Azam Saghaeidehkordi

Azam Saghaeidehkordi, Ph.D. candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, is the recipient of Chapman University’s 2021 James L. Doti Outstanding Graduate Student Award in the doctoral category.

Azam will defend her dissertation entitled “Synthesis, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of two Peptide-Doxorubicin conjugates for Targeting Triple Negative Breast Cancer” and her Ph.D. degree will be conferred in the summer of 2021. The School of Pharmacy faculty state her “academic excellence is demonstrated by her tremendous independence in research activities, critical thinking, and outstanding troubleshooting abilities while paying attention to the fine details.” Azam has been exceptionally productive in her supervisor’s research to develop peptide-drug conjugates for the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics to the cancer site to treat triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive type of breast cancer. 

Her contributions led to her second authorship in a publication in Bioconjugate Chemistry (2019, IF 4.35) and a review article in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2021, IF 6.21). Azam independently conducted an in vivo study evaluating her peptide-drug conjugate in a mouse model of TNBC. Her first author article with the in vivo study was recently published in Pharmaceutics (2021, IF 4.84).

Azam has also served as the chapter communication chair for the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists-Chapman University (AAPS-CU), recruiting new members, inviting guest speakers, and arranging company tours, events, and workshops. She is also an excellent mentor to other students in the lab; she often troubleshoots other researchers’ stuck experiments. She has been at the forefront of professional activities and leadership since her undergraduate studies and is a member of four national/international scientific societies, and actively participates in professional society meetings while presenting her research, including co-presenting and mentoring master’s students.