UW Alumna Builds a Case for Graduate Student Funding, while Effectively Delivering Drugs to Patients

For more than 20 years, Cheryl L. Zimmerman, Ph.D., a University of Washington alumna, has worked at the University of Minnesota to solve the significant clinical concern of optimal delivery of drugs.  Dr. Zimmerman's work began during her graduate studies at the UW and she continues to develop appropriate strategies for effective absorption of medications with her research team.  Dr. Zimmerman's group has developed a wide range of techniques to study the absorption and metabolism of drugs.

These techniques are currently being used in the areas of cancer chemotherapy and chemoprevention. How individuals are exposed to agents that cause cancer has a significant impact on specific drug-metabolizing enzymes and their ability to activate or deactivate carcinogens.  The susceptibility of an individual to cancer and, therefore, the treatment for that patient may be affected by this route of exposure, an aspect that can be influenced by genetic variability between individuals. An additional concern is that the treatment of any chemopreventive agent should be closely linked to the route of exposure of the carcinogen. The preclinical models in Dr. Zimmerman's lab allow for the design of pharmacokinetically appropriate strategies for chemoprevention. 

"My work is incredibly rewarding, but the financial challenge in funding my lab, researchers, and especially graduate students to continue this important work are significant," says Dr. Zimmerman.

Her work and her graduate student experience would not have been possible without financial support from the UW and the ARCS Foundation early on in her academic career.  "I was an ARCS Scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle in the early 1980s.  Graduate stipend support was a major issue, but the ARCS fellowship allowed me the freedom to pursue a research project that formed the basis for my Ph.D. thesis, which then led to my research career as professor and researcher at the University of Minnesota." 

Dr. Zimmerman adds, "Then, and now more than ever, there is a crisis in graduate education, as the federal commitment  to training grants for graduate students is under significant budgetary pressure.  In addition, the budgetary commitment of states to graduate student training at public institutions of higher education, while never very significant, is steadily declining. I am extremely grateful for the support of the ARCS Foundation in my early career, and I can only hope that ARCS continues to dedicate itself to the development of young scientists.  I am only one of many former ARCS Scholars who have benefited from the work of ARCS."

The Seattle Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) provides more than $600,000 of funding to top graduate students in science, medicine and engineering each year at the UW.  This group of strong, intelligent, forward-thinking women who personally support and raise funds for graduate students represents a unique combination of intellectual pursuit, social consciousness and remarkable generosity, working toward solving some of the world's most critical issues.

Over the past 28 years, ARCS has given or pledged more than $9 million to the UW, the most recent pledge being $2.5 million over four years.  These funds have helped to recruit and retain more than 600 top students to the UW since 1979, with most students receiving funding for a three-year period or more.  In the last year, ARCS and eight of its individual members have made gift commitments totaling $800,000 for new endowed funds.  When combined with matching funds provided by the State of Washington, the UW Matching Initiative, and The Graduate School, the University will be able to establish new endowed fellowships valued collectively at more than $1.6 million.