Elijah Ullman, PhD, who recently earned his degree from Emory University, is the Molecular Pharmacology Highlighted Trainee Author for the December 2024 issue.

The MolPharm article that earned him the selection as a Highlighted Trainee Author is titled “Mechanisms of Action Underlying Conductance-Modifying Positive Allosteric Modulators of the NMDA Receptor” and is available at https://doi.org/10.1124/molpharm.124.001019.

Ullman plans to pursue a career in science policy. He has led the Science Policy Council for Students for Sensible Drug Policy since 2020 and is a member of the ASPET Science Policy Committees and several subcommittees. Ullman is particularly interested in how drug laws impact the ability for scientists to conduct research, healthcare policies (access to medications and prescription drug pricing) and educational policy to ensure widespread access to educational resources throughout the country.

He believes that his research embiggens the pharmacological toolset and knowledge base for allosteric modulation. Research shows that 30 years after the discovery of the NMDA receptor, there are still many mysteries to discover about how to modulate this essential target. Ullman further hopes that this work excites people into continuing to study ion channels at the single-channel level with various areas to be explored when studying a single receptor.