Temple University School of Pharmacy's signature annual research event delivered another memorable afternoon on Friday, April 24, 2026, as more than 30 students presented original research before a distinguished panel of alumni, faculty, and guest judges.

The event, held at the TUSP building on Temple’s Health Science Campus, opened with welcome remarks from Dean S. Suresh Madhavan, PhD, MBA, FAPhA, before transitioning to the day's keynote address: a career retrospective from Robert R. Ruffolo, Jr., PhD, one of the most prolific and decorated drug discovery scientists of his generation. Over a four-decade career, Dr. Ruffolo led R&D organizations at Pfizer, GSK, and Eli Lilly that brought 38 medicines to market, including carvedilol (Coreg®), now an essential medicine credited with saving tens of millions of lives worldwide. His lecture offered students a rare window into the lifelong journey of a pharmacist, pharmaceutical scientist, and industry executive.

Later in the day, a research career panel brought together an accomplished group of TUSP alumni and faculty to share perspectives on research across academia, industry, regulatory affairs, and clinical pharmacy. Panelists included Yohanka Caro, PharmD '19, a pharmacologist with the FDA's Controlled Substance Staff; Jason Gallagher, PharmD, clinical professor and infectious diseases specialist at Temple University Health System; Lauren Igneri, PharmD, clinical pharmacy specialist in critical care at Cooper University Healthcare; and Tierra Ryan, PharmD '07, director of field medical gastroenterology at Pfizer.

Adding to the anniversary spirit, the event featured the launch of Temple Pharmacy's 125 Most Impactful Research Publications report — a milestone publication honoring the school's 125-year legacy of discovery and innovation.

Abstract honors went to Barrington Bucknor in the PharmD program, for work evaluating cystatin-C in renal function assessment in critically ill children with Dr. Kevin Downes of CHOP, and to Nader Afifi in the Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate program, for developing an iPSC-based cardiomyocyte model of Fabry disease with Dr. Oscar Perez-Leal. Both abstract winners presented their research to attendees.

Student poster winners were also recognized across both programs. In the PharmD Professional Category, first-place honors were shared by Emanuela Efodili, whose work examined cigarette smoke effects on SARS-CoV-2 in lung innate immune responses (completed in Dr. Carlos Barrero's Lab), and Marena Martinez, whose research focused on the development of anti-thrombotic antibody drug conjugates (completed in Dr. Patrick Glassman's Lab).

In the Pharmaceutical Sciences category, Bo Shepherd took first place for work characterizing discriminative stimulus effects and withdrawal from α2AR agonists and fentanyl (completed in Dr. Ellen Walker's Lab), followed by Mathias Sanchez-Machado in second place for research targeting carbonic anhydrase isoforms using an ultrasmall gold nanoplatform (completed in Dr. Marc Ilies' Lab).

Also presented at the awards receptions were this year's Graduate Studies awards:

• Graduate Student Pre-Candidacy Academic Achievement Award: Lauren Morelli, third year graduate student, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dr. Benjamin Blass - advisor)
• Graduate Student Pre-Candidacy Academic Achievement Award: Kishore Pathivada, third year gradate student, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dr. Patrick Glassman - advisor)
• Kallelis Outstanding Graduate Student Award Recipient: Mathias Sanchez Machado, PhD candidate, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dr. Marc Ilies - advisor)

The school gratefully acknowledges the generous support of event sponsors Jan Kitzen, PhD, BSPharm '72, RPh; David Kwasny, BSPharm '76, RPh; and Gregory Papa, BSPharm '75, RPh. Without their contributions, the event would not be possible.

For photos of the event, visit facebook.com/TempleUniversitySchoolofPharmacy.