{"id":52638,"date":"2026-03-30T10:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&#038;p=52638"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:14:50","slug":"design-center-award","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Undergraduate researchers\u00a0from the Johns Hopkins Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been selected to receive the WSE Design Center Award Fund, a competitive grant administered through the Whiting School of Engineering Design Center. The award supports student-led engineering innovation projects and is expected to provide them with between $2,500 and $5,000 to advance their work.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The team includes\u00a0Alisa Fedotova,\u00a0Enzo\u00a0Larralda,\u00a0Melina\u00a0Mohammadi, Giancarlo Zambrano,\u00a0and Claire Zeng.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The funding will help power the team\u2019s project,\u00a0DentiPhage, a therapeutic aimed at combating antibiotic-resistant biofilm buildup on dental\u00a0implants, which is the\u00a0leading cause of peri-implantitis and implant failure.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cReceiving the WSE Design Center Award Fund serves as\u00a0strong\u00a0validation of our project\u2019s scientific merit and practical potential.\u00a0That vote of confidence is incredibly motivating,\u201d says\u00a0Fedotova.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The grant will allow them to\u00a0purchase\u00a0specialized laboratory materials and chemical components necessary for testing and validation.\u00a0It also\u00a0allows for\u00a0the team to work without immediate budgetary restrictions.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cWithout this financial support, many aspects of our experimental work would be significantly delayed or scaled back due to cost limitations,\u201d says Mohammadi. \u201cThe award enables us to conduct more rigorous testing, iterate on our design more efficiently, and gather higher-quality data\u2014steps that are essential for moving from concept validation toward real-world application.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">DentiPhage\u00a0harnesses bacteriophages\u2014viruses that selectively infect and kill bacteria\u2014to target biofilms that accumulate on dental implants. Traditional treatments for severe biofilm-related infections often require invasive and costly surgical intervention. The team hopes their phage-based therapeutic could offer a safer, more cost-effective alternative.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cWe hope to transform the dental health care industry through a safe and cost-effective solution to a problem that faces millions of adults worldwide,\u201d says Zeng.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Looking ahead, the team plans to continue refining and\u00a0validating\u00a0their therapeutic through controlled laboratory testing. They also intend to pursue intellectual property protection and explore commercialization pathways through the university\u2019s technology transfer resources.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cIn the long term, we envision\u00a0DentiPhage\u00a0advancing toward preclinical testing and eventually clinical application,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Larralda. \u201cOur ultimate goal is to translate this research into a viable therapeutic product that can be integrated into standard dental practice.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The group is optimistic\u00a0about the future of their research. \u201cWith continued development, we believe\u00a0DentiPhage\u00a0could help reshape how dental biofilm infections are treated and contribute to the broader effort to combat antibiotic resistance,\u201d says\u00a0Zambrano.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-52638","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-awards-and-honors","news_categories-research","news_categories-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Undergraduate researchers\u00a0from the Johns Hopkins Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been selected to receive the WSE Design Center Award Fund, a competitive grant administered through the Whiting School&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-30T14:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","og_description":"Undergraduate researchers\u00a0from the Johns Hopkins Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been selected to receive the WSE Design Center Award Fund, a competitive grant administered through the Whiting School&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/","og_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","article_modified_time":"2026-03-30T14:14:50+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/","name":"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-03-30T14:14:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-30T14:14:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/design-center-award\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Undergraduate Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Team Selected to Receive Design Center Award"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/","name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","description":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/52638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}