Undergraduate wins $10,000 research award

Friday, January 6, 2017

A fourth-year Waterloo Engineering student took the bus home from Toronto today with the $10,000 top prize in a contest for undergraduate biomedical research.

Nidhi Juthani was recognized by the Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) for her work on a cheaper, easier way to make cell sheets for use in areas including the repair of damaged heart tissue, corneal transplants and rebuilding cartilage.

Nidhi Juthani
She was named the winner of the Sunnybrook Research Prize after outlining her project for a panel of judges and answering questions along with five other finalists from Canadian universities.

“I was not expecting it at all,” said Juthani, a chemical engineering student. “Everybody had great presentations.”

Also named a finalist - along with students from Queen’s University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto and York University - was Wesley Walker, who is in his third year of nanotechnology engineering at Waterloo.

Juthani began her project on cell sheets, which resemble human skin, while doing a co-op work term as a researcher at Harvard University three years ago.

“The current methods for fabrication tend to be expensive or require expertise,” she said, noting her production method is in the early stages of development, but may have commercial potential.

Open to third- and fourth-year students, the Sunnybrook contest recognizes excellence in undergraduate research and aims to promote careers in the biomedical field. It is funded by royalties from technology developed by SRI scientists.