Erik Jacques, a PhD candidate at BME, was one of the recipients of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award prized at $2,500 USD. This award, originally established in 2008, was to recognize outstanding achievements by members of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) in the early stages of their career.
Erik Jacques whose focus is on the restoration of skeletal muscle function by harnessing the potential of muscle stem cells, is currently pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering in Dr. Penney Gilbert’s lab.
Erik’s research focuses on creating a culture model capable of providing a microenvironment that will support muscle stem cells in their quiescence (sleep) state, a phenotype dysregulated with age and notoriously difficult to study.
“This award will support our continued efforts to conduct phenotypic screens using this technology. A portion of which requires collaboration with top-tier bioinformaticians who I am scheduled to visit in France; also partially enabled by this award.” says Erik.
“Winning this award is an honour and a privilege. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine is my passion, and to be recognized by that same community is humbling. I also owe a debt of thanks to the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine. I look forward to an exciting in-person conference!”