Alita Miller is a PhD student and Royster Fellow within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She develops patient-friendly enhanced probiotics to target and treat inflammatory bowel diseases.
Q: How did you discover your specific field of study?
A: I didn’t know what pharmaceutical sciences was until I was about three months into my first job as a formulation scientist at a pharmaceutical company. This was after I had already graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering. Until that point, I just knew that I wanted to keep doing research since it challenged me to both solve problems and come up with new questions.
I was offered an entry-level job because of my passion and ability to learn and didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a pharmaceutical scientist until I worked in the role for a few months. At that moment, the world opened, and I knew I wanted to continue solving the research challenges that prevent life-saving therapies from getting to patients.
Q: Academics are problem-solvers. Describe a research challenge you’ve faced and how you overcame it.
A: I have been trying to get microparticles to adhere to a cell surface as a “backpack” for the cell. Many molecules have been tethered to the cell surface but are typically much smaller than the particles I want to attach. I ended up needing a different tethering technique all together since the original one was not strong enough for larger particles. I still haven’t figured this out.
Science is not easy, and it takes time to understand what the challenge even is in most cases. Resiliency has helped me overcome many challenges by sticking with the problem until I solve it.
Q: Describe your research in five words.
A: Engineered probiotics treating gut diseases.
Q: Who or what inspires you? Why?
A: My friends and family, who are always pushing me to do the unthinkable. The next generation of scientists also inspires me to do the best I can so their discoveries can be bigger and better. In both cases, I just really enjoy trying new things and sharing my knowledge and experiences.
Q: If you could pursue any other career, what would it be and why?
A: Content creator! This would help me reach communities outside of my support system to do the exact things that I discussed above: sharing experiences and spaces with people who don’t have the opportunities to be in them. It’s always something I’ve dabbled with in my free time but takes more commitment than I can give at this moment in my life.