Recent chemical engineering Ph.D. graduate Brenda Carrillo-Conde (PhDChE ’11) received the 2012 Karas Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering at Iowa State University.
She will be awarded $1,000 and a plaque at the Sigma Xi banquet Thursday, April 26, 5:30 p.m. at Scheman Building on Iowa State University campus.
This award recognizes a superior dissertation by an Iowa State graduate student in mathematical and physical sciences and engineering. Carrillo-Conde’s dissertation was titled “Engineering amphiphillic polyanhydride particle platform for targeted drug and vaccine delivery.”
“I am very pleased that Brenda Carrillo-Conde has been selected by a University committee to recognize her stellar dissertation,” says Dr. Surya Mallapragada, professor, Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “This is a prestigious honor.”
In 2006, Carrillo-Conde was invited to the National Science Foundation Biological Materials and Processes Research Experience for Undergraduates (BioMaP REU) at Iowa State from her native Mazatlán, Mexico. After the 10-week research experience, she graduated from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico) to join Iowa State as a graduate student.
Since then, her passion for biomaterial vaccine research has taken her beyond expectations. Carrillo-Conde was part of a team, led by Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor and Associate Dean for Research Dr. Balaji Narasimhan, that improved the delivery of vaccines for tetanus toxoid, pneumonic plague, anthrax and more – eliminating the need for booster shots. Her work focused on enhancing adjuvant, or assisting, properties of vaccine delivery polymers.
“My Ph.D. work can be applied to the production of single-dose vaccines for a wide range of diseases, which is definitely a major need to improve human health,” Carrillo-Conde says.
Carrillo-Conde completed her doctoral work with Dr. Narasimhan in August 2011. She now is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, Austin. There she applies her research in engineering biomedical materials to explore hydrogel treatments for gastrointestinal and systemic diseases.