Gretchen Greene, a former student researcher in the laboratory of Robert Thorne, assistant professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, is one of approximately a dozen students chosen internationally to receive a Fulbright Scholarship award for Switzerland in 2017-18.

The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The flagship international educational exchange program is sponsored by the U.S. government, alongside many distinguished figures around the world. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, and university presidents, as well as leading journalists, artists, scientists, and teachers. They include 58 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 31 MacArthur Fellows, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors. Since its inception in 1946, more than 370,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in the Program.

In the summer of 2015 Greene completed a three month Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship in Thorne’s lab working alongside his PhD students Michelle Pizzo and Niyanta Kumar. Thorne fully embraced Greene’s Fulbright application and provided a letter of support. In addition, now 5th year PhD students, Pizzo and Kumar have remained in touch serving as mentors to Greene. Greene will graduate in May with a BA in Neuroscience Studies with minors in biology and chemistry from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn. Greene will return to the Thorne lab for the summer prior to the start of her Fulbright work in fall 2017.

Thorne’s research Interests include mechanisms and strategies for the central nervous system delivery and distribution of biologics (peptides, proteins, siRNA, nanoparticles, and viral gene therapy vectors). In addition, focus on antibody-based drugs and adeno-associated virus vectors for gene therapy; intraparenchymal, intrathecal and intranasal routes of administration.