Chloé is selected for T32 training grant
PhD student Chloé Thiveaud was selected as a trainee on Georgia Tech’s Cell and Tissue Engineering T32 NIH training grant. Congratulations to Chloé!
Awards
Elif wins Outstanding Student Award
Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Elif Kulaksizoglu for winning the Genentech Outstanding Student Award! This award recognizes one winner from each school who excelled in the field of biotechnology with high scholastic achievement through a $2,500 award and three-month summer internship.
Jamey Siebart is awarded NSF GRFP
Congratulations to Jamey for winning a fellowship from the NSF GRFP! The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is a prestigious program that recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, supporting their tuition and stipend for three years during a five-year fellowship period. Read more here.
Sofia Vainikos and Elif Kulaksizoglu win PURA Salary Awards
Congratulations to Sofia and Elif for winning President’s Undergraduate Research Salary Awards (PURA) for Spring 2023! PURA funds student salaries to conduct undergraduate research with Georgia Tech faculty and offsets travel expenses for undergraduates to present their research at professional conferences. Read more about PURA here.
Ali Zamat wins F31 fellowship
Ali was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award – i.e., the F31 fellowship – by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to sponsor his project entitled “Focused ultrasound control of intratumoral NKG2DL BTE production by CAR T cells to potentiate epitope spread.” Congrats to Ali!
Summary | To enhance CAR T cells for solid tumors, potent immunomodulators such as cytokines or bispecific T cell engagers (BTEs) can be co-infused. However, systemic delivery of these agents breaches self-tolerance resulting in numerous immune related adverse effects. This proposal seeks to use focused ultrasound to non- invasively control the intratumoral production of BTEs by thermal sensitive CAR T cells to enhance anti-tumor activity and elucidate mechanisms of epitope spread by investigating DC priming of endogenous T cells.
Brandon Holt defends Ph.D. thesis
Congrats to the now-Dr. Brandon Holt, who successfully defended his thesis entitled “Activity-based molecular circuits for programmable medicine” in front of his committee, friends, and family!
Henry Zhao wins undergraduate research award
Congratulations to Henry Zhao for winning an award from the Alfred H. Gibeling Family Research Fund through the Biomedical Engineering department to conduct undergraduate research!
Lena Gamboa defends Ph.D. thesis
Congratulations to Lena Gamboa for defending her Ph.D. thesis! Lena received glowing remarks from her committee after defending her thesis, titled “Programming synthetic T cell immunity against solid tumors,” on December 13, 2021. We look forward to your future success!
Coulter BME appoints Dr. Kwong as distinguished faculty fellow
Dr. Kwong was among five faculty members to receive a distinguished fellowship from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering this spring. He was recognized for his “ongoing and outstanding impactful contributions […] to Coulter BME – and the biomedical engineering profession, writ large.”
Read more here.
Quoc Mac defends Ph.D. thesis
Congratulations to Quoc Mac for defending his Ph.D. thesis! Quoc successfully defended his thesis, titled “Engineered activity sensors for predictive immune monitoring,” in front of a virtual crowd on March 9, 2021. We look forward to your future success!