Sabahat Rahman – Danaher Foundation Scholar
Undergraduate Scholar, Senior, Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University

Research:
Two cancer research projects will be focusing on personalized care and treatments. The first project will develop a device that measures individual patient melanoma stiffness in situ, with the intent of diagnosing melanomas earlier. The second project will use computational tools to model patient-specific reactions to various immunotherapies such as neo-antigen vaccines. These specialized treatments could prevent the deleterious side effects associated with nonspecific therapies.

How will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research?
I have had the incredible opportunity of working on various research projects, which highlight personalized approaches for cancer patients. In the Zaidi Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine, I worked with my mentors to study neoantigen vaccines, which include peptides derived from tumor-specific mutations—thus eliciting targeted immune responses against tumor cells. These vaccines present an avenue for patient-specific treatments that prevent the deleterious side effects associated with nonspecific therapies.

My work on a biomedical engineering design team emphasized the need to elucidate the mechanisms behind melanoma progression and similarly use these findings in a patient-specific manner. I am also eager to be starting a new research project in the Karchin Lab at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Computational Medicine, where I will be working to computationally predict immunogenic viral antigens.

For me, these research endeavors highlight the shift towards patient-tailored approaches in cancer prevention and treatment. As an aspiring physician-scientist, these various experiences helped me become more cognizant of the impact research findings ultimately have in the clinical sphere.

Career objectives:
I intend to graduate in May 2025 and apply to top MD/PhD programs. I aspire to work as a physician-scientist and undertake research in personalized immunotherapies, simultaneously using my clinical experience to guide my research endeavors and remain grounded in patients’ stories.