We are pleased to announce that Tao Jiang (left) and Abdullah Chaudhary (right) are the recipients of the Winter 2017 Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel (GREAT) Award for the Department of Bioengineering.
Tao Jiang is a third year Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Engineering and is supervised by Professor Matt Kinsella. Tao's research focuses on 3D bioprinting of in vitro heterogeneous cancer models. The method involves a physiological mimicking of a cancer's microenvironment to allow for a better understanding of cancer's biology, thus potentially yielding more efficient and patient-specific therapeutic strategies. In April 2017, Tao will be traveling to Minneapolis for the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting. He will be giving a talk on the self-assembly of tumor spheroids within 3D bioprinted cellular heterogeneous in vitro models.
Abdullah Chaudhary is a second year Ph.D. student in Biological and Biomedical Engineering and will be travelling to New Orleans in February 2017 to give a talk at the Biophysical Society Meeting on the contribution of Tau to neurodegeneration. Abdullah is currently studying intracellular trafficking under the supervision of Professor Adam Hendricks. More specifically, Abdullah's research examines the mechanistic behavior of cargoes by using high resolution microscopy (TIRF), force measurement spectroscopy (Optical trapping) and mathematical analysis - an approach that can help pinpoint a specific target for drug testing and potentially open new avenues for biosensing.