Jessica I. Griffith is the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Highlighted Trainee Author for the January 2022 issue.  She is a predoctoral trainee pursuing her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota, under the direction of Dr. William F. Elmquist.  The JPET article that earned her selection as a Highlighted Trainee Author is titled “Central Nervous System Distribution of an Opioid Agonist Combination with Synergistic Activity” and is available at https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.121.000821.

Ms. Griffith is currently working on the preclinical pharmacokinetics of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) payloads to inform future clinical investigations using alternative routes of administration, like convection-enhanced delivery (CED), for the treatment of brain tumors. She also hopes to continue her work on opioid agonists for pain management.

The anticipated impact of Ms. Griffith’s work is that a thorough characterization of the CNS and systemic disposition of cytotoxic payloads following direct-to-tumor delivery will help overcome previous barriers to success and inform clinical regimen design and optimization of ADCs for the treatment of CNS tumors. Understanding the impact of efflux proteins, linker chemistry, and the extent of ADC payload distribution following CED will provide significant insights for the future development of ADCs intended for this express purpose.

When not in the lab, Jessica enjoys running, climbing, biking, and cooking.