Students graduating from our Department continue to garner major awards. Mehdi Hamouda, a 2016 graduate of the BME undergraduate program, has been awarded a 2017 Whitaker International Program Fellowship. This award aims to enrich the development of biomedical engineers by providing means to pursue international research opportunities and is granted to 50 post-doctoral scholars and pre-doctoral fellows each year. Mehdi is currently completing an NIH IRTA (Intramural Research Training Award) at the Vaccine Research Center, following which he will move to the UK to begin his Whitaker Fellowship at the Wellcome Trust – Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. His project will involve investigating embryonic stem cell nuclear structural proteins associated with mechanical signal transduction, which will hopefully achieve a better understanding of relevant diseases such as Muscular Dystrophy and breast cancer. A better understanding of how stem cell development is regulated can also greatly aid in the development of stem cell related therapy.
During his undergraduate career, Mehdi worked with Dr. Josephine Bodle in Dr. Elizabeth Loboa’s Cell Mechanics Laboratory as an NCSU BME Abrams Scholar. Congratulations, Mehdi!