Brunty, a native of Tullahoma, Tennessee, is testing new drug treatments in endometriosis through targeting epigenetic changes, in collaboration with the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Professor Brenda L. Mitchell, M.D. Under the direction of principal investigator Nalini Santanam, Ph.D., M.P.H., Brunty hopes to identify drug treatments specifically tailored to treat endometriosis, rather than just its symptoms.
The PhRMA grant, which will fund Brunty’s research with $40,000 over two years, is awarded to only a dozen students across the country each year.
Brunty is in her third year of the biomedical research Ph.D. program at Marshall University. She earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry with a minor in biology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, followed by a master’s in forensic science from Marshall University.