James Sinoimeri Wins Best Poster Award at ISPE New England Conference

On April 10th, James Sinoimeri (ChE, ’21), an undergraduate student working in the Bencherif Laboratory, was awarded the Best Poster Award at the 2019 ISPE New England Chapter Spring Conference for his project “Developing Hypoxia Inducing Cryogels for Pre-Clinical Anti-Cancer Drug Screening.” The International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) is the world’s largest not-for-profit association, and the New England Branch of ISPE is its largest, most active chapter. James was able to successfully secure 1 of the 2 best poster awards in what was his first time ever disseminating research.  James’ rewards for winning the Best Poster Award include a $500 cash prize, as well as an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas later in October 2019 to attend and compete at the International ISPE Conference.

Pictured from Left to Right: Tim O’Connell (Poster Contest
Chair), James Sinoimeri (Poster Award Winner), Nathan
Cunningham (Fellow Poster Award Winner), and Kevin
Chronley (ISPE New England Chapter President).

James has been working on this project for about 1.5 years under the guidance and mentorship of Professor Sidi A. Bencherif, successfully balancing it alongside a full course load and his 1st co-op last year at Takeda Oncology. When asked what it meant to him, James replied,” It was truly a surreal feeling. I dedicated everything to this project over the past one and a half years, and to enjoy this much success on the first try simply felt too good to be true. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t do research just to write it on a resume, and just how demanding it was to balance the project alongside my 1st co-op. However, the hard work and patience paid off. I can’t wait to compete internationally in Las Vegas this October, to see where the in-vitro hypoxic tumor model developed from this project goes from here, and for everything else that lies ahead.”

Photograph showing James Sinoimeri performing research in
the Bencherif Lab.

James’ mentor, ChE Assistant Professor Sidi A. Bencherif, had high remarks for the young undergraduate student, “I am very proud of James’ accomplishments. This award truly reflects on his hard work, dedication, and passion for research. He is an exemplary undergraduate student that any principal investigator would like to welcome in their groups.”

At the conclusion of this semester, James will be spending the 1st half of his summer on a Dialogue of Civilization to Cagliari, Italy with Associate Teaching Professor Annalisa Onnis-Hayden learning about European Practices for Resource Recovery & Environmental Protection. After that, James will be working full-time at EmulateBio here in Boston, Massachusetts, playing an integral role in the company’s development of organ-on-chip technology as a Product & Process development Co-op.  Hopefully, James will be able to find this same level of success at the international level this October in Las Vegas, and in all his future endeavors. Congratulations, James!

Related Faculty: Annalisa Onnis-Hayden

Related Departments:Chemical Engineering