Three Gardner-Webb Alumni Conduct Ph.D. Research on Cancer Treatments and Care

Damian Hutchins, ’19, Chloe Loth, ’21, and Katie Wilson, ’23, Work to Improve Patient Outcomes

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C.—Since 2019, three alumni from the Department of Natural Sciences at Gardner-Webb University have been accepted into graduate programs at Wake Forest University. Damian Hutchins, ’19, Chloe Loth, ’21, and Katie Wilson, ’23, pursued every opportunity offered at GWU to prepare for graduate school. Partnering with their faculty mentors, they developed knowledge and skills to achieve their goals.  

Damian Hutchins: Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology

Hutchins graduates in May 2026 with his Ph.D. in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology with a concentration in Regenerative Medicine, and he has secured a postdoctoral position working closely with a pancreatic cancer surgeon. The position will allow him to expand on the work he began in immunotherapy as a doctoral research fellow. Working with surgeons in the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Hutchins’ collected a patient’s white blood cells, put them on a microfluidic chip, and trained them to attack a tumor.

The most fascinating aspect of the research is its simplicity and low cost. Hutchins explained how current cancer treatments involve genetically modified T cells, which target specific cancers and have been successful in treating leukemia and lymphoma. “But they’re very expensive, $500,000 per treatment,” he noted. “By using the body’s own mechanisms, we could improve healthcare. So, I don’t need to genetically modify anything, the immune system’s just doing what it already knows how to do.”

His interest in research was developed at Gardner-Webb through the Summer Scholar Fellowship. Having that undergraduate experience gave him confidence in graduate school to choose the master’s program at Wake Forest that matched his interests. “The faculty give you the foundation and the interconnectedness that other universities just don’t have,” Hutchins stated. “I find that every faculty member at Gardner-Webb, and even individuals who aren’t faculty, care about your success and what you will do for God and humanity.”

Chloe Loth: Biomedical Research

After graduating from Gardner-Webb, Loth was accepted directly into the Ph.D. program at Wake Forest School of Medicine, working with Dr. Patricia Gallagher. Her dissertation research also focuses on cancer patients. However, instead of treating the cancer, Loth and Gallagher are working to counteract the harmful side effects of a cancer treatment called Doxorubicin. “Basically, patients who receive ‘Dox’ tend to have very aggressive types of cancer,” Loth related. “‘Dox’ is highly effective but extremely toxic, and most patients are limited by how badly it damages the heart. We are using muscadine grape extract (MGE) to see if it can prevent heart damage from exposure.”

Loth’s advice to other Gardner-Webb students who want to pursue graduate degrees is: “Be proactive during your time at GWU. Try to put yourself in a position to be accepted as a Ph.D. student. For me, this involved joining the honors program and writing a dissertation, conducting my own research with summer scholars, speaking at Honors conferences, and making sure I got plenty of lab experience.”

She also said receiving the Summer Scholar Fellowship at Gardner-Webb was the most valuable experience of her undergraduate career. “I was put in the driver’s seat to conduct my own personal research on the microbiome of the skin,” Loth shared. “When you get to graduate school, you don’t realize how proactive you have to be and how much you have to learn on your own. You have help, obviously, but you really have to show up and figure out what you need. For example, if you don’t know how to do a certain protocol you need to proactively get help and ask questions.” 

Katie Wilson: Molecular Medicine and Translational Science

Wilson also went straight into the Ph.D. program at Wake Forest. She conducts research in the Giselle Melendez and Jared Weis labs. “We study how clinically-relevant chemotherapy doses, combined with psychosocial stress, affect the gut and the heart,” Wilson described. “We’re investigating how the immune system contributes to harmful changes that may lead to chronic inflammation and damage in both organs, using a non-human primate (monkey) model.”

Like Hutchins and Loth, she also participated in undergraduate research at GWU. She was selected as one of eight recipients for a North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) Undergraduate Research Program award. As part of the award, Wilson participated in the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium sponsored by NCICU. Her independent research project was to distill essential oils and evaluate their effects on the microbiome, which are tiny microorganisms that live in the human body. Her GWU mentors were Dr. Meredith Rowe, associate professor of biology and chair of the Department of Natural Sciences, and Dr. Ben Brooks, professor of chemistry.

“Gardner-Webb helped prepare me by giving me the necessary scientific and professional knowledge I needed in order to succeed both in and out of the classroom,” Wilson assessed. “The natural sciences department consists of awesome professors who truly care about the success and future of their students. I would not be here without the willingness of the faculty to help me along the way and use their expertise to guide me towards my goals.”

These three Ph.D. candidates are among several alumni who have reached their goals in research, medicine, dentistry, physical therapy, pharmacy, veterinary medicine and forensics. Whatever field a student chooses to pursue, the faculty in Gardner-Webb’s Department of Natural Sciences strive to equip them for success.       

Gardner-Webb University is North Carolina’s recognized leader in private, Christian higher education. A Carnegie-Classified Doctoral/Professional University, GWU is home to nine colleges and schools, more than 80 undergraduate and graduate majors, and a world-class faculty. Located on a beautiful 225-acre campus in Boiling Springs, N.C., Gardner-Webb prepares graduates to impact their chosen professions, equips them with the skills to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and inspires them to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of others. Ignite your future at Gardner-Webb.edu.