{"688513":{"#nid":"688513","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Proving the Hypothesis: Kendreze Holland Becomes First Project ENGAGES Scholar to Earn Doctorate ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was a hypothesis. I was the experiment, and the hypothesis was proven true.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECan an\u0026nbsp;inner-city student who grew up below the poverty line\u0026nbsp;earn a Ph.D. and make a career in research?\u0026nbsp;In theory, yes.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe barriers are many.\u0026nbsp;But\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2451929424001888\u0022\u003Eliterature\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;suggests that early exposure to\u0026nbsp;STEM and research opportunities\u0026nbsp;can increase the odds\u0026nbsp;for students in need.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor\u0026nbsp;Kendreze\u0026nbsp;Holland,\u0026nbsp;the idea of\u0026nbsp;making it to college\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;earning an advanced degree\u0026nbsp;was a hypothesis.\u0026nbsp;Sure, theoretically\u0026nbsp;it could be done\u0026nbsp;\u2014\u0026nbsp;but\u0026nbsp;in his\u0026nbsp;own home, not\u0026nbsp;everyone\u0026nbsp;had\u0026nbsp;even\u0026nbsp;made it past high school.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOften,\u0026nbsp;the\u0026nbsp;first\u0026nbsp;question\u0026nbsp;on the way to\u0026nbsp;scientific discovery\u0026nbsp;is:\u0026nbsp;What if? What if a student like Holland received the right help at the right time?\u0026nbsp;What if he\u0026nbsp;was guided\u0026nbsp;along the way by\u0026nbsp;mentors\u0026nbsp;who were leaders in their fields? What if\u0026nbsp;he was given the opportunity to develop professional skills\u0026nbsp;and make valuable connections?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHolland asked himself: What if he could be the one to\u0026nbsp;prove the hypothesis true?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIntroduction\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHolland grew up\u0026nbsp;in northwest\u0026nbsp;Atlanta,\u0026nbsp;one of seven children\u0026nbsp;raised by a single mother.\u0026nbsp;Being\u0026nbsp;one of so many children, most would struggle to stand out. But Holland always\u0026nbsp;sought\u0026nbsp;to be different.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy perpetual intention was to be less of a burden to my mother,\u201d he said. \u201cSince my mother\u2019s education limited her abilities to help with my schoolwork, I went above the call of duty to stand out in academics.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis mother\u2019s education was cut short in ninth grade so she could raise her first child,\u0026nbsp;Holland\u2019s older sister,\u0026nbsp;and no one in his family had gone to college.\u0026nbsp;In his mind, he had\u0026nbsp;three career paths\u0026nbsp;to choose from: football, hip hop, or retail.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cStanding at a solid 5 foot 8,\u0026nbsp;the first\u0026nbsp;would have been difficult,\u201d he joked. \u201cAnd the latter two were not my calling.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJust like his mother, the course of his life changed in his ninth-grade year. For\u0026nbsp;Holland,\u0026nbsp;it began an academic journey\u0026nbsp;he never expected.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2012, he was attending\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/best.atlantapublicschools.us\/\u0022\u003EB.E.S.T.\u0026nbsp;Academy\u003C\/a\u003E, an all-boys\u0026nbsp;public\u0026nbsp;school for grades six through\u0026nbsp;12\u0026nbsp;focused on\u0026nbsp;business and STEM.\u0026nbsp;Biology\u0026nbsp;class\u0026nbsp;was\u0026nbsp;just another hour\u0026nbsp;waiting to pass\u0026nbsp;for\u0026nbsp;the\u0026nbsp;15-year-old\u0026nbsp;Holland,\u0026nbsp;until the day\u0026nbsp;two guest speakers from\u0026nbsp;Georgia Tech\u0026nbsp;walked into the room with \u201csome weird\u0026nbsp;apparatuses and mechanical chopsticks.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two guests\u0026nbsp;used the equipment\u0026nbsp;\u2014\u0026nbsp;gel electrophoresis systems and pipettes\u0026nbsp;\u2014 to show the boys\u0026nbsp;what research can look like in real life.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis experience sparked within me a drive for science, and it was the first time I realized that I wanted to, and could,\u0026nbsp;attain\u0026nbsp;an advanced scientific degree,\u201d Holland said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two speakers were\u0026nbsp;Manu Platt, a professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/schools\/biomedical-engineering\u0022\u003EWallace H.\u0026nbsp;Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and Jerald Dumas, a postdoctoral researcher.\u0026nbsp;Platt and Dumas\u0026nbsp;were\u0026nbsp;there\u0026nbsp;to recruit students for a new program\u0026nbsp;called\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/projectengages.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EProject ENGAGES\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;within the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/bio\u0022\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(IBB).\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe program was co-founded by Platt and the late Robert M. Nerem, IBB\u2019s founding executive director, to give\u0026nbsp;students\u0026nbsp;like Holland an opportunity\u0026nbsp;to\u0026nbsp;participate\u0026nbsp;in real research projects\u0026nbsp;that would hopefully\u0026nbsp;plant a seed\u0026nbsp;in the next generation of scientists.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents\u0026nbsp;come from\u0026nbsp;one of eight partner schools in Atlanta. Once\u0026nbsp;accepted, they\u0026nbsp;are\u0026nbsp;connected\u0026nbsp;to a Georgia Tech graduate\u0026nbsp;student who\u0026nbsp;mentors them and\u0026nbsp;supervises their work, and\u0026nbsp;they\u0026nbsp;get paid to\u0026nbsp;work in\u0026nbsp;their assigned\u0026nbsp;lab\u0026nbsp;for\u0026nbsp;one year.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProject ENGAGES\u0026nbsp;does more than\u0026nbsp;expose students to STEM concepts and ideas. It\u0026nbsp;equips them with the skills and knowledge to carry out their own independent research projects.\u0026nbsp;They also\u0026nbsp;have\u0026nbsp;opportunities to\u0026nbsp;establish\u0026nbsp;connections with university faculty and industry representatives who can provide career guidance and support.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMethods\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough Holland\u0026nbsp;didn\u2019t\u0026nbsp;meet the program\u2019s age requirement\u0026nbsp;in 2012, he applied again\u0026nbsp;the next year and\u0026nbsp;was accepted.\u0026nbsp;During his junior and senior years of high\u0026nbsp;school,\u0026nbsp;he\u0026nbsp;worked\u0026nbsp;in Platt\u2019s lab, where he aided with\u0026nbsp;projects\u0026nbsp;involving proteins, cell cultures, and\u0026nbsp;antibodies.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOver the course of those two years, the growth I saw scientifically, professionally, and in maturity, all corroborated my belief that\u0026nbsp;Kendreze\u0026nbsp;was going far, and able to push past whatever goals and obstacles he comes up against,\u201d\u0026nbsp;said Platt,\u0026nbsp;now the\u0026nbsp;director of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nibib.nih.gov\/labs-at-nibib\/center-for-biomedical-engineering-technology-acceleration-beta\u0022\u003ECenter for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration\u003C\/a\u003E housed within the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nibib.nih.gov\/\u0022\u003ENational Institute of\u0026nbsp;Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHolland\u0027s experience sparked\u0026nbsp;a love for science\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;a career-long connection with Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;After high school, he\u0026nbsp;graduated summa cum laude\u0026nbsp;with a degree in chemistry\u0026nbsp;from Georgia State University.\u0026nbsp;As an undergraduate, he stayed connected with Tech and with IBB as a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/bio\/petit-undergraduate-research-scholars-program\u0022\u003EPetit Scholar\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;a yearlong mentorship program and research experience for top students around Atlanta.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI really wanted to stay close to home, and I felt like everything was in my backyard,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are many people who come\u0026nbsp;here\u0026nbsp;from other places\u0026nbsp;to Tech because of the great\u0026nbsp;science that is going on.\u0026nbsp;There\u2019s\u0026nbsp;something special about Atlanta, and\u0026nbsp;I\u2019m\u0026nbsp;just getting the best of what I can from it.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe credits his\u0026nbsp;time\u0026nbsp;in Project ENGAGES\u0026nbsp;with\u0026nbsp;giving him the confidence and resilience\u0026nbsp;to continue toward his goals.\u0026nbsp;Like many others in the program, he was a first-generation college student\u0026nbsp;with little to no\u0026nbsp;guidance\u0026nbsp;for his academic career.\u0026nbsp;The\u0026nbsp;holistic approach\u0026nbsp;of Project ENGAGES\u0026nbsp;provided\u0026nbsp;professional development opportunities and standardized test preparation\u0026nbsp;to\u0026nbsp;ready\u0026nbsp;him\u0026nbsp;for life in college and beyond.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI knew I\u0026nbsp;wanted to go to grad school, but I didn\u2019t know I was going to do all these things,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u201cHaving that one goal sprouted a lot of side quests that just grew into something bigger.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter graduating from\u0026nbsp;Georgia State\u0026nbsp;in 2020, Holland was accepted into Georgia Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bioengineering.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EBioengineering Graduate Program\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;as a doctoral student.\u0026nbsp;In December\u0026nbsp;2025, he became the first Project ENGAGES\u0026nbsp;alumnus\u0026nbsp;to\u0026nbsp;successfully defend his dissertation,\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;he\u0026nbsp;is expected to graduate\u0026nbsp;this spring.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/people\/lakeita-servance\u0022\u003ELakeita\u0026nbsp;Servance\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;assistant\u0026nbsp;director of Outreach Initiatives at IBB, was\u0026nbsp;the program manager for Project ENGAGES when Holland was accepted\u0026nbsp;and cheered him on\u0026nbsp;more than 10 years later as he\u0026nbsp;presented his\u0026nbsp;doctoral\u0026nbsp;research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs I sat in that room while he was defending his dissertation and\u0026nbsp;sharing his research with all of us, I still reflected on that boy\u0026nbsp;I saw at 16 years old,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was\u0026nbsp;this full circle moment to see him make it all the way back here.\u0026nbsp;The investment\u0026nbsp;we made over a decade ago has paid off in such a large way.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResults\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to being the first in his family to go to college and earn an advanced degree, Holland\u0026nbsp;received financial support from the National Science Foundation\u2019s Graduate Research Fellowship Program;\u0026nbsp;was\u0026nbsp;awarded\u0026nbsp;multiple\u0026nbsp;prestigious\u0026nbsp;fellowships, including FORD,\u0026nbsp;GEM, and Herbert P. Haley;\u0026nbsp;landed an internship\u0026nbsp;with 3M Corporate Research Materials Laboratory;\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;served as a\u0026nbsp;mentor\u0026nbsp;in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/nakatani-ries\/\u0022\u003ENakatani Research and International Experience for Students\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;He has\u0026nbsp;published papers, led panel discussions,\u0026nbsp;applied\u0026nbsp;for patents, and\u0026nbsp;presented his research at national conferences.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAll that stemmed from Project ENGAGES,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd more importantly, I applied\u0026nbsp;to be a mentor for the ENGAGES program.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHolland said some of\u0026nbsp;his\u0026nbsp;most\u0026nbsp;meaningful experiences have come from\u0026nbsp;being able to give back.\u0026nbsp;He has served as a mentor, both formally and informally,\u0026nbsp;to more than half a dozen students,\u0026nbsp;some\u0026nbsp;who\u0026nbsp;come\u0026nbsp;from backgrounds\u0026nbsp;much like his own.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u0026nbsp;wanted to\u0026nbsp;give\u0026nbsp;back to the program because it poured so much into me. They were able to get me all the way to the Ph.D. level, so I knew that I could use my grind to help other students.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConclusion\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHaving proved the hypothesis true, Holland is turning his focus to the future, considering his options in academia and corporate research while he continues to work as a postdoc at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis research in John\u0026nbsp;Blazeck\u2019s\u0026nbsp;lab\u0026nbsp;focuses on cellular engineering using CRISPR gene editing technology\u0026nbsp;to regulate gene profiles, meaning he and other researchers can turn certain genes up and others down to affect\u0026nbsp;the way cells respond.\u0026nbsp;Though he is currently working with yeast cells, he hopes that his research will translate into mammalian cells that could have more clinical applications.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn terms of diseases and disorders, you can use it to tune genes to help someone experiencing cancer\u0026nbsp;by helping immune cells or stopping cancer cells from dividing rapidly,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can also help other cells to survive longer, and longer cell viability means potentially a patient can survive longer.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat began as a presentation in\u0026nbsp;a\u0026nbsp;high school science class has led Holland\u0026nbsp;to a future he never expected.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.research.gatech.edu\/node\/2815\u0022\u003ETequila Harris\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorge W.\u0026nbsp;Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;co-director of Project ENGAGES, said\u0026nbsp;his story shows others that they can do the same.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI believe his achievements will inspire and motivate generations of students to pursue dreams that they may not have known they had.\u0026nbsp;Kendreze\u0026nbsp;Holland has fundamentally shown others that there are multiple pathways to engage in STEM and that opportunities and access to advanced degrees can\u0026nbsp;be\u0026nbsp;attained\u0026nbsp;by those willing to do the work.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHolland\u0027s story is symbolic of the ultimate goal for Project ENGAGES:\u0026nbsp;to change the lives of talented young people who may never have had the opportunity to succeed.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s why I was so adamant about getting my Ph.D.,\u201d he said,\u0026nbsp;\u201cto show\u0026nbsp;that one could potentially overcome what they were going through to do something extraordinary.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EProject ENGAGES is possible thanks to philanthropic support from our generous community: \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/giving.gatech.edu\/campaigns\/60129\/donations\/new?designation_id=55a493\u0026amp;\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDonate here\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor Kendreze Holland, the idea of making it to college and earning an advanced degree was a hypothesis. Holland asked himself: What if he could be the one to prove the hypothesis true?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat began as a presentation in a high school science class has led Holland to a future he never expected \u2013 planning to graduate from Georgia Tech with a Ph.D. in bioengineering this spring. His story is symbolic of the ultimate goal for the Project ENGAGES program: to change the lives of talented young people who may never have had the opportunity to succeed.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In December 2025, he became the first Project ENGAGES alumnus to successfully defend his dissertation, and he is expected to graduate this spring. "}],"uid":"36479","created_gmt":"2026-02-25 13:55:09","changed_gmt":"2026-03-09 17:59:22","author":"abowman41","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-02-25T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-02-25T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679431":{"id":"679431","type":"image","title":"Holland-Lab.jpg","body":null,"created":"1772045667","gmt_created":"2026-02-25 18:54:27","changed":"1772045667","gmt_changed":"2026-02-25 18:54:27","alt":"A man in a lab coat wearing safety goggles and gloves puts samples into a machine in a scientific lab","file":{"fid":"263594","name":"Holland-Lab.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/25\/Holland-Lab.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/25\/Holland-Lab.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1197473,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/02\/25\/Holland-Lab.jpg?itok=3WyFADtX"}}},"media_ids":["679431"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187423","name":"go-bio"},{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"}],"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\u003EAshlie Bowman | Communications Manager\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["ashlie.bowman@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"676335":{"#nid":"676335","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Collaborative Graduate Training in Computational Neural Engineering Expands ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince it began in 2019, Georgia Tech and Emory University\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cntp.bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EComputational Neural-Engineering Training Program\u003C\/a\u003E has funded and trained doctoral students at the intersection of neuroscience, engineering, computation, and clinical experience.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe saw that there was a new kind of neuroscience that was happening, to both understand the mysteries of the brain and nervous system and to treat related diseases and disorders,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/faculty\/Garrett-B.-Stanley\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGarrett Stanley\u003C\/a\u003E, program co-director, professor, and McCamish Foundation Distinguished Chair in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EWalter H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (BME). \u201cThe program was created to fill this gap in training, and to provide a community for like-minded scientists and engineers across these disciplines.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECombined with support from Georgia Tech and Emory, that community is set to grow with recently renewed and increased funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re excited to expand the number of students funded and continue to grow our programs,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/faculty\/Lena-H.-Ting\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ELena Ting\u003C\/a\u003E, program co-director, professor, and McCamish Foundation Distinguished Chair in BME. \u201cWith this funding, we\u2019ll continue to attract the best and brightest students.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EExpanding Access\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough courses, research, professional development, and community outreach, the two-year program provides unprecedented training and community for doctoral students in BME, electrical and computational engineering, neuroscience, machine learning, and beyond.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur program is unique in that it combines computation \u2014 both how the brain computes and how we can use computational tools to better understand the brain \u2014 and engineering of technologies for interfacing with the brain and nervous system,\u201d says Stanley, who also co-directs the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/nec.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ENeural Engineering Center\u003C\/a\u003E with Ting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents are also exposed to neurology, rehabilitation, and other related fields through clinical course requirements.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe teach our students alongside physical therapy and occupational therapy students to solve clinically relevant problems,\u201d explains Ting, who teaches several of the courses. \u201cWe think early exposure to such clinical problems can accelerate the translation of basic research to the clinic.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOriginally slated to last five years, funding for the program comes from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/researchtraining.nih.gov\/programs\/training-grants\/T32-a\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ET32 program of institutional training grants\u003C\/a\u003E by the NIH and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/med.emory.edu\/directory\/profile\/?u=MBORICH\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EMichael Borich\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the Emory University School of Medicine, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/directory\/christopher-john-rozell\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EChris Rozell\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and Julian T. Hightower Chair in Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E, also serve as directors of the program.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe NIH T32 funding mechanism is great because it enables universities to create training programs that span different traditional disciplines,\u201d says Stanley. Without the need to create entirely new academic units, training programs like these provide funding for students conducting interdisciplinary research. Since the funding isn\u2019t tied to a specific research group, it also gives students the flexibility to rotate through multiple labs to find the best fit. \u201cIn other words, it\u2019s a game changer.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith NIH funding renewed and expanded by 50%, the program will now have the capacity to fund more trainees.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI love to see the program grow so more of our students and faculty can benefit,\u201d said Ting. \u201cThanks to generous funding from Georgia Tech, we will also be able to support international students now, something we couldn\u2019t do in the past.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to support from the NIH, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/med.emory.edu\/index.html\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEmory University School of Medicine\u003C\/a\u003E, and the joint Georgia Tech-Emory BME Department, the program is further bolstered by support from Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EOffice of the Executive Vice President for Research\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhile the NIH funding enables us to support the salary and tuition for students,\u201d said Stanley, \u201clocal support from Georgia Tech and Emory enables us to not only manage the growing program and provide reporting back to the NIH, but also to provide student-initiated training workshops in emerging technical areas, career development activities, training in neuroethics, and social events that help to bring the community together.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe community, he said, is the \u201cmost exciting and significant part of this. The network of talented people brought together through this program will be valuable and influential for years to come.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFunding for the Georgia Tech and Emory University training program in computational neural engineering was recently renewed and increased by the National Institutes of Health, expanding opportunities for students and scholars.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Funding for the Georgia Tech and Emory University training program in computational neural engineering was recently renewed and increased by the National Institutes of Health, expanding opportunities for students and scholars."}],"uid":"35575","created_gmt":"2024-08-28 15:59:26","changed_gmt":"2024-08-28 16:16:40","author":"adavidson38","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-08-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-08-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"674748":{"id":"674748","type":"image","title":"22C10400-P3-003.JPG","body":null,"created":"1724860784","gmt_created":"2024-08-28 15:59:44","changed":"1724860784","gmt_changed":"2024-08-28 15:59:44","alt":"Tech Tower","file":{"fid":"258308","name":"22C10400-P3-003.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/08\/28\/22C10400-P3-003.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/08\/28\/22C10400-P3-003.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5470957,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/08\/28\/22C10400-P3-003.JPG?itok=7zbtoU4E"}}},"media_ids":["674748"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/georgia-tech-offer-phd-neuroscience-and-neurotechnology-new-minor","title":"Georgia Tech to Offer Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, New Minor"}],"groups":[{"id":"66220","name":"Neuro"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"},{"id":"126591","name":"go-NeuralEngineering"},{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"},{"id":"1612","name":"BME"},{"id":"177092","name":"College of Engineering; Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory"},{"id":"187582","name":"go-ibb"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAudra Davidson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Manager\u003Cbr\u003ENeuro Next Initiative\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"635926":{"#nid":"635926","#data":{"type":"news","title":"A Message from BioE Leadership","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBioE Students and Faculty,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIn the wake of the public tragedies surrounding the unwarranted deaths of Ahmed Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others, as well as the uprisings around the country in protest against the systemic issues, we want to pause and recognize this moment and the impact it is having on our country, including our BioE community. Instead of moving past it as business as usual, we recognize that these events can have profound effects on our diverse community of faculty, students, and Laura, whom we love.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCompounded with the COVID-19 pandemic we are all facing, but is killing African-Americans and other people at higher proportions in this country, we recognize these events can be distracting to productivity and participation. There can also be a threat to one\u0026rsquo;s sense of safety, sense of justice, and prioritization of tasks in these disconcerting times. Faculty, we encourage you to make space for your students to share their concerns during this time, and students we validate your concerns and fears during this time, but we also encourage you to make space for each other in conversation and support.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nPlease know that the Bioengineering Program Leadership continues to develop a supportive, inclusive community, as we have been for years, and we recognize the important contributions of all of its members.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nPlease take a moment and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=s4UKk0zgWi4\u0026amp;t=1s\u0022\u003Ewatch Dr. Platt\u0026rsquo;s BMEs Diversity acceptance award lecture\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBlack lives matter in BioE, and we all are responsible to speak up and be supportive.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nHang Lu - Director, BioE\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nManu Platt - Deputy Director, BioE\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"BioE directors give message of hope and inclusion"}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2020-06-03 14:49:05","changed_gmt":"2020-06-03 14:59:03","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-06-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-06-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"353211":{"id":"353211","type":"image","title":"Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program at Georgia Tech","body":null,"created":"1449245728","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:15:28","changed":"1475895080","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:20","alt":"Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program at Georgia Tech","file":{"fid":"201186","name":"bioe_logo_-_square.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bioe_logo_-_square_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bioe_logo_-_square_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":33003,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bioe_logo_-_square_0.png?itok=5kwBt8Rj"}}},"media_ids":["353211"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/bioengineering.gatech.edu\/","title":"BioEngineering program website"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"}],"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\u003ELaura Paige\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.paige@bioengineering.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"635282":{"#nid":"635282","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Seventh Annual BioE Day is a Virtual Hit","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn May 2014, the students in the BioEngineering Graduate Program (BioE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology sought a way to build community, showcase science, and recognize the outstanding achievements of graduate researchers and principal investigators. So they invented BioE Day, and it became a spring tradition.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EManaged by the BioEngineering Graduate Association (BGA), the event brought keynote speakers who are some of the top researchers in their fields. Also, students put their work on display in a poster session throughout the atrium of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, headquarters for BioE, or they gave live presentations of their research in front of a packed audience in the Suddath Room. And the day always culminated with an awards ceremony followed by fun and games, inside or outside, depending on the weather.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year, thanks to a worldwide pandemic forcing social distancing practices (which means a mostly closed campus), the BGA employed a few new and necessary tricks to keep the tradition alive. The seventh annual BioE Day became the first virtual BioE Day, which basically included everything except for the poster session and frisbee on the quad. Ultimately, the event (May 5) was a welcome taste of normalcy for a sprawling program that has built a reputation as one of the top ranked of its kind in the nation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Throughout the year there are seminars and other events held by BioE to help create community, but none of these are ever as special as BioE Day,\u0026rdquo; said BGA President Bailey Hannon, a graduate researcher in the lab of Ross Ethier, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Virtual BioE Day was a way to still form a sense of community and enthusiasm that is desperately missed these past few months,\u0026rdquo; added Hannon, who was named winner of this year\u0026rsquo;s Christopher Ruffin Leadership Award. \u0026ldquo;I think now more than ever, BioE Day was super important, because when you\u0026rsquo;re sitting at home and not allowed to continue your research, it can be difficult to stay motivated and excited.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMore than 170 people took part in the event, sitting in their living rooms or home offices or wherever they\u0026rsquo;re doing their work these days, including Laurence Jacobs, associate dean in the College of Engineering, who offered a few words to the virtually gathered crowd. The schedule was dominated, as usual, by talks about science. They were delivered by current BioE Award winners. Leading off was ShuichiTakayama, professor in the Coulter Department (Outstanding Advisor), who offered his \u0026ldquo;Journey to Bioengineering.\u0026rdquo; Next up was Monica McNerney, who graduated from the BioE program last year and was the winner of the Outstanding Thesis Award. Her presentation was entitled \u0026ldquo;Biosensors for Field Deployable Diagnostics.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFollowing the Rapid Fire Thesis competition, BioE alumnus Stephen Scwhaner talked about the pitfalls and solutions to finding a job. Musa Mahmood (Outstanding Paper) delivered a presentation called \u0026ldquo;Universal Brain-machine Interfaces Enabled by Flexible Scalp Electronics and Deep-learning,\u0026rdquo; followed by Camila Camargo (Outstanding Abstract) and her talk entitled \u0026ldquo;Adhesion Analysis to Interrogate Extravasation Capacity of CD8 T Cells for Adoptive Cell Therapy.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EElio Challita (who shared Outstanding Abstract honors with Camargo) presented research with the enthralling title, \u0026ldquo;Insect Pee: How Sharpshooters Excrete Ultrafast Fluid Droplets.\u0026rdquo; Another graduate of the BioE program, Ivana Parker, closed the day\u0026rsquo;s talks with her presentation, \u0026ldquo;A Bioengineering Journey: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile all of this was going on, a group of faculty judges from the Coulter Department \u0026ndash; Felipe Quiroz, Aniruddh Sarkar, Ahmet Coskun \u0026ndash; made their selections for the Rapid Fire Thesis student awards: April Miguez, first place, $150 (principal investigator is Mark Styczynski, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering); Jeffrey Gau, second, $100 (P.I. is Simon Sponberg, School of Physics); Dan Zhang third, $100 (P.I. is Melissa Kemp, Coulter Department); Sri Krishna Sivakumar, fan favorite, $75 (P.I. is Prasad Dasi, Coulter Department).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to Camargo (P.I. is Susan Thomas, School of Mechanical Engineering) and Challita (P.I. is Saad Bhamla, School of Chemical and Biolmolecular Engineering), Mighten Yip, from the lab of Craig Forest (Mechanical Engineering) was recognized with an award for Outstanding Abstract ($100).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs the Ruffin Award winner, Hannon took home one of the most coveted prizes among BioE students, and it\u0026rsquo;s a reflection of her years of leadership within the program, during which she focused on a healthy work-life balance, \u0026ldquo;because when you are happier and more relaxed overall, retrying that failed experiment for the 102\u003Csup\u003End\u003C\/sup\u003E time seems a lot less daunting.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe added, \u0026ldquo;Winning the Ruffin Award was amazing because each year I\u0026rsquo;d see the winner of this award and think to myself, \u0026lsquo;of course, that was so well deserved, they did so much for the program.\u0026rsquo; And now that\u0026rsquo;s me! I\u0026rsquo;m incredibly thankful and in shock. It\u0026rsquo;s also bittersweet because it really means that I\u0026rsquo;m leaving the BioE program and all of the people that I\u0026rsquo;ll miss so much.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThough it was a shorter event and though the participants were separated, sometimes by many miles, the virtual edition of BioE Day was a big hit, according to Zhang, who is BGA vice president. \u0026ldquo;A lot of credit goes to our BioE Day chairs, Hannah Viola and Mighten Yip, who were instrumental in coordinating many of the logistics,\u0026rdquo; he said. \u0026ldquo;BioE Day at its heart has always been driven by students, and they\u0026#39;ve really embodied a spirit of leadership and service in planning this event.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EZhang also called out Petit Institute staffers Colly Mitchell and Randy Johnson, \u0026ldquo;for all their help in taking care of technical considerations for a virtual event, and moderating the actual flow of events. And as always, Program Administrator Laura Paige is a key force behind anything and everything BioE-related.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Grad student leadership delivers new format for traditional spring celebration of science and community"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGrad student leadership delivers new format for traditional spring celebration of science and community\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Grad student leadership delivers new format for traditional spring celebration of science and community"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2020-05-12 13:21:23","changed_gmt":"2020-05-12 13:21:23","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"635281":{"id":"635281","type":"image","title":"Manu and Laurence","body":null,"created":"1589289255","gmt_created":"2020-05-12 13:14:15","changed":"1589289255","gmt_changed":"2020-05-12 13:14:15","alt":"","file":{"fid":"241732","name":"screen shot.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen%20shot.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen%20shot.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":31728,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/screen%20shot.jpg?itok=3v-8QPyq"}}},"media_ids":["635281"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"126571","name":"go-PetitInstitute"},{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"}],"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:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["Jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"617890":{"#nid":"617890","#data":{"type":"news","title":"BioE Student is Yale Ciencia Academy Fellow","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAdriana Mulero-Russe, a first-year Ph.D. student in the interdisciplinary Bioengineering program based in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been selected as a 2019 Yale Ciencia Academy Fellow.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMulero-Russe, whose home school at\u0026nbsp;Georgia Tech is the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is one of only \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cienciapr.org\/en\/blogs\/yale-ciencia-academy\/2019-yale-ciencia-fellows\u0022\u003E40 scholars\u003C\/a\u003E in the year-long program this go-round. The students kicked off their year as fellows of the Yale Ciencia Academy for Career Development this week (Feb. 14-18) by attending the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0026rsquo;s exactly the kind of networking opportunity Mulero-Russe was hoping for when she applied for the highly competitive program.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I still feel new to everything, and I\u0026rsquo;m eager to learn how to network with other people in similar areas of research,\u0026rdquo; she said. \u0026ldquo;I expect to put these skills into play in the four years I have ahead of me as a Ph.D. student.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Yale Ciencia Academy was developed in 2016 by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cienciapr.org\/\u0022\u003ECiencia Puerto Rico\u003C\/a\u003E, a non-profit organization comprised of scientists, students, citizens, and professionals committed to the advancement of science in Puerto Rico and with promoting science communication, education, and careers.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe career development program targets grad students studying biomedical and behavioral sciences in Puerto Rico and the U.S., giving them an opportunity to participate in workshops, conversations with scientists, mentoring, networking and another thing that really resonated strongly for Mulero-Russe, science outreach.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOutside of research, one of her passions is sharing her knowledge of science with the community. Her long-term goals include combining her desire to teach and inspire others with research and engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I envision becoming a professor, teaching and spreading knowledge and confidence to other students, helping them see that they\u0026rsquo;re capable of achieving their goals in life,\u0026rdquo; said Mulero-Russe, who earned her Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayag\u0026uuml;ez (UPRM) in 2018.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe was able to leverage her great interest in the use of biomaterials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to become part of the Georgia Tech biomaterials training grant. Last semester she worked in the lab of Petit Institute researcher Nick Willett.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, she\u0026rsquo;s doing her research in the lab of Petit Institute Executive Director Andr\u0026eacute;s J. Garc\u0026iacute;a, who is also a native of Puerto Rico, the unincorporated U.S. island territory that was hammered by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, when Mulera-Russe was heading into the home stretch of her undergraduate studies. She said her family was lucky to escape major damage, but they didn\u0026rsquo;t have power or water for several months.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It was definitely a rough moment for all of us, but we\u0026rsquo;re resilient. We have a strong spirit in Puerto Rico \u0026ndash; our group mentality is to think and work as a community,\u0026rdquo; said Mulera-Russe, who would ultimately like to be a professor back home. \u0026ldquo;My goal is to return to Puerto Rico, to give back to the community what they gave me. I\u0026rsquo;d really like to be a model for future Puerto Rican students.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Adriana Mulero-Russe selected for competitive year-long career development program"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAdriana Mulero-Russe selected for competitive year-long career development program\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Adriana Mulero-Russe selected for competitive year-long career development program"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2019-02-15 13:02:00","changed_gmt":"2019-02-15 19:13:15","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2019-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"617889":{"id":"617889","type":"image","title":"Adriana Mulero-Russe","body":null,"created":"1550235481","gmt_created":"2019-02-15 12:58:01","changed":"1550235481","gmt_changed":"2019-02-15 12:58:01","alt":"","file":{"fid":"235202","name":"Adriana.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Adriana.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Adriana.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":865005,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Adriana.jpg?itok=oOsfclII"}}},"media_ids":["617889"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"126571","name":"go-PetitInstitute"},{"id":"6178","name":"BIOE"},{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["Jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"603730":{"#nid":"603730","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Two Trainees Sharing Nerem Travel Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Hunckler and Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones will use their Nerem Travel Awards to reach opposite corners of the globe in pursuit of lofty, wildly different research goals in a historic year for the 13-year-old program.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELaunched in 2005 by friends and colleagues of Bob Nerem, founding director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the travel award typically supports travel costs for one graduate student or post-doctoral trainee traveling outside of the U.S. for research. But this year, for the first time, two winners are sharing the award.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESweeney-Jones, from the lab of Petit Institute researcher Julia\u0026nbsp;Kubanek, will use her portion for underwater research with the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Meanwhile Hunckler, who works in the Petit Institute lab of Andr\u0026eacute;s J. Garc\u0026iacute;a, is using his to visit the University of Toronto, where he\u0026rsquo;ll work alongside stem cell biologists on his ongoing goal to find a treatment Type 1 diabetes, a disease he and his brother have been battling for years.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;When I was in third grade, my younger brother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and I vowed that I would help him, in some way, alleviate the daily struggles he faced,\u0026rdquo; recalls Hunckler, who was diagnosed six years later, during his first week of high school. \u0026ldquo;I finally was able to appreciate firsthand the burden that diabetes had on my brother\u0026rsquo;s life.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe experience reinvigorated his interest in alleviating the consequence of the disease, continuing through his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame and now at Georgia Tech, where he is a third-year BioEngineering PhD student working in the Garc\u0026iacute;a lab to develop game-changing solutions for treating diabetes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs lead engineer of the collaboration with the Toronto team, Hunckler hopes to integrate the advanced biomaterial development of the Garc\u0026iacute;a lab with the stem cell biology techniques of the Nostro lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I find it critically valuable that I understand the stem cell work being done by the Nostro lab, and it will be immensely valuable for the Nostro lab to understand the biomaterials techniques that we are implementing,\u0026rdquo; says Hunckler. \u0026ldquo;So, this travel grant will allow me to learn their research, teach our research, and facilitate a fruitful collaboration for the remainder of my PhD and beyond.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlmost 8,000 miles away in another hemisphere, Sweeney-Jones will be back in somewhat familiar waters. She visited Fiji last year as part of a study abroad program, and had a chance to do some exploring.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I\u0026rsquo;ve actually had a chance to dive twice in Fiji, but this will be an amazing opportunity to go back and actually do some field research,\u0026rdquo; says Sweeney-Jones, a PhD student in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry who will work in Fiji with the lab of University of the South Pacific researcher Kate Soapi.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Kubanek lab looks at how marine organisms use chemical cues for defense, mating, habitat selection, and food tracking. Sweeney-Jones is interested in studying natural products derived from marine organisms that have potential pharmacological activity.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile in Fiji this summer, \u0026ldquo;I want to identify compounds that are active against malaria and infectious worms,\u0026rdquo; she says. \u0026ldquo;And see what ecological roles these compounds have in their natural environment.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPrevious Nerem Travel Awards have sent trainees from Georgia Tech across the planet, to some of the world\u0026rsquo;s top research universities and institutions, including the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Japan), the National University of Singapore, the University of Twente (The Netherlands), Queensland University of Technology (Australia), and the Max Planck Institute (Germany), among others.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFrom the program\u0026rsquo;s beginning, Nerem has always stressed the importance of getting out of familiar surroundings to experience research.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;This award has never been about sending a student to a conference,\u0026rdquo; Nerem says. \u0026ldquo;This is about going to another laboratory in another place and sharing your research while learning research techniques from other experts.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Michael Hunckler and Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones traveling to different corners of the world for their research"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Hunckler and Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones traveling to different corners of the world for their research\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Michael Hunckler and Anne Marie Sweeney-Jones traveling to different corners of the world for their research"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2018-03-13 18:07:48","changed_gmt":"2018-03-16 15:20:55","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2018-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"603729":{"id":"603729","type":"image","title":"Nerem Travel Award 2018","body":null,"created":"1520964283","gmt_created":"2018-03-13 18:04:43","changed":"1520964283","gmt_changed":"2018-03-13 18:04:43","alt":"","file":{"fid":"230103","name":"NeremAward.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/NeremAward.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/NeremAward.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2296266,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/NeremAward.jpg?itok=QDkJZxnm"}}},"media_ids":["603729"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"65448","name":"Bioengineering Graduate Program"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"9515","name":"Nerem Travel Award"},{"id":"126571","name":"go-PetitInstitute"},{"id":"172056","name":"go-BioE"}],"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:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["Jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"538981":{"#nid":"538981","#data":{"type":"news","title":"BioE Day Builds Community","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBioE Day, held May 12 at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, once again lived up to its promise as a community-building event. And this time there was an added bonus: an impromptu juggling exhibition, which seems appropriate, given the interdisciplinary, multi-tasking (and sometimes fast-paced) nature of life in the BioEngineering graduate program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBioE Day was designed specifically to unify the graduate program\u2019s students and faculty, who come from many different home schools and are immersed in a wide range of research topics. The event incorporates research, competitions, awards, fellowship, games, and a keynote address by Bob Nerem, founding director of the Petit Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cI\u2019m thrilled the students recommended Bob,\u201d said Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda, BioE faculty advisor. \u201cHe\u2019s my friend and mentor. He\u2019s \u2018Uncle Bob.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENerem delivered his address, entitled, \u201cBioengineering: Building a New Discipline, a Personal\u0026nbsp;Journey.\u201d He talked about living in Norway as a child and about his career. Nerem began in aeronautical engineering and gravitated toward bioengineering after NASA recruited him to help the organization better understand how launch and re-entry from orbit affects the human body. Since then, he\u2019s been a leading researcher in bioengineering for more than 40 years, focusing primarily on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cIf you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, you may end up somewhere else,\u201d Nerem said, offering a suitable theme for his career, borrowed from the wisdom of Yogi Berra.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EFollowing Nerem\u2019s address and lunch, the students engaged in a poster competition and a rapid-fire presentation competition, which was won by Joshua Hooks and Tom Bongiorno, respectively.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWinners of the 2016 BioE Outstanding Paper award (grad student Jordan Ciciliano) and Outstanding Advisor award (Krishnendu Roy, professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering) made research presentations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EHooks and Bongiorno were then given their awards, and Bongiorno was named winner of the Chris Ruffin Student Leadership Award, which recognizes exemplary leadership and community involvement.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBioE Day was supposed to end with a cookout and games in courtyard, but rain pushed the fun inside, where a couple of cornhole games ensued, but not before the bean bags were co-opted by several members of the staff, faculty and student body, who demonstrated heretofore unseen juggling skills and may have laid the groundwork for a new competition at the next BioE Day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Nerem speech highlights annual Bioengineering grad program celebration"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENerem speech highlights annual Bioengineering grad program celebration\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Nerem speech highlights annual Bioengineering grad program celebration"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2016-05-23 12:04:50","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:42","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-05-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-05-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"538941":{"id":"538941","type":"image","title":"Garcia and Nerem","body":null,"created":"1464703200","gmt_created":"2016-05-31 14:00:00","changed":"1475895326","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:26","alt":"Garcia and Nerem","file":{"fid":"89531","name":"andres_and_bob.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/andres_and_bob.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/andres_and_bob.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1385145,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/andres_and_bob.jpg?itok=1Plexz28"}},"538951":{"id":"538951","type":"image","title":"BioE Honorees","body":null,"created":"1464703200","gmt_created":"2016-05-31 14:00:00","changed":"1475895326","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:26","alt":"BioE Honorees","file":{"fid":"89532","name":"bioe_honorees.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bioe_honorees.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bioe_honorees.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3336509,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bioe_honorees.jpg?itok=qDDBawJx"}},"538971":{"id":"538971","type":"image","title":"Nerem Stands Tall","body":null,"created":"1464703200","gmt_created":"2016-05-31 14:00:00","changed":"1475895326","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:26","alt":"Nerem Stands Tall","file":{"fid":"89534","name":"cell_wall_bob.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cell_wall_bob.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cell_wall_bob.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1527217,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/cell_wall_bob.jpg?itok=_HIlKe1C"}},"538961":{"id":"538961","type":"image","title":"Kirsten BioE","body":null,"created":"1464703200","gmt_created":"2016-05-31 14:00:00","changed":"1475895326","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:26","alt":"Kirsten BioE","file":{"fid":"89533","name":"kirsten_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kirsten_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kirsten_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1867414,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/kirsten_0.jpg?itok=zX8UnGQE"}}},"media_ids":["538941","538951","538971","538961"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. 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