Alumna pursues dreams of medical school
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Looking for cross-collaboration opportunities between medicine and engineering, Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering alumna Julie Gawenda pursued her master’s degree through the Irish Research Council (IRC) Enterprise Partnership Post-Grad Scholarship at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin.
She has been working in RCSI Professor Shane Browne’s laboratory in the Tissue Engineering Research Group. Gawenda has been researching the microbiology of dejecta and the novel characterization of the biological material through 3D models of skin constructs and working to figure out its applicability in industry.
At RCSI, she’s also worked with other masters and PhD students and post-docs, even some interdepartmentally, with diverse backgrounds.
“My workstation is in a common space, so there’s lots of cross-collaboration between master’s and PhD students and post-docs,” Gawenda said. “It’s so unique, and I work adjacently to a postdoctoral researcher who has a background in food science, so it has been interesting to hear her perspective on my research.”
Gawenda was recently accepted to Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School with a request for deferral for Fall 2025 to finish her project with the IRC Enterprise Post-Grad Scholarship. She isn’t sure exactly what type of medicine she will specialize in in medical school. Still, she looks forward to exploring the various fields and better understanding what kind of medicine she’ll pursue.
During this experience, Gawenda also said that she recently presented at the Hollister Incorporated Technology Forum in Ballina, Ireland. She noted that some Hollister executives who attended the conference were unaware that students were conducting the research but were thrilled to learn about their exploration into the causation of peristomal skin complications. Gawenda’s experience during senior design at UIC with Hollister Incorporated is what opened the doors for her experience at RCSI.
She noted that she’s grateful for this experience and how it will provide a wider perspective for when she is back in the U.S. She also thanked UIC for the support she received and her research experiences during her undergraduate education.