Education
University of Southern California - PhD Candidate, MS Graduate Student 2014; Stonehill College – Neuroscience, BS, 2009
Background
Megan Yardley is a third year Ph.D. candidate in the USC School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Science. Megan is also currently working towards her Masters degree in Management of Drug Development in the Regulatory Science Program at USC School of Pharmacy. Megan’s primary research is conducted under the guidance of Drs. Daryl Davies and Ron Alkana. Megan is focusing her investigations on the discovery and development of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of alcohol abuse and misuse (alcohol use disorders [AUDs]). The central hypothesis of Megan’s CETCD Pre-doctoral Clinical and Translational Training Program proposal is that ivermectin, a broad-spectrum antiparasitic used worldwide in humans and animals can be repurposed for the treatment of AUDs. In addition to her bench studies, Megan will collaborate with Dr. Michael Neely from the Department of Pediatrics in the Keck School of Medicine. Under Dr. Neely’s mentorship, Megan will learn the methodology allowing her to use a population approach to develop a robust and rich IVM pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) model. This model will be useful in extrapolating the appropriate human IVM dosing regimen for future clinical studies.