Sant Receives Grant from Bristol Myers Squibb

February 11, 2026

IIT-affiliated faculty member Dr. Karilyn Sant recently received a grant to partner with Bristol Myers Squibb to improve the use of zebrafish as a safety tool in the drug development process. This one year partnership, that began in December 2025, provides Sant with $386,492 to explore the suitability of zebrafish models in drug safety screens to identify potential target organ toxicities and target liabilities. Sant and her laboratory conduct screens with dozens of known compounds to identify how well their model can predict known toxicities. Because zebrafish studies are a much more rapid way to do this in vivo, successful characterization of these models could help expedite and improve drug safety screens.

The grant enabled Sant to welcome a new member, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Majorie Graham, to her laboratory. In addition, these funds allowed Sant to think more creatively about her research program. "We have been fortunate enough to have established great models for diabetes and pancreatic pathologies," commented Sant, "but here we can explore whether some of our employed methods can be expanded to other pathobiological challenges."

Sant is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. As a toxicologist, Sant's research uses the zebrafish model to investigate how common and emerging water contaminants and dietary exposures influence embryonic development and predispose to chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity during adulthood.