MONTREAL – TAV College is pleased to announce that two students from our pre-university Science DEC program, Jialiang Li and Alexandre LaRivière, have each received a $5,000 scholarship from a joint collaboration between Mitacs and the FRQNT (Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies) to conduct advanced 3D bio-printing research during the summer of 2022. The internship will last 12 weeks. Additionally, Li and LaRivière will be joined by their peer, Elizabeth Diaz Pedroso, who will also participate in the research project.
According to Dr. Nima Nateghi, Coordinator of the Science program, the students will work on 3D bioprinting scaffolds for local drug delivery applications. More specifically, this college-university collaborative project aims to explore novel and cost-effective solutions to prevent post-operative orthopedic surgery infections. The team will explore local antibiotic delivery via 3D printed bioactive scaffolds made of porous composite material. The results of this research may lead to the clinical translation of novel bone substitutes, which can promote reparation while inhibiting potential infections.
The research will be conducted in laboratories at both TAV College and the Montreal General Hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Nateghi and Dr. Derek Rosenzweig at the department of experimental surgery at McGill University.
This is an ongoing 3D printing research collaboration. Jialiang Li, one of the scholarship recipients, was selected to work on this project again and expand on the work that was done last summer. “Being selected for this opportunity, in a way, proves to myself that I am capable of undertaking advanced projects within the sciences,” said Li during an interview.
LaRivière, a first-year student, said that he sees this as an excellent opportunity for him to explore what professional research is like, which will help him decide if he is interested in pursuing laboratory-based science at university, or not. LaRivière is leaning towards a career in medicine or sports medicine and Li is on-track to pursue university studies in biochemistry.