Maximizing access to science with Donita Brady, PhD
The 2026 recipient of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Ruth Kirschstein Award for Maximizing Access in Science shares her approach to creating opportunities for all.
During the summer before her senior year at Radford University, a small liberal arts college in Virginia, Donita Brady had a “pivotal” experience that shaped the trajectory of her career. A Division I softball player and chemistry major, she didn’t see herself as a scientist yet.
“I didn’t really have an idea of what I was going to do with my chemistry degree,” Brady said. She had the opportunity to spend the summer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of their Carolina Summer Fellows program to explore pharmacology as a discipline. “It was my first experience stepping into a lab environment,” she recalled. “I had no idea that research was something I could do as a career.”
That formative experience led Brady back to UNC-Chapel Hill to earn her PhD in pharmacology, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University, before starting her own lab at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where she is now a Presidential Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Strategic Access and Community Enrichment in Cancer Biology.
In the ten years since she joined Penn Medicine, Brady has not only successfully run her own research lab, where she leads a team studying what fuels cancer cells as part of the Abramson Cancer Center, she has also devoted time to giving back, inspired by the pivotal program that kicked off her own career. She established and leads the Office of Research Trainee Affairs, as well as multiple training programs for all levels, and has spearheaded efforts to make research recruitment more equitable.
Earlier this month, her commitment was recognized by her peers at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) as she was named the 2026 recipient of the ASBMB Ruth Kirschstein Award for Maximizing Access in Science. The award, named for the first woman to be appointed director of an institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), honors an outstanding scientist who has shown sustained commitment to breaking down local and/or systemic barriers against scientists and students from historically marginalized or excluded groups.
We caught up with Brady after the award announcement to learn more about her approach to making sure science is accessible to all.Catching students in the ‘window of opportunity’
Several programs that Brady leads are focused on high school and undergraduate students, including the Abramson Cancer Center Summer Healthcare Experience (S/HE) in Oncology Program, for high school rising juniors and seniors, and the Summer Undergraduate Internship Program, an immersive 10-week research program. In the Recruitment Ambassadors Program, Penn faculty members and current trainees visit schools around the country to share insights into research and training opportunities at Penn and tips for succeeding in the application process. More than 350 students—including over 100 high schoolers and 250 undergraduates—have learned from Penn’s world-class scientists through these programs over the past five years.
Reaching this age group is important, Brady explains, because “we have a window of opportunity to lay the right foundation—one that nurtures scientific curiosity, sparks collaboration, and builds a lasting sense of community.” The programs for students who haven’t yet selected a career—or even a major—are designed to get the next generation excited about the scientific method and give them a glimpse of what it’s like to be a researcher.
“Experiments from a classroom textbook work exactly the way they’re supposed to. In the real world, research rarely does,” Brady says.
When it comes to equal opportunity, don’t start with the outcome
Once you’ve managed to provide that pivotal exposure to science, the next step is making sure that everyone has equal opportunity to advance their career. With more than 5,000 applications each year for biomedical graduate studies at Penn, and as many as 100 applications for assistant professor positions in the department of Cancer Biology alone, it’s no small feat.
Brady said that, often, efforts to equalize opportunity have started by focusing on outcomes. “That approach often frames both the problem and the solution within communities who’ve experienced barriers to access, while downplaying the role organizations and institutions play in sustaining barriers and practices that limit access and opportunity.” She developed a rubric for recruiting students that follows a different approach: not based on demographic quotas or traditional proxies of success, like GPA or school and/or mentor prestige, but on holistic, evidence-based methods to identify talent and diamonds in the rough.
“We’ve been really intentional about making it easier for our faculty to spot the key information they need to decide if someone is a good fit for Penn,” Brady said. The process is designed to focus solely on applicants’ qualifications and experiences, without relying on demographics or protected classes. All information related to race, ethnicity, or gender is removed from applications, ensuring alignment with recent federal decisions and equal opportunity guidelines.
“By blinding certain details—like institutional pedigree, training affiliations, and demographic information—we reduce signals that can unintentionally bias perceptions of success,” she explains. “That opens the door to stronger representation from groups that have historically experienced barriers to access.” Inspired by work led by Enrique De La Cruz and Wendy Gilbert at Yale, the department of Cancer Biology adopted this approach and saw an increase in the number of women and individuals from underrepresented groups interviewed for faculty positions.
Practice what you preach
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the team members in Brady’s own lab, which currently includes one undergraduate, four graduate students and four postdoctoral fellows, participate in the high school training programs because they recognize the value these experiences bring to their own training experience.
To her trainees, Brady emphasizes two key lessons: that every path into science is unique, and that science thrives on collaboration, not competition.
“I think the most important thing you can do in the lab is meet everyone where they are,” Brady said. It’s an approach that follows her home too, where her soon-to-be four-year-old son loves to experiment. Whether he’s playing with paint kits or a water table, “it’s really fun to watch him predict what will happen and come up with his own ideas about why things work the way they do,” she said.If he does decide to follow in his mother’s footsteps, scientific research in the U.S. might look different by then. Though Penn continues to pursue science as a public service, federal support for biomedical research is facing new challenges. Still, Brady remains hopeful and encourages the scientific community to consider impacts beyond their own work:
“Our ability to push the boundaries of scientific discovery and make an impact in biomedical research depends on finding new ways to develop, identify, and nurture talent within our communities,” she said. “Every opportunity to mentor, recruit, and advocate for trainees is also an opportunity to shape the future of science—well beyond the work you do in your own lab.”