STUDENT PROFILES
Kristy Shine
Area
Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST)Focus
Shine is part of the MEMP track in HST, designed to give students hands-on experience in the biomedical sciences and engineering to allow them to explore the fundamental principles underlying human biology and diseases, discover new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and ultimately ameliorate human suffering.What impressed me most about Harvard and the School was the academic and research freedom given to each graduate student.
Coming from a more rigid undergraduate biomedical program, I appreciated the flexibility to choose a course of study which reflected my own research interests rather than those of the overall department, while still having close guidance from a faculty advisor.
My own integrative research attempts to tissue engineer the intervertebral discs of the spine. In order to form new disc tissue, one has to have an understanding of cell biology, materials for scaffold production, and mechanical engineering.
In addition, it requires a keen understanding of the clinical needs for such implants, ideas of how they may be used in order to properly design bioartificial disc tissue, and an understanding of how these tissues may interact with the body once implanted. Thus, my research truly integrates engineering and medicine while also requiring knowledge from biology and materials science.
Tissue engineering may allow for more natural replacement or augmentation of degenerate discs and provide a more reliable and permanent method of treatment for those suffering from back pain.
I am proud that I recognized a clinical need not currently being met in industry and had the courage to devote the next five years of my life to pursuing a solution to it.