University of Michigan

Perrigo Fellowships Train—and Keep—Top Talent in Michigan

Halima Cherif-Goldberg

The 2009 Perrigo Undergraduate Fellows (L to R): Anja Burk, Kalamazoo College; Netta Golenberg, U-M; Muazzum Shah, U-M; John Wallington, U-M; Raymond Yeow, Grand Valley State University; Vivian Lam, U-M

Halima Cherif-Goldberg

2009 Perrigo Fellow Vivian Lam working in the lab of pharmacologist and LSI Research Assistant Professor Dr. Gabrielle Rudenko.

Michigan powered the engine of America’s twentieth-century manufacturing economy. Now the Perrigo Undergraduate Fellowships at UM’s Life Sciences Institute prepare the state to spark the twenty-first-century knowledge economy.

Funded by the Perrigo Company of Allegan, MI—the world’s largest manufacturer of over-the-counter store-brand pharmaceuticals—the Fellowships enable outstanding undergraduates from the state’s colleges and universities to spend 10 weeks working side-by-side with top researchers. “The fellows become an integral part of the lab and get immersed in ongoing research projects,” says Alan Saltiel, the Mary Sue Coleman Director of the Life Sciences Institute.

The program’s seeks to cultivate and retain Michigan’s top scientific talent, says former Perrigo chairman and program founder Mike Jandernoa (BBA ’72). “By exposing students to some of the incredible research going on at the University of Michigan,” Jandernoa says, “the Perrigo Fellowships show our students that they can pursue exciting research and clinical careers right here in our state.”

Nearly 35 students’ lives and careers have been transformed by Perrigo Fellowships, including:

• Josh Mastenbrook, a Michigan State University undergraduate, worked in Alan Saltiel’s lab mastering techniques for copying DNA sequences. Now he teaches the same techniques to undergraduates while studying emergency medicine at MSU. “The Perrigo Fellowship really helped me confirm that I wanted to work in the life sciences,” he says.
• Kalamazoo College undergraduate Jenny Thomson’s experience researching clotting disorders for Dr. David Ginsburg helped her get into the U-M’s Ph.D. program in Pharmacology, where she studies how opioids like morphine block the brain’s pain receptors. “The Perrigo program helped cement my interest in research,” she says. “And touring Perrigo’s R&D facility gave me a real sense of what it’s like to work with drugs and development.”
• Jesse Plummer, another Kalamazoo College student who worked in Dr. Ginsburg’s lab, focused on arterial thrombosis. “I learned a lot about how to conduct experiments beginning to end—about lab techniques and the scientific method,” he says. He is now applying to dentistry schools and looking forward to establishing a practice in Michigan.

The Perrigo program, like the company that supports it, looks toward Michigan’s future, says Perrigo Chairman and CEO Joseph Papa: “Perrigo’s commitment to making quality healthcare more affordable starts with our people. Our support of the undergraduate fellowships is another effort to invest in our people and the community: the Fellowships create a highly-skilled talent pool and fuel the kind of knowledge-based economy that benefits employers, workers, patients and all of us as citizens.”

Learn more about the Perrigo Fellowships »