McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty
member Philip LeDuc, PhD (pictured), Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) professor of mechanical engineering, and Mary Beth Wilson,
a CMU PhD candidate in biomedical engineering, have won an
extremely competitive Grand Challenges Explorations Award from
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore nutrition for
healthy growth of infants and children in underdeveloped
countries. "What we are doing is studying how to alter a plant's
cellular and molecular structures to optimize release of
nutrients during digestion," said Dr. LeDuc, who has courtesy
appointments in the Biomedical Engineering, Biological Sciences
and Computational Biology departments at CMU. "The idea
originated when we became interested in how structural mechanics
affect the taste of food. We built off this idea in thinking
about how we could apply it in an innovative and meaningful way
to tackle global challenges especially for the health of
children in poor regions of the world." B