Andreia Ribeiro, a second-year Ph.D. student in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, was selected to receive a two-year Wyeth Fellowship at UMBC. Andreia is currently investigating the response of neurons to two- and three-dimensional culture environments. Ultimately, this work may lead towards improved therapeutics for spinal cord injury and devices to deliver stem cells for treating neurodegenerative disease. Andreia earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Porto (Portugal) and spent five months in Dr. Jennie Leach's lab as a research exchange student during her senior year. Andreia returned to UMBC and Dr. Leach's laboratory in 2006.

Andreia's work is the basis for two manuscripts (in preparation or under review) and she has presented her research at several national meetings including a Gordon Research Conference and the annual meetings of the Society for Neuroscience, the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Andreia mentors two undergraduate researchers and is the current Social Chair of the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student group, BioChegs. Following completion of her Ph.D., Andreia's aspiration is to lead a Research & Development team at a multinational pharmaceutical or biotechnology company.

Andreia is the third UMBC Wyeth fellow and will receive a full stipend as well as mentoring support from an industry scientist at Wyeth Research. A formal signing of a memorandum of understanding between Wyeth Research and UMBC took place on July 25, 2006 at the Wyeth Research Facility in Collegeville, PA. The partnership includes graduate fellowships for talented students conducting research in fields of joint interest to UMBC faculty and Wyeth scientists. The Wyeth-UMBC partnership includes a three-year commitment to Gold-Level sponsorship for UMBC’s annual life science symposium—A Look Ahead: Futures in Biomedical Research. Wyeth, headquartered in Madison, N.J., is a global leader in pharmaceuticals, consumer health care products and animal health care products.