The Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award aims to fuel the development of women and inspire career paths in their respective STEM2D fields
Today Rutgers School of Engineering’s Ronke Olabisi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was named a winner of the Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award, where she will receive $150,000 in funding and three years of mentorship from Johnson & Johnson toward healing burns and chronic wounds through innovative tissue engineering. The award had over 400 applications this year and Olabisi is one of six winners, each representing the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design.
The grant will allow Olabisi to further her research, developing a new, innovative hydrogel that can be placed over an injury, delivering a constant supply of stem cell growth factors and insulin to speed up tissue and skin growth to heal burns, chronic wounds and long-term lesions..
“In our studies, we've seen skin healing three times faster than what’s ever been reported, and the wound healed without scarring,” Olabisi says. “I was expecting that it would go faster, but I didn't expect it would go three times as fast. If this experiment works in people with chronic wounds—some of whom have had an open wound for 30 years—it could potentially transform their lives.”
Launched in June 2017, the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Scholars Award aims to fuel development of female STEM2D leaders and feed the STEM2D talent pipeline by awarding and sponsoring women at critical points in their careers, in each of the STEM2D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design.
"Through this Award and other programs, Johnson & Johnson is hoping to increase the participation of women in STEM2D fields worldwide," said Cat Oyler, Vice President, Global Public Health, Tuberculosis, Johnson & Johnson and WiSTEM2D University Sponsor. “We want to nourish the development of women leaders building a larger pool of highly-trained, female researchers so that they can lead STEM2D breakthroughs in the future.”
For more information and to submit nominations for the 2020 Awards, visit: https://www.jnj.com/wistem2d.