Gloved hand holding slide in front of microscope

Senior biomedical engineering student wins research award

Michaela Cooley, a senior studying biomedical engineering, won the Student Research Award from Society for Biomaterials Drug Delivery Special Interest Group.

Cooley has conducted research in the Bio-inspired Engineering for Advanced Therapies Laboratory for 2 1/2 years under the guidance of Anirban Sen Gupta, associate professor of biomedical engineering.

Her research focuses on the role of particle geometry and stiffness in enhancing the performance of particulate drug-delivery systems in the vascular compartment. The research is part of a collaboration between the labs of Sen Gupta at CWRU and Samir Mitragotri at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Cooley gave a podium presentation on her research findings in the Drug Delivery session at the Society for Biomaterials annual conference in Minneapolis on April 6. Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors provided financial support for Cooley’s conference travel and participation.

Her talk was titled “Effect of Particle Shape and Size on Margination and Wall-localization in Vascular Drug Delivery.”

For her presentation and research efforts, the Society for Biomaterials Drug Delivery Special Interest Group awarded Cooley the Student Research Award.