Eman Mirdanmadi – MWC Chapter Scholar
1st Year Scholar, PhD candidate, Bioengineering
University of Maryland

Research:
Three dimensional bioprinting technology has gained increased attention in the regenerative medicine and tissue engineering communities over the past decade with their attempts to create functional living tissues and organs. This research specializes in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug delivery and is centered on developing 3D printed bone with gels capable of treating health conditions, particularly related to the eye and brain.

How Will Your Research Benefit Society?
From my efforts, I would like to see the biomaterials I develop to have a significant impact on reducing the frequency of biotherapeutic dosing while enhancing the safety and efficacy of biotherapeutics. Finally, I would like to create engineered bone constructs that cater to a wide range of patient specific defects to increase patient compliance and ultimately, improve a patient’s quality of life.

How will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research?
An ARCS award will invaluable to my pursuit to engineer products that reach beyond the lab. My research will benefit greatly from funding to support the cost of materials for additional testing and evaluation. For example, my focus in my final year of research is to evaluate the effectiveness of therapies delivered via 3D printed polycaprolactone (PCL) modeled on bone. The results from these tests will directly demonstrate the viability of my work.

This award will also allow me to travel to conferences and interact with the top leaders in bioengineering and regenerative medicine. Additionally, these funds will allow me to forgo a teaching assistantship and focus on my research, maintaining my projected timeline to graduation.

Career objectives:
To date, I have built my career in the areas of academic and government contract research. I would like to continue in this work to continue research and development on biomaterials. More broadly, I hope to lead interdisciplinary projects to drive innovative solutions for complex engineering challenges.

In the longer term, I am inspired to develop engineered bone constructs and see them enter the marketplace as an effective, accessible option for patients. To that end, I am exploring the opportunity to commercialize my work in this area.