A postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was recently awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant from the Susan G. Komen organization to develop new approaches to combat breast cancer recurrence
Sema Sevimli, who earned her Ph.D. at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, is a fellow in the lab of John T. Wilson, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Sevimli’s proposal was titled “Reprogramming the tumor microenvironment to prevent breast cancer recurrence.”
Her Ph.D. research encompassed the design, synthesis and characterization of advanced polymeric nanoparticles to enhance the intracellular delivery of therapeutic drugs to tumors. Currently, her research involves developing polymeric systems that improve the efficacy of novel cancer immunotherapeutics.
Sevimli’s postdoctoral fellowship grant provides $60,000 in direct costs per year for three years, part of $33 million awarded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the last award cycle. About half of this year’s Komen awards went to early-career investigators.