Four early-career innovators receive 2025 Rankin Awards

Four early-career innovators have been named 2025 Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award recipients: Chelston Ang, McKenna Good, Anwar Hossain and Xinrui Ma.

The Rankin Awards, funded by Lawson and Gisele Rankin, are presented annually by Eshelman Innovation to a cohort of two-to-four graduate students, postdocs and others with strong potential to make an impact in patient care. The awards support entrepreneurial training opportunities and professional development.

Similar to the Translational Academy, another Eshelman Innovation program, the Rankin Award program supports both talent and technology, enabling scientists to grow into entrepreneurial leaders while advancing specific healthcare technologies toward commercial success.

This year’s awardees are focused on a range of potentially groundbreaking innovations.

Chelston Ang is an MD/PhD candidate at the UNC School of Medicine and the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State. His research in cancer immunotherapy addresses a key challenge: the fact that current T cell receptor-based therapies must be customized for each patient, limiting their application and scalability. Ang is developing a more universal approach by engineering T cells to recognize HLA-E, a molecule shared across all individuals. This could make T cell therapies more broadly accessible.

“This recognition is a meaningful encouragement in my growth toward a career at the intersection of science, medicine and entrepreneurship,” Ang says. “I’m grateful for the opportunity this award provides to continue learning, growing and pushing the boundaries of my work.”

McKenna Good is a third-year PharmD student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and an Eshelman Innovation intern, supporting projects that bridge science and strategy. Good is especially interested in how artificial intelligence can enhance research synthesis and inform strategic decision-making in drug development.

“This award gives me the opportunity to grow at the intersection of science, strategy and innovation,” Good says. “I look forward to using these experiences to advance new therapies and to help shape the future of pharmacy.”

Anwar Hossain, PhD, is a medicinal chemist and Eshelman Innovation research assistant professor leading the development of RA-2034, a promising antiviral targeting chikungunya and related viruses. Developed through UNC’s open science drug discovery efforts, RA-2034 has shown strong preclinical results. Because the compound is in the public domain, Hossain is focused on advancing the molecule while enabling intellectual property protection — an essential step for attracting partners to move the drug toward clinical trials.

“This award will support me in attending the top-tier medicinal chemistry conferences and connecting with experts in the field,” Hossain says. “My goal is simple: Learn from the best, create new ideas and execute with passion to contribute to unmet medical needs.”

Xinrui Ma, a PhD student in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, is developing a light-activated shielding strategy to improve prostate cancer radiotherapy. Her approach aims to develop a novel light-triggered approach to enhance the safety and efficacy of radioligand therapy by reducing radiation toxicity in normal organs.

“This recognition is invaluable in supporting my entrepreneurial development and advancing my translational research efforts,” Ma says. “I believe it marks a significant milestone in the journey of developing my preclinical compound into a next-generation therapeutic for cancer patients.”

“At Eshelman Innovation, we believe in nurturing talent at every stage in the innovator’s journey,” said Eshelman Innovation Acting Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer Roy Zwahlen. “We are grateful for the support of the Rankins, who are equally committed to helping patients by empowering rising researchers with business and commercialization skills.”

Past Rankin recipient Brianna Vickerman, who has developed an exciting new way to control the precise location, timing and dosing of a drug using light-activated materials, says the Rankin Award gave her a boost at a critical career crossroads.  

“Receiving the Rankin Award at the very beginning of my entrepreneurial journey was incredibly meaningful. As a postdoc just starting out, the early recognition and visibility helped connect me to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem and provided much-needed support during what can be a lonely and daunting phase,” says Vickerman, Eshelman Innovation research assistant professor. “The funding allowed me to pursue critical training in drug development and entrepreneurship. I believe the award helped open doors that ultimately led to my current role at Eshelman Innovation. Since then, I’ve launched a company and was honored to be named a Forbes 30 Under 30 scientist — progress I’m proud to say that was made possible, in part, by this early support and vote of confidence.”

Eshelman Innovation is an emerging innovation engine that moves groundbreaking therapeutics and digital healthcare ideas to reality. It is part of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, America’s number one pharmacy school.