Tang awarded ON/ORS foundation grant

Congratulations to Biomedical Engineering graduate student Shirley “Nina” Tang for being awarded an Orthoregeneration Network/ Orthopaedic Research Society (ON/ORS) foundation grant.

The ON/ORS Kick-Starter Fund focuses on funding highly innovative research focusing on regeneration of  the intervertebral disc with $10,000 USD in awards given out to 2 recipients.  Nina's proposal focuses on Developmental Transcription Factors for Reprogramming of Diseased Intervertebral Disc Cells which utilizes a “combination” of transcription factors with extracellular vesicle delivery to diseased patient cells ex-vivo in different types of cultures (monolayer and 3D culture). With BME faculty mentors Devina Purmessur and Natalia Higuita-Castro together with clinical collaborator Safdar Khan, they can isolate diseased patient cells from disc tissue and hope to transform them into healthy cells. This project serves as a milestone to future larger projects and potential clinical trials.

Tang is a member of  Devina Purmessur’s Spinal Therapeutics Lab.