ChE Student Makes the Most of Research Opportunities
Madeline Szoo, E’25, chemical engineering and biochemistry, has used research to discover her interests, working in multiple labs during her undergraduate career. Her work has earned numerous accolades, including the Trail Blazer PEAK Experience Award and the Stabile Scholarship from the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi.
Madeline Szoo, E’25, chemical engineering and biochemistry, knew Northeastern would be the right fit when she arrived on campus for the first time during a prospective student tour. After learning of the numerous opportunities to gain research experience that would be available to her, it was hard for Szoo to imagine herself anywhere else.
“Everyone was really friendly, and everyone talked about their co-ops and how they were doing really cool things out in industry,” says Szoo.
Now in her final year at Northeastern, Szoo has grown her desire to gain experience into an impressive research career in multiple labs on and off campus. Her research has earned numerous accolades. This summer, Szoo received the top-level Trail Blazer PEAK Experience Award from the Office of Undergrad Research and Fellowships for her work in the lab of MIE Assistant Professor Cynthia Hajal. She was also awarded a Stabile Scholarship from Tau Beta Pi, a prestigious engineering honor society, which awards students for their current and future successes.
Her research journey began during her second year at Northeastern in the lab of ChE Professor Debra Auguste. Coinciding with her grandmother’s breast cancer diagnosis, Szoo was able to use the research experience to better understand cancer from an interdisciplinary perspective.
“It was cool to see how chemical engineering was applied to this topic,” says Szoo. “I had never thought about how I could use engineering to study cancer before that.”
In the Auguste Lab, Szoo assisted in producing liposomes to deliver drugs that could more effectively target triple-negative breast cancer, a form of breast cancer that is harder to treat because it lacks the typical receptors usually targeted in traditional treatment. Joining the lab was initially daunting for Szoo, who had never worked in a lab environment up to that point. “I remember being so nervous, having never pipetted before,” she says.
Szoo quickly picked up the appropriate lab techniques and acclimated to the research environment despite her initial unease, thanks to the support of her mentors and the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships office. The Auguste Lab gave Szoo a strong foundation in engineering and the natural sciences, which she looked to explore further in her future research endeavors. She was named a Base Camp and Ascent PEAK Experience Awardee for her work.
When it came time to apply for her first co-op, Szoo knew she wanted to dive further into biology while finding a more industry-based job. She found this combination at Beam Therapeutics, a biotech company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying base editing medicines. As a member of the hematology team, Szoo worked with stem cell differentiation pathways to make cells used to test different therapies.
The work at Beam Therapeutics was a pivot away from what Szoo had grown accustomed to in the Auguste Lab. Still, she says the foundational skills she obtained during her year as a research assistant made her transition into her co-op easier.
“A lot of the basic skills you get in a lab were super transferrable even though it was technically a different field,” says Szoo. “It was really helpful coming into my first co-op.”
Szoo eventually took a new research position in the lab of ChE Associate Professor Ryan Koppes, helping to create an organ chip to study vascular grafts and increase their success rates. The Koppes lab exposed Szoo to microfluidics while building off her knowledge of stem cells from her co-op at Beam Therapeutics. She won the Summit PEAK Experience award for her contributions.
For her next co-op, Szoo took a job at CaNCURE in the lab of Tayyaba Hasan, professor of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The lab, which used photodynamic therapies to target cancer, drew on Szoo’s previous experiences, from testing cancer treatments in the Auguste Lab to creating disease models at Beam Therapeutics and in the Koppes Lab. “It was nice to see it all come together for my second co-op,” says Szoo. She earned the Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research in recognition of her project’s research merit.
Szoo joined the Hajal Lab in January 2024, searching for a research position that would allow her to tap further into her engineering knowledge. She initially created computational models to simulate drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier to treat gliomas while the lab space was being assembled and has since transitioned to testing these models in the lab on her current co-op. As an early lab member, Szoo gained firsthand experience with the lab setup process, something she had not encountered in her previous roles.
“Setting up a lab from scratch was new to me,” says Szoo. “You get to see the inner workings of all the logistics behind what you’re doing day-to-day.”
As Szoo looks to pursue additional opportunities in grad school, the breadth of research experience she obtained on campus and through co-op has been instrumental in shaping her future aspirations. “I don’t think I could have applied for a five-year PhD program if I had not tried everything and seen what was interesting to me,” she says. She credits the consistent mentorship she had throughout her undergraduate career for guiding her toward success.
Beyond research, Szoo has remained involved in the Northeastern University Chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society. She currently serves as the chapter’s president and says the organization has been crucial in helping her find her footing on campus and encouraging her to branch out in her research.