perkins graduated from URI with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences in December of 2019. Since graduation Zoe has worked in downstream manufacturing in viral vector services, or gene therapy. Gene therapy products aim to cure diseases instead of treating them by fixing mutated DNA. After 6 months of manufacturing she went to work for a small biotech company, Asahi Kasei Bioprocess. They manufacture and sell virus removal filters for downstream manufacturing of biologic drugs. In this position she works with marketing, sales, and science and technology divisions. A major aspect of her job is creating and conducting virtual training courses for clients. In her free time she likes to paint, hike and collect houseplants/succulents.

Nicholas DaSilva, Ph.D., ’19

Nicholas DaSilva, PhD is a post-doctoral research fellow at University of Rhode Island investigating small molecule adjuvants for CAR-T immunotherapy in solid tumors. He is also a URI alumnus having earned both a baccalaureate(2014) and doctorate(2019) in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Following graduation in 2014 he worked in the multiple myeloma research laboratory of Dr Ken Anderson, MD at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In 2015, he began his doctoral studies in the laboratories of Navindra Seeram, PhD and Angela Slitt, PhD studying the effects of natural products against neurodegenerative processes and metabolic syndrome/NASH. During his Doctoral studies he co-founded Alcinous Pharmaceuticals with two URI colleagues Ken Rose, PhD and Ben Barlock, PhD. Together they design and develop new small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of various cancers. He has published in over a dozen peer reviewed journals and serves on the editorial board of Cell and Gene Therapy.