Doctoral Candidate Receives Fellowship for Outstanding Work in Biomedical Sciences

Last year, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute launched the International Student Research Fellowships Program to provide support for international students during their third to fifth years of doctoral study in the U.S. HHMI created the program to fill a gap in the existing sources of support available for international students in the U.S; the three-year fellowships are worth $43,000 each year.

This year, biomedical engineering doctoral candidate Sashka Dimitrievska received the HHMI fellowship to support her work with Laura Niklason on glycomimicry on decellularized tissue engineered vascular grafts. Dimitrievska was one of only 50 students to receive a fellowship, among 400 invited applicants.

"My PhD work focuses on the development of a chemical moiety to replace a biological component in our vasculature," says Dimitrievska. Noting that her research involves a non-traditional approach, she adds, "The HHMI award gives me confidence in the possibile fruition of our 'risky' project."

Dimitrievska joins Weihua Guan among the ranks of Yale SEAS recipients of the fellowships. An electrical engineering doctoral candidate, Guan was awarded a fellowship in the program’s first year for his work with Mark Reed on DNA manipulation and sequencing using engineering methods.