BME Grad Student Earns NIH Fellowship

Jan. 19, 2018 - Biomedical engineering graduate student Evelia Y. Salinas has received a three-year NIH diversity supplement fellowship ($183,000) in support of her work in the lab of Distinguished Professor Kyriacos Athanasiou.

“This fellowship will give me a solid foundation to thrive in graduate school, make significant contributions to the field of tissue engineering, and achieve my dream of becoming an academic researcher,” said Salinas.

The fellowship is connected to an NIH R01 grant to Athanasiou for his research on the self-assembling process in tissue engineering of articular cartilage. The self-assembled constructs made in Athanasiou’s laboratory require no scaffolds or organization techniques, and are mechanically robust and biochemically similar to native articular cartilage. Salinas aims to evaluate the synergistic effects of combined mechanical stimuli, such as shear and tensile loading, on the neocartilage constructs.

“Successful completion of this supplement will yield engineered cartilage that can be further examined with in vivo studies, allowing for the examination of whether improved tensile and compressive stiffness will translate to greater durability in vivo,” said Salinas.

– Lori Brandt