Maya Levitan, a senior in bioengineering (BIOE) at Rice, has received a Fulbright Fellowship Award to study the inflammatory properties of biomaterials derived from seaweed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Levitan works in the lab of Omid Veiseh, assistant professor of BIOE and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. Her research will focus on whether seaweed-derived materials such as fucoidans and alginates are biocompatible with the human immune system. These substances may possess biomedical applications in targeted drug delivery, wound healing, tissue regeneration and treatment of such diseases as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
At the conclusion of her fellowship, Levitan hopes to enter a doctoral program in biomedical engineering.