Congratulations to Dr. Isaac Adjei, a post doc in the Sharma lab, for his recent recognition by the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)! He was awarded the BMES Career Development award which supports his travel to the 2018 BMES Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, including a complimentary registration and a travel stipend. This award supports BME researchers from diverse backgrounds based on their career goals, accomplishments, and a letter of support.
Dr. Adjei’s research focuses on developing strategies to overcome immunosuppressive mechanisms within solid tumors. Solid tumors produce a microenvironment that suppresses the cytotoxic function of natural killer cells which generally kill cancer cells and recruit other immune cells to suppress tumor growth. His work involves developing nanoparticles that deliver siRNA to natural killer cells to help them resist immune suppression and promote cytotoxicity to cancer cells. The nanoparticles have the potential to advance cancer immunotherapy and improve the survival of cancer patients.