Making this year’s list are entertainers, entrepreneurs, technologists, and scientists including Christina Bailey-Hytholt, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Bashima Islam, who will soon join the university as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This is the first time two members of the WPI community are represented on the annual list.
Bailey-Hytholt’s research is focused on biomaterials, and on drug and gene delivery, particularly in relation to women’s health. Her research seeks to design new therapeutics to treat conditions that impact prenatal and women’s health, as well as to develop tools to better understand how molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and environmental toxicants, interact with the placenta. She says, “There are many challenges facing women’s health that can really benefit from an engineering perspective and approach.”
Bailey-Hytholt was recently awarded a $237,542 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) for a two-year project to develop lipid-protein models that could be used to study how pharmaceuticals interact with the maternal-fetal interface. The grant was one of 10 awarded by the MLSC for women’s health innovations with the potential for translation into commercial opportunities.
