Scholars — BenJammin Bash

2024 Benjamin McAllister Scholars

DescripRiley is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. After being paired with Dr. O'Donnell as a Collegiate Translational Medicine Program Fellow, Riley quickly integrated herself into the lab, taking on her own project after just a quarter of learning. Armed with the background knowledge that 1) non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause gastric side effects like peptic ulcers and intestinal bleeding on a dose-dependent basis, and 2) mutations in the gene that codes for the enzyme CYP2C9 can determine how effectively patients can metabolize NSAIDs, Riley set out to research the relationship between CYP2C9 metabolizer phenotype and gastric side effect risk. She spent in-depth time in the O'Donnell lab, refining her research, and was accepted for a poster presentation through the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She spent four days in Atlanta presenting her poster, talking to professionals in academia and industry, and attending lectures on recent pharmacological findings and how to promote health equity in clinical research.

Young is currently undertaking a Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago. Since June of 2023, he has been working in the Dr. Peter O'Donnell lab, where he has been actively engaging in projects that are designed to make a significant impact in the lives of those affected by cancer.
Young has been designing and establishing a new clinical trial which investigates the role of preemptive CYP2D6 genotyping for opioid prescription in the cancer population. He has also been retrospectively analyzing the significance of CYP2D6 profiles in the post-surgical population, including hundreds of individuals undergoing surgery for cancer. Along with this lab work, he is involved in database improvements as well, working to design and build a patient-facing pharmacogenomics portal.
Before his time in the O'Donnell lab, Young received his PharmD from Northeastern University in Boston, MA, and his masters degree in Translational Medicine from the University of California San Francisco/University of California Berkeley. He held a position as a Teachers Assistant in General Genetics at University of California Berkeley and has studied and trained all over the world.
It is an honor for him to carry on Ben’s legacy—a legacy that will continue to develop, train, and inspire the most talented scientists of the next generation.