{"292661":{"#nid":"292661","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Hettiaratchi Awarded as a P.E.O. Scholar","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMarian Hettiaratchi a Ph.D. candidate in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, is one of 85 doctoral students nationwide selected to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.) Sisterhood. She was sponsored by the Georgia P.E.O. Chapter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHettiaratchi is a third year Ph.D. candidate. She received a BSc. in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in 2011 from the University of Calgary, where she worked on several stem cell bioprocessing projects at the Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF) under the supervision of Arindom Sen, Ph.D. She is currently co-advised by professors Todd McDevitt, Ph.D. and Robert Guldberg, Ph.D., working on a project that aims to improve biotherapeutic strategies for bone regeneration and repair. Hettiaratchi is developing novel glycosaminoglycan-based biomaterials for the sustained delivery of pluripotent stem cell morphogens to bone injury sites. This project presents a unique \u201ccell-free\u201d strategy for harnessing the regenerative potential of pluripotent stem cells by capturing and delivering the potent proteins they secrete.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to the PSA, Hettiaratchi is also a recipient of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) doctoral fellowship and has presented her work at national and international conferences, including the annual Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society \u2013 Americas (TERMIS-AM) conference and Regenerative Medicine Workshop at Hilton Head Island.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Marian Hettiaratchi to receive $15K scholarship"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMarian Hettiaratchi to receive $15K scholarship\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Marian Hettiaratchi to receive $15K scholarship"}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2014-04-23 08:18:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:18","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"292671":{"id":"292671","type":"image","title":"Marian Hettiaratchi","body":null,"created":"1449244313","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:53","changed":"1475894991","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:51","alt":"Marian Hettiaratchi","file":{"fid":"199281","name":"hettiaratchi_300x300_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/hettiaratchi_300x300_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/hettiaratchi_300x300_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":124286,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/hettiaratchi_300x300_0_0.jpg?itok=meV-HBHW"}}},"media_ids":["292671"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.mcdevitt.gatech.edu\/","title":"Todd McDevitt Laboratory Website"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.peointernational.org\/","title":"P.E.O. International"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:colly.mitchell@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EColly Mitchell\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["colly.mitchell@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}