Indian American woman among 10 brilliant scientists in the U.S.
Thursday, 02 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW YORK: Desai is an associate professor in biomedical engineering at Boston University. An undergrad in biomedical engineering from Brown University, 31-year-old Desai took up a challenging project for her Ph.D. at the University of Berkeley, California. She built an implantable device in diabetic rats that eliminated the daily injections of insulin to control blood sugar levels, according to the Popular Science website. In its second year of identifying brilliants scientists in America, the magazine's criterion was someone well into an exciting career but picking up speed. Desai's implant is being developed by a private company for human use. She has developed a speck-size layered plastic device that, when swallowed, attaches to the intestinal lining, releasing medicine. Next she plans to build better artificial blood vessels. Desai's goal is to make artificial vessels that coax the patient's own body to grow replacements, then biodegrade, leaving the new natural vessels behind, the website said. Desai took up engineering much against the advice of her father, himself a chemical engineer who termed it an unexciting profession, the magazine said. In high school, Desai heard a biomedical engineer speak and decided that it was what she wanted to be. "I wanted to work on new technology that could interface with medicine," she said.
Source: IANS
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