Four UC Santa Barbara students have been selected as the inaugural participants in a new initiative designed to enhance the way UCSB prepares its undergraduates for competitive graduate programs in biomedical research.

The program, Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U-STAR), is led by Craig Montell, Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in UCSB’s Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and Arica Lubin, professional development programs manager at the Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships (CSEP). The MARC scholars for 2015 are Alexandra Barajas (Chemistry ’17); Bianca Dunn (Microbiology ’17); Joseph Sanz (Chemistry ’17); and Jessica Wong, pictured, far right, (Chemical Engineering ’17).

Funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the program promotes the increase of talented biomedical and behavioral scientists from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds into leadership positions as a means of promoting our nation’s health-related research needs. 

Wong is developing oral delivery alternatives for conventional injectible formulations using mucoadhesive patches for delivery of proteins and peptides in the gastrointestinal tract. She is working in Samir Mitragotri’s lab in the Chemical Engineering under the supervision of postdoctoral fellow Amrita Banerjee.

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