An undergraduate’s summer project has opened a new avenue of drug therapy research in the School of Biomedical Sciences and earned her admission to the British Pharmacological Society, the primary UK learned body concerned with research into drugs.

An opportunity to present her findings at the BPS Winter meeting in Brighton next month is the second science accolade this year for Tafadzwa Charidza, a second year BSc Hons Pharmacology student, who is from Harare, Zimbabwe. 

A bursary from the Nuffield Foundation in April set Tafadzwa on a path which her supervisor, Dr Omar Janneh, says marks her out as a budding talented scientist with a bright future in academia and research. 

The Nuffield funding enabled Tafadzwa to investigate the anticancer effects of a range of potential new drugs which Dr Janneh, a Lecturer in Pharmacology, in collaboration with Professor Paul O’Neill (Chemistry Department, University of Liverpool), is helping to develop. The opportunity for hands-on experience in the pharmacology laboratory was a memorable highlight of her project which has helped her grow as a student.  

“The experience gained from the Nuffield bursary project has won me the opportunity to be able to present my findings at the British Pharmacological Society meeting this winter as a Young Member of the Society.  It has also helped prepare me for the placement I am currently doing and I am sure the experience will also be of great value towards my final year research project, and thereafter for postgraduate study in Pharmacological Sciences.

“Overall, it was a rewarding way to spend my summer and I feel I have gained insight into a career in academic research. I am very thankful to the Nuffield Foundation and the British Pharmacological Society for their generous support.”

Dr Janneh said: “Tafadzwa’s work has helped identify the anticancer activity and mode of action of a range of potential new drugs. In summary, this Nuffield Bursary has helped establish a new research direction in cancer chemotherapy in my laboratory, and Tafadzwa’s work will form the basis to attract research funding.”
 

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