Youkabed received her B.Sc. (2012) and M.Sc. (July 2014) in Materials Science and Engineering with summa cum laude from Sharif University of Technology, the most prestigious and competitive engineering school in Iran. During her bachelor’s degree she worked on the optimization of the manufacturing process of a specialized soft magnetic alloy, FINEMET, to enhance its structural, mechanical and magnetic properties. With a twist of interest, she began to appreciate the beauties of the advanced materials in the biomedical field. Hence, in her first master’s thesis, she developed the biocompatible, biodegradable electrospun nanofibers derived from natural materials as a platform for regenerative medicine purposes. In Fall 2014, she joined Prof. Pan’s vibrant team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she received a second master’s degree in Bioengineering in Dec 2015. Her thesis addressed one of the perplexing issues in the treatment of cancer, namely, the strategies for the controlled delivery of therapeutics for the cancer stem cell inhibition. This plus multiple other researches she is undertaking, lay the path for her Ph.D. thesis with the focus is on novel nanoparticle systems for biomedical imaging, therapy, diagnostic, and sustainability applications. Specifically, her research topics include cancer stem cell targeting, cancer UV therapy, vascular thrombus coronary complications, probe development for multiscale imaging, and novel treatments for periodontal diseases. Throughout these studies, she designs, synthesizes and characterizes the nanoparticles physiochemically and biologically. In addition, she is working towards the design of bioabsorbable personalized stent devices where in collaboration with Carle Foundation Hospital clinicians, she is working on the design of the device, characterization of properties and assessing the potential marketability. Youkabed’s ultimate goal is to join academia in pursuit of her ambition to conduct research on the interface of materials science and biomedical engineering as well as to educate the next generations of the biomedical scientists.
Google Scholar Profile: Fatemeh Ostadhossein
Personal Website: https://publish.illinois.edu/fatemeh-ostadhossein/