Hello everyone, and thank you for tuning in! My name is Tom Pham and I am currently a junior at the University of Arizona studying Physiology and Medical Sciences, with minors in Emergency Medical Services and Pharmaceutical Sciences. When I started my college journey, I thought I wanted nothing to do with research but as I found myself being surrounded by one exciting opportunity after another, I decided to give it a try. Since then, I have had the pleasure of working in Dr. Abhijit Date’s laboratory, where the focus is to repurpose and reformulate existing drugs with poor efficacy to give them and the patients they could potentially treat a second chance. One of the techniques we employ include transforming drugs into something called ionic liquids where the hope is that it allows a solid drug to exist as a liquid at room temperature, improving upon numerous physicochemical properties that are advantageous to drug delivery.

Since our focus is treating infectious diseases, my current project involves taking adefovir dipivoxil–a drug that has been proven to treat herpes infections in the genitalia–and transform it into an ionic liquid eye drop formulation that treats ocular herpes, which is the leading cause of blindness in the world with no effective treatment as of yet. This unique approach would potentially become the first-line treatment for blindness that is effective, affordable, and nontoxic.

One day, I hope to become a great physician-scientist who works towards uncovering mechanisms for complex diseases and giving people a second chance at life, with the steady foundation of my research experiences guiding me through every step of the way. In the meantime, when I am not studying or conducting research, I am probably playing volleyball, getting better at editing videos, or hiking in the great outdoors!