Amy T. Shah, a biomedical engineering doctoral candidate, has received the 2015 Lai Sulin Scholarship. The award, given to a Vanderbilt University graduate student who conducts research in an area related to cancer, carries a $5,000 stipend and will be presented in early 2016.
Shah’s current research with biomedical engineering professor Melissa Skala applies optical microscopy of cellular metabolism to head and neck cancer with the goal of measuring treatment response. She has developed and optimized optical imaging protocols for in vitro and in vivo models of head and neck cancer treated with chemotherapy and targeted inhibitors.
Shah, the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, also has devised novel quantitative metrics for analyzing tumor heterogeneity as well as conducted gold standard measurements including western blots, immunohistochemistry, and tumor growth curves.
Her work has resulted in two first-author peer-reviewed publications, two co-author publications, and one co-author book chapter, as well as presenting her research at national and international conferences.
Shah is a 2011 biomedical engineering graduate from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. She earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt in 2013.
The Lai Sulin Scholarship was endowed in 2005 by Vanderbilt alumnus Cheng L. Lai (Ph.D., chemical engineering), in honor of his daughter, Lai Sulin.
Contact:
Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
Brenda.Ellis@Vanderbilt.edu
Twitter @VUEngineering