The Yard

Forging Connections

Engineering Science Building,
40 Oxford Street

When Voranaddha “Bim” Vacharathit ’10 steps from the elevator into the fourth floor of the Engineering Science Building at 40 Oxford Street, she enters a world of unexpected connections. There, Gordon McKay Professor of Bioengineering David Mooney’s lab brings researchers and students in biology, chemistry, materials science, and engineering together at the center of a new field—biologically inspired engineering. Their discoveries about interactions between natural and artificial materials are reshaping views of health, disease, and medicine.

“If you just keep dividing things, then you can’t see them from all around,” says Vacharathit. “You need to combine them, find what you know, and then use it, which Professor Mooney’s lab is doing.”

Vacharathit, who, growing up in Thailand, had barely heard of Harvard until she was urged to apply by a family friend, enthuses about her research into the molecules and materials that direct new blood vessels to grow. Learning from such a diverse group of scientists, Vacharathit has considered a research career, but will probably become a physician. “I need tangible things, and the direct result of my actions,” she says, doing a double-time walk to feed her cell cultures.

Considering a Cancer Vaccine

Omar Ali, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Mooney’s laboratory, is combining his interests in fundamental, clinical, and applied science to invent materials that could lead to vaccines against some forms of cancer. Watch his story in the video below.

 

« Previous Page | View All | Continue Reading »