College of Engineering News • Iowa State University

CBE’s BioMaP summer program kicks off with nine undergrad researchers

Ricky Robinson of Rice University will spend the summer in Ames with the BioMaP REU program.

Nine undergraduate students from around the nation are settling in to their summer home at Iowa State with the BioMaP REU program. Hosted annually by the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Biological Materials and Processes Research Experience for Undergraduates (BioMaP REU) provides mentored research. Each student is paired with one ISU CBE faculty member with similar research interests.

This year’s nine participants were chosen from more than 250 applicants, and as always, come from all corners of the country. They include Matthew Burroughs, chemical & biomolecular engineering, North Carolina State University (mentor Qun Wang); Julia Craft, microbiology, Brigham Young University (mentor Laura Jarboe); Mai Doan, biomedical engineering, University of Utah (mentor Kaitlin Bratlie); Darren Loh, chemical & biomolecular engineering, Johns Hopkins University (mentor Balaji Narasimhan); Marjem Mededovic, biomedical engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology (mentor Surya Mallapragada); Logan Morton, chemical

engineering, University of Missouri (mentor Balaji Narasimhan); Ricky Robinson, bioengineering, Rice University (mentor Thomas Mansell); Shawn Van Bruggen, chemical and biological engineering, Iowa State University (mentor Ian Schneider); and Jie Hao Wu, chemical & biomolecular engineering, University of Maryland (mentor Nigel Reuel).

Julia Craft has ventured to Ames from Brigham Young University for ISU’s BioMaP program.

Participants also interact with department graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, and participate in seminars, meetings, professional development workshops and social events. The program concludes with each participant preparing a poster presentation summarizing their summer research. They will be presented in early August as part of showcase of research posters from all summer REU program participants at Iowa State.

CBE research topics offered this year range from work with nanovaccines to fight infectious diseases; drug and gene delivery; membrane proteins in microbial robustness; polymer properties that target tumor-activated cells; work with Lactococcus lactis (a bacterium that is being used in disease treatment) and more.

More information about this year’s participants, this year’s research projects, and about the BioMaP REU program, can be found on the BioMaP web page.

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