A $500 scholarship was awarded to Bingzhi He, a graduate student at the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). He is pursuing his master of science degree in bioengineering with a focus in double network hydrogels and their potential use as systems for drug (medicinal) delivery. Utilizing UPenn’s nanofabrication facility, He successfully created various micro-needles with varying stiffness and used them to release encapsulated dye (placebo-type drug) into pig skins. He plans to write a proposal to begin looking at this concept for wound dressing
and related therapeutics.
He also conducted drug encapsulation and delivery using two different methods to characterize pH-responsive drug delivery behaviors. In less than three weeks, he and a colleague produced promising preliminary data from scratch and were able to generate data that was used to apply for an internal grant. The team successfully received the grant, and this will lead to further research in these critical areas. It is not surprising that He’s faculty adviser has invited him
to continue his research in his UPenn lab and work towards his doctoral degree in material science and engineering!