GEM and NSF Fellow Neshat Will Devise Next-Generation Therapies at Johns Hopkins

Sarah Neshat COS’19 distinctly remembers the “aha” moment when her passion for science and engineering was ignited. She was 13 years old and attending an afterschool enrichment program in Oakland, CA, run by Techbridge, a nonprofit with a mission to excite, educate, and equip underrepresented girls to pursue STEM education and careers. Looking back, Neshat says, she now sees that she was not only soldering together the components of a circuit board: she was beginning to assemble the network of mentors and role models who would help her achieve her educational ambitions.

Those ambitions are becoming a reality as Neshat prepares to graduate from Northeasern with a degree in biochemistry and to pursue her PhD in bioengineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the support of the GEM Associate Fellowship. This fellowship, backed by a network of leading corporations, government laboratories, universities, and research institutions, enables qualified students from underrepresented communities to pursue graduate education in applied science and engineering. (Neshat also earned another highly prestigious award, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, for her doctoral studies.)

Neshat’s research experience includes work in the labs of Northeastern Professors James Monaghan and Srinivas Sridhar, as well as co-ops in the Next Generation Technologies Lab at Novartis and at Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie in Leuven, Belgium. There, Neshat was the primary scientist for an independent project optimizing novel astrocytic ribosome isolation via TRAP (translating ribosome affinity purification) methodology.

After seeing firsthand how health disparities affect communities in Nicaragua, Neshat committed to using her skills as a researcher to address pressing issues in global health, with a particular emphasis on building sustainable, accessible medical devices and infrastructures. In addition to her laboratory research, Neshat helped convene the Northeastern University Global Health Initiative (NUGHI), one of the nation’s largest student-run global health conferences.

In graduate school, Neshat intends to explore the translational crossroads of drug delivery, biomaterials, and immunoengineering in the hopes of advancing knowledge and developing the next generation of therapies and technologies to improve the lives of patients. She is particularly interested in advancing therapies for diabetes, a condition she has seen affect members of her family.

Neshat is also dedicated to paying forward the kinds of mentoring that she credits with inspiring her to pursue a scientific career. She is on the executive board of the Boston-wide organization E^3: Empowering, Encouraging, Eliminating Barriers. E^3 is a student-run mentoring group for motivated, underprivileged, or disadvantaged female students, providing one-on-one advising and facilitated field trips and engagement programs. She hopes to establish her own STEM-education program in the future and to reach aspiring, diverse young scientists through innovative and accessible means such as podcasting.