SIRI Program 2019

The CMI Summer Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (SIRI) has had a successful start.  Forty-nine undergraduates applied for seventeen positions.  These seventeen positions were based off of the Young Scholar Award (YSA) projects.  The Associate Members, who proposed the YSA projects, received the applications information and selected the three candidates that they wanted to interview.  On December 5, 2018, CMI hosted an interview session in the Biomedical Partnership Center.  The projects and the selected SIRI students are:

Louise Batta – Testing of natural compounds for inhibition of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) in-vitro infection (Mentors: David Brodsky, Andrew Kick; PI: Toby Kaeser; Co-PI:  Scott Laster)

Jennifer Daiker – Investigating novel synoxazolidinones for the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms (Mentors: Jessica Gilbertie, Bram Frohock; PI: Josh Pierce: Co-PI: Lauren Schnabel)

Amber Detwiler – “Feeling out” the niche for hair follicle development in bioengineered skin grafts (Mentors:  Kathryn Polkoff, Lewis Gaffney; PI: Jorge Piedrahita; Co-PI: Danny Freytes)

Sharmita Dixit – Equine derived host defense peptides as agents for joint preservation (Mentors: Rachel Gagliardi, Jessica Gilbertie, Danielle Howe; PI: Lauren Schnabel: Co-PI: Matthew Fisher)

McKenna Downey – Multimodal sensing of engineered cardiac tissues for optimization of stem cell differentiation (PI: Michael Daniele; Co-PIs: Danny Freytes, Edgar Lobation)

Margaret Flanders – Senolytics to improve stem cell treatment for the prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (Mentors: Rachel Gagliardi, Michela Copp; PI: Lauren Schnabel; Co-PI: Brian Diekman)

April Gonzalez – Engineering of pro-angiogenic biomimetic microvessles for pre-vasularizing tissue constructs (Mentors: Brendan Tuner, Teng Su; PI: Michael Daniele; Co-PIs: Frances Liger, Ke Cheng)

Cody Helm – Exploiting EPR for delivery: Optimization of nanocarrier properties for drug delivery to mast cell tumors and inflammation in a high-throughput microvessel perfusion chamber model for enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) (Mentors: Doug Snider, Teng Su, Emily Mihalko, Brendan Turner, Patrick Erb, Emily Wrona, Lauren Ehrhardt-Humbert; PI: Glenn Cruse; Co-PIs: Ashly Brown, Michael Daniele)

Briley Humphrey – Development of novel antimicrobials to combat gram-negative infections (Mentors: Crissie Martinez-Brokaw, Grant Edwards, Jessica Gilbertie; PI: Josh Pierce; Co-PI: Lauren Schnabel)

Frank Jenio – Equine derived host defense peptides as agents for joint preservation (Mentors: Rachel Gagliardi, Jessica Gilbertie, Danielle Howe; PI: Lauren Schnabel; Co-PI: Matthew Fisher)

Cade MacAllister – Discovery and pre-clinical development of lipoxazolidinone antimicrbial compounds (Mentors: Jessica Gilbertie, Kaylib Robinson; PI: Josh Pierce; Co-PI: Lauren Schnabel)

Charlotte Manvell – Flea-borne disease and the microbiome of fleas from free-roaming cats in North Carolina (Mentors: Erin Lashnitz, Hanna Berman; PI: Ed Breitschwerdt; Co-PI: Ben Callahan)

Colleen Roosa – To develop fibrin hydrogels with VEGF and BMSC for tissue regenerative applications (Mentors: Ismaeel Muhamed, Doug Snider, Teng Su; PI: Ashley Brown; Co-PIs: Paul Mozdziak, Glenn Cruse, Ke Cheng)

Jack Schultz – Improving porcine uterine epithelial cell culture using porcine uterus extracellular matrix (Mentors: Amanda Amaral, Camilo Mora; PI: Toby Kaeser; Co-PI: Danny Freytes)

Sydney Stine – Bioresponsive synthetic blood vessels for pathological cardiac microenvironment-triggered therapeutic drug delivery (Mentors: Teng Su, Brendan Turner; PI: Ke Cheng; Co-PIs: Michael Daniele, Frances Liger)

Ponni Theetharappan – Ultrasonic microplotting of colloidally stable microgel particles for the creation of bioactive scaffolds (Mentors: Daniel Chester, Mike Wilkins; PI: Ashley Brown; Co-PI: Michael Daniele)

Emma West – Mechanism of musculoskeletal adaptation to anterior cruciate ligament aplasia (PI: Matthew Fisher; Co-PIs: Brian Diekman, Jorge Piedrahita)