Ariana Frey is a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Washington, where she is creating tiny, simplified human hearts, shaped like macaroni pasta, that include both a blood vessel and heart muscle cells. Her goal is to use these tiny hearts to further study how and when endothelial cell dysfunction leads to heart disease, and how this function can be recovered.

Cecily Rosenbaum is a graduate student in Physical Chemistry in the University of Washington's Department of Chemistry. Her research focuses on identifying materials that can capture the light that solar panels can't, and use it to produce light that can be used by the panels.

Emma Lederer is a second-year immunology graduate student at the University of Washington and researcher in the Dudakov Lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She works to develop therapeutics to improve thymic function as we age to decrease our chances of cancer, autoimmunity, and infection.

Ethan Mickelson graduated from Indiana University in 2022 with his degree in biochemistry, where he researched viral insulin-like peptides for diabetes treatment. Ethan is currently a 2nd year student in UW’s Bioengineering PhD program. His current research operates at the intersection of polymer chemistry and emergency medicine. Ethan aims to develop new polymer-based therapies for treating trauma victims with severe blood loss and impaired clot formation.

James Yoon is an atmospheric chemist who is fascinated by how plants can affect the atmosphere and the air we breathe through the gases they emit. To study this question, he uses computer simulations and satellites to better represent these gases and the chemistry they undergo in the atmosphere. Through this work, he hopes to better describe how biology and air quality interact.

Larissa Robinson-Cooper uses antibodies to make the brain light up! She does this to determine how markers of Alzheimer’s disease can increase the likelihood of seizures.

Melissa Gasser is a clinical psychology graduate student and researcher at the University of Washington.

Monica Tschang is a neuroscience PhD student studying how the world of microbes inside our guts plays a role in how we respond to stress. She studies a pretty severe example of stress, as she is working to understand how gut microbes might drive symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in people exposed to explosives in areas of conflict.

Sara Khor is a graduate student at the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, And Economics Institute at the University of Washington.  Her research explores the intersection of technology, decision making, and social impact.

Sydney Floryanzia is a chemical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, where she works on tools and methods to better investigate how injured brain cells respond to therapeutics. Some of these tools include isolating specific brain cells of interest, using whole hemisphere brain slices, and lots of laser microscopy.