Rupsa Jana (COS ’25) is a third year Biochemistry student who is a Spring 2024 recipient of the AJC Merit Research Scholarship for her work related to nanomedicine and drug delivery. She also received a Spring 2024 Honors Propel Grant for the Husky Health Innovation Challenge (HHIC), an undergraduate healthcare-based case competition.
Rupsa received the AJC Merit Research Scholarship to fund her Spring 2024 Co-op experience at the Needa Brown and Srinivas Sridhar Lab at Northeastern’s Nanomedicine Innovation Center. She was one of 7 undergraduate students out of 400+ applicants selected for the award. Her research is focused on engineering Nano-Talazoparib (TLZ) lipid nanoparticle formulations for safer BRCA-deficient breast and ovarian cancer drug delivery. Rupsa chose to embark on this research experience out of her growing passion for research in nanomedicine: an interdisciplinary field harnessing immunology, bioengineering, biochemistry, and physics to approach scientific challenges in translational medicine research. Her interest in nanomedicine research was sparked during her first Co-op during Spring 2023 at the Weissleder Lab in Massachusetts General Hospital as a part of the Northeastern NIH-CaNCURE Program, directed by Needa Brown and Srinivas Sridhar, where she worked with a team of prolific scientists to engineer a nanotechnology-based diagnostic device and assay for pancreatic cancer. Ultimately, Rupsa aims to become a physician-scientist who will use nanomedicine to tackle challenges related to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic, lifestyle diseases.
Apart from her research interests in medicine, Rupsa is deeply passionate about the interdisciplinarity of the medical field, specifically healthcare innovation. Thus, from her Freshman year as a Northeastern Honors student, Rupsa has been involved in ViTAL Northeastern, Northeastern’s Healthcare Innovation Core. During her third year, Rupsa became the Director of the Husky Health Innovation Challenge (HHIC), the only healthcare-based case competition open to undergraduates in the Greater Boston Area, and she oversaw the inception and execution of HHIC 2024’s line-up. This year, HHIC had a record number of participating students and competing teams – 85 students and 33 teams. HHIC has always designed case studies that highlight underrepresented public health challenges and this year’s case was focused on developing digital health solutions to address the challenges that young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face in healthcare environments. HHIC 2024 also featured 5 judges and 6 networking session panelists who were leading healthcare-business professionals as well as Northeastern student innovators. Rupsa won a Propel Grant of $2,000 to fund HHIC 2024. Embarking on the directorial role for HHIC this year has been instrumental in enabling Rupsa to fine-tune her community leadership skills and has solidified her vision in pursuing an engaging career in healthcare where she would continue to be a part of healthcare innovation and advocacy work.
What other activities are you involved in on campus?
- Sigma Xi Research Honors Society
- No Limits Dance Crew
- Honors Ambassador
What is your favorite Honors memory?
Participating in the Tech-Xpedition activity during orientation week as an Honors student.
What events or activities would you recommend to new Honors students?
For Honors students, definitely participating in your LLC to meet fellow Honors Huskies. In general, I’d recommend Fall Fest to discover new clubs to join. I also encourage new students to explore any performing arts orgs on campus. For instance, No Limits Dance Crew is a fun non-competitive dance troupe to be a part of and performing as a part of their semesterly showcase is an exciting experience!