Graduate Student Claims First-Place at American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics Meeting
Reiya Hayden, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Markos Leggas, received the first-place award for her poster presentation at the annual American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics meeting on April 7, 2019. The title of her poster was “Mithramycin analogues disrupt ETS transcription factor DNA binding.”
A well-rounded student, Hayden was involved in many extracurricular activities and received a music scholarship to play with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Biotechnology with a minor in music performance in 2011. Upon graduating, she obtained a Scientist position at Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) where she worked as an integral part of the Vaccine team for two and a half years.
In 2015 she joined Dr. Leggas’ lab. Her research is focused on understanding mechanistic evidence for the differences in biochemical activity among novel targeted therapies developed for the treatment of Ewing’s Sarcoma. Upon completion of her PhD, Hayden intends to pursue biomedical research opportunities in government and in the pharmaceutical industry.
We wish to remember and honor those who inhabited this Commonwealth before the arrival of the Europeans. Briefly occupying these lands were the Osage, Wyndott tribe, and Miami peoples. The Adena and Hopewell peoples, who are recognized by the naming of the time period in which they resided here, were here more permanently. Some of their mounds remain in the Lexington area, including at UK’s Adena Park.
In more recent years, the Cherokee occupied southeast Kentucky, the Yuchi southwest Kentucky, the Chickasaw extreme western Kentucky and the Shawnee central Kentucky including what is now the city of Lexington. The Shawnee left when colonization pushed through the Appalachian Mountains. Lower Shawnee Town ceremonial grounds are still visible in Greenup County.
We honor the first inhabitants who were here, respect their culture, and acknowledge the presence of their descendants who are here today in all walks of life including fellow pharmacists and healthcare professionals.