Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences faculty members Christine Rabinak and Arun Iyer have been selected to receive Excellence in PostDoc Mentorship Awards by the Wayne State University Graduate School. Only four faculty members from across the university earn this award each year.

Christine Rabinak is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and director of the Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Lab (TNP2). She has shown great success in mentoring postdoctoral fellowship applications, and she involves students in her publications. One of her current postdoctoral fellows is Hilary Marusak, who received her Ph.D. in translational neuroscience from Wayne State's School of Medicine in 2016. Her work with Rabinak expands on the findings of her doctoral research, which was focused on understanding the impact of early emotional trauma on brain and behavioral development in children and young adolescents. In TNP2, the pair are now mechanistically testing how early violence and/or abuse impacts the learning and regulation of fear memories. Another area of interest is medical trauma: they hope to understand the impact of the childhood cancer experience (cancer treatments, concerns about safety) on brain and behavioral development of the child, and on the family as a whole.

Rabinak also mentors Bob Torrence, who received his Ph.D. in psychology from Colorado State University. His current research in TNP2 examines the acute effects of THC on fear extinction in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using fMRI. Additionally, he is exploring endocannabinoid levels and their relation to development of PTSD and fear extinction.

"The influence of Christine's research prowess does not end at the benchtop, but rather is revealed further through her ability to serve as an outstanding mentor," said Dean Catherine Lysack. "It is truly encouraging to see an individual have such success in their science and at the same time show the devotion to the future of her research field."

Arun Iyer is an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences. Since joining Wayne State in 2014, he has mentored four postdocs. The most recent is postdoctoral fellow Samaresh Sau, who has been promoted as a senior research scientist within Iyer's laboratory and will begin submitting independent grants as a principal investigator. To date, Iyer has involved Sau in developing and submitting six new grant applications. Of significant importance, Iyer and Sau developed a nanoplatform technology that works in combination with existing chemotherapeutic drugs that may reverse drug-resistance in renal cell carcinoma. Support for this research was provided by Wayne State and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and an application for patent protection has been filed by Wayne State University's Office of Technology Commercialization.

"Arun is truly a gifted scientist with a strong dedication as a mentor of postdoctoral scholars within his laboratory," said Associate Dean for Research Timothy Stemmler in his nomination.

Rabinak and Iyer will be presented with certificates and $200 honorariums at the WSU PostDoc Association meeting in March.