Lifen Shi
Class of 2022
Education: Blended BS + MS Biomedical Engineering at Cal Poly
Biography:
Lifen is interested in regenerative medicine and stem cell research as she believes these areas of focus contain many enigmas that have yet to be understood and thus, hold endless opportunities to explore. Through this field, she aspires to aid in discovering new treatments for diseases and medical conditions. Specifically, she would like to focus on applying cellular therapies across the many medical specialties in hopes to find more promising treatment strategies. After completion of her master’s degree, Lifen hopes to work in the biotechnology industry and to ultimately make a positive impact on the lives of all patients.
Internship:
Lifen is completing her internship at ViaCyte in the R&D Engineering Department, led by Craig McGreevy. Specifically, she is working under the supervision of Jonathan Valdez in the Device Engineering Team. She is supporting the design and development of novel encapsulation devices. Some of her current projects include performing preclinical device verification testing and executing surrogate studies for R&D device loading. These project goals will support ViaCyte’s goal of developing a biologic-device combination product that can serve as a long-term treatment for Type 1 Diabetes.