Dhruv Vig Awarded Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant from Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund

Three Whiting School of Engineering researchers have received grants from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.

Sharon Gerecht, Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar in the Whiting School of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and associate director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, and Warren Grayson, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received MSCRF Investigator Initiated Grants.

Gerecht’s stem cell project targets diabetic wound treatment, and Grayson’s targets volumetric muscle loss.

Dhruv Vig, a post-doctoral student in the INBT and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, received one of the organization’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grants for his project “Geometric Cues in the Establishment and Maintenance of Heterogeneous Stem Cell Colonies.” According to Vig, the goal of this investigation is to introduce a new way of characterizing the potency and/or differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells.

“Our work uses an innovative blend of mathematical modeling and experimental approaches to shed light on the role of physical forces and geometric constraint involved in the establishment and maintenance of proper stem cell functions,” explains Vig, who is advised by Gerecht and Sean Sun, professor and vice-chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

This year, the MSCRF awarded 26 grants, 21 of which went to Hopkins-affiliated researchers. The purpose of these grants and fellowships is to promote state-funded stem cell research.