Duke University Pratt School of Engineering announced that Samira Musah, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (Nephrology) and biomedical engineering, has received the 2019 Early Investigator Travel Award from the Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Dr. Musah’s research is focused on the use of patient-derived stem cells to understand the mechanisms of human kidney disease. She will attend the Keystone Symposia “Proteomics and Its Application to Translational and Precision Medicine” in Stockholm, Sweden, where she will present “Patient-Derived Stem Cell Models for Mechanistic Studies of Human Kidney Disease.”
Musah’s research is focused on understanding how molecular signals and biophysical forces can function either synergistically or independently to guide organ development and physiology, and how these processes can be therapeutically harnessed to treat human disease. Given the escalating medical crisis in nephrology as growing number of patients suffer from kidney disease that can lead to organ failure, the Musah Lab focuses on engineering stem cell fate for applications in human kidney disease, extra-renal complications, and therapeutic development.
Musah’s research interests include stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human organ development and disease progression, organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarker identification, therapeutic discovery, tissue and organ transplantation, microphysiological systems including Organ Chips (organs-on-chips) and organoids, matrix biology, mechanotransduction and disease biophysics.
Read the 2019 Early Career Investigator Travel Award announcement
Learn more about Dr. Musah’s Lab