The award will provide the scholar with financial support of up to $25,000 for her research needs. Ms Nora Lee is currently in her third year of studies toward her PhD and she works as a Graduate Research Assistant in Dr. Joanne Wang’s laboratory. Ms Lee demonstrates academic excellence and is highly promising in becoming a productive research scientist and a future leader in pharmaceutical sciences.After graduating with a BS degree in Biomedical Engineering, Ms Lee joined the Pharmaceutics graduate program with enthusiastic recommendations from Case Western Reserve University. She joined Dr. Joanne Wang’s research group in 2009.
Dr. Wang’s research is in the area of drug transporters. Ms Nora Lee’s thesis research is to investigate the influence of renal, hepatic and placental organic cation transporters (OCTs) in maternal disposition and fetal exposure to metformin, an oral anti-diabetic agent that is being introduced to treat gestational diabetes mellitus with or without insulin.
She will determine the regulation mechanisms of renal and hepatic OCTs that are responsible for metformin maternal disposition and efficacy. She will also use transgenic animal models to identify molecular determinants influencing fetal exposure to metformin. Results from Ms Lee’s studies will help to understand the changes of drug disposition mechanisms during pregnancy, which is critical for optimizing the drug selection, dosage, efficacy and safety of anti-diabetic agents for treating gestational diabetes.