I hope to positively impact the healthcare industry through the creation of new treatments rooted in tissue engineering. I am especially hopeful to find solutions to address the issues of the shortage of organs and blood for life saving transplants and transfusions and find new treatments for degenerative diseases. Designing something to mimic the human body will challenge my knowledge of several different areas of biology and medicine, which is intellectually exciting. Due to the complexities involved and the amount of research required to understand all aspects of our regenerative processes, I also aim to improve our understanding of what makes our cells and tissues work as a part of my work. The organ donor shortage is growing worldwide and costing thousands of lives a year. While there are many obstacles to designing and mass producing artificial organs for transplant, it is my goal to find a way to either modify existing organs to allow them to be transplanted in anyone, or to create fully functional artificial organs. It brings with it a large set of problems to be solved that will require me to delve deeper into cellular and tissue biology, hopefully leading to other discoveries that can be used to treat other diseases. I look forward to tackling this immense challenge by collaborating with a wide array of other engineers, doctors, and scientists to create a solution that is accessible to all people. Another particularly exciting application of tissue engineering that I hope to contribute to is reversing damage to organs through regenerative medicine. Most treatments for autoimmune disorders, for instance, cause a reduced immune response to infection, which can severely disrupt lives and cause further illness. I intend to study how the body regenerates itself naturally, and then augment this process to be a viable treatment option that uses the body’s own processes to heal itself. We could also use this to save organs from people who may have not been able to donate before, such as after a major accident. This will not only give us further insight into our own cellular function, but help lives for millions of people with degenerative disorders. Focusing on reducing or reversing degeneration can also have a positive effect on aging. Through my time interning in the Chen lab at the Aging Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, I was exposed to a variety of new techniques and concepts about how our cells age. Many labs were finding ways to preserve cell function after viral infection and even prolong cell lifespans. I hope to continue on this path to improving our cellular function to minimize the negative impacts of aging, allowing more people to live better and more fulfilling lives for longer. I also want to make sure that I give back to the scientific community and encourage the next generation of engineers and scientists. I have benefitted so much from the mentorship of countless scientists, from my high school teacher supervising my independent research, the members of the Chen lab, or a team of scientists at Cook Myosite, a tissue engineering company in Pittsburgh, and I want to be that encouraging figure for future students. I have not yet decided if I want to teach in academia or go into industry, but regardless of my position, I will always try to encourage high school students to visit my lab and engage with scientific research early on. I want to do more than just make new treatments; I want to also inspire the future of STEM to take their own paths to success and benefit humanity as I hope to.