Maria Ansar Awarded HHMI Fellowship

Maria Ansar, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, was awarded a Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Fellowship (HHMI). Ms. Ansar, who is an honors student in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, is working on her honors thesis in the lab of Dr. Silvia Muro, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) and the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. The fellowship awarded to Ms. Ansar is sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through an Undergraduate Science Education Program grant to the University of Maryland.  These fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis and students prepare submissions based on formats of a formal grant proposal. The awards are given only to those students with feasible, clear research goals who have outstanding academic records and faculty sponsorship. 

Ms. Ansar’s research project focuses on fundamental cellular changes that take place when a cell interfaces with a drug carrier. Events at the interface allow for the internalization of drug carriers into cells, and this is useful for targeted intracellular drug delivery. In particular, Ms. Ansar is looking at the effect of loading enzymes, those specific protein molecules that can catalyze reactions, on the surface of specialized drug carriers. The enzymes that she is employing in her studies have the capacity to modify the composition of specific molecules called lipids that are key components of a targeted cell membrane. The goal of the research project is to see if the enzyme-initiated cell changes will improve internalization of carriers and associated drug.

Other ongoing projects in Dr. Muro’s laboratory focus mainly on mechanisms of transport within cells, including their role in physiology and disease as well as translational applications for the delivery of nano-scale therapeutics. The research in the lab is sponsored by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. For more information visit http://www.ibbr.umd.edu/profiles/silvia-muro.