Five science-minded high school students were mentored by chemical engineering and biomedical engineering graduate students this summer to learn about oral drug delivery research in a university lab setting.

Sofia Kennedy a senior at Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin and Kevin Lee, Frank Muehleman, Sam Norwood, and John Sullivan, all students at St. Stephen’s Episcopal in Austin, have been working with graduate students from Dr. Nicholas Peppas‘ Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology. They are participating in The University of Texas at Austin Graduate Research in High School Hands Program.
Established by Peppas and his graduate students in 2010, the program gives interested high school students the opportunity to see firsthand the workings of a research laboratory and to foster interest in engineering.

Lindsey Sharpe, a biomedical engineering graduate student, and Sarena Horava, Michael Koetting, Jonathan Peters, and David Spencer, all chemical engineering graduate students, have guided the group through various experiments with oral drug delivery, teaching the students about pH- and thermal-responsive systems, drug loading, and degradation systems.