USA Medical Student Named A National Fellow

Santina Johnson, a basic medical sciences student at the University of South Alabama (USA) Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, has been selected as one of 10 students nationwide to participate in the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) 2024 Washington Fellows program. The program helps developing and early-career scientists interested in science policy to learn about and become more engaged in public policy issues. Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at Spring Hill College, where she was actively engaged in academic research and served as a volunteer to promote health education in the community. Following her undergraduate studies, she worked as a teacher and behavioral specialist at AltaPointe’s BayPointe Hospital, an adolescent psychiatric facility in Mobile. She credits this experience to steering her toward graduate studies and deepening her resolve to make a meaningful impact in healthcare. Now pursuing a PhD in basic medical sciences at USA, she is studying the intricacies of second messenger signals by employing advanced imaging and analysis techniques to understand how information is encoded within these signals. She plans to use the opportunity from ASPET to further her interests in health and science policy, with a focus on pharmacovigilance.