2015- Glenda Castellanos, born and raised in Honduras, is a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Department pursuing her Master’s degree. She is currently involved in research under the supervision of Dr. Sharan Ramaswamy, Assistant Professor.
Her research focuses on uncovering a mechanism by which fluid induced stress can regulate bone marrow stem cell differentiation in support of the valvular phenotype. The understanding of such mechanism will subsequently have implications to the fine-tuning of heart valve tissue engineering protocols.
For the second consecutive year, Castellanos was granted the LAC fellowship for excellence in research and academics. The LAC fellowship is a prestigious award designed to promote international education and research between FIU and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Through the funding provided by the LAC fellowship, Castellanos is scheduled to fulfill one of her long time goals of obtaining a Master’s degree in biomedical engineering in spring 2016.