Samira Musah
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Samira Musah is an American biomedical engineer and professor at the
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
Pratt School of Engineering The Duke University Pratt School of Engineering is the engineering school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The school was created by the Board of Trustees at Duke University as the Coll ...
. She is known for her work in biomimetic systems, in particular for her work in developing an organ-on-a-chip model of the kidney
glomerulus ''Glomerulus'' (; : glomeruli) is a common term used in anatomy to describe globular structures of entwined vessels, fibers, or neurons. ''Glomerulus'' is the diminutive of the Latin ''glomus'', meaning "ball of yarn". ''Glomerulus'' may refer to ...
during her postdoctoral fellowship.


Education

Musah received her BS in chemistry at SUNY Binghamton, where she worked under
Omowunmi Sadik Omowunmi "Wunmi" A. Sadik (born 19 June 1964) is a Nigerian-American professor, chemist, and inventor working at New Jersey Institute of Technology. She has developed microelectrode biosensors for detection of drugs and explosives and is working o ...
for her undergraduate thesis. Musah completed her PhD at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, where her work focused on material environments for
induced pluripotent stem cell Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi in Kyoto, Jap ...
s.


Career

From 2014 to 2018, Musah was a Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School's
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (pronounced "veese") is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University focused on bridging the gap between academia and industry (translational medicine) by drawing inspirat ...
, where she completed her training between the labs of George Church and Donald E. Ingber. At the Wyss Institute, she led a project to develop a functioning in vitro model
glomerulus ''Glomerulus'' (; : glomeruli) is a common term used in anatomy to describe globular structures of entwined vessels, fibers, or neurons. ''Glomerulus'' is the diminutive of the Latin ''glomus'', meaning "ball of yarn". ''Glomerulus'' may refer to ...
with differentiation of stem cells into mature
podocyte Podocytes are cells in Bowman's capsule in the kidneys that wrap around capillaries of the glomerulus. Podocytes make up the epithelial lining of Bowman's capsule, the third layer through which filtration of blood takes place. Bowman's capsule ...
s. She was honored for her interdisciplinary work in this project by a
Physics World ''Physics World'' is the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, one of the largest physical societies in the world. It is an international monthly magazine covering all areas of physics, pure and applied, and is aimed at physicists in ...
"Faces of Physics" short documentary. Since 2019, Musah has been an assistant professor at Duke. As a member of the Duke MEDx program, Musah holds a joint appointment between the engineering and medical programs. Her laboratory focuses on understanding human kidney development and guided differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells. At Duke, Musah has spoken of the value of a writing program for underrepresented faculty in which she participated. Musah's interest include Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), disease mechanisms, regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human kidney development and disease. Organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarkers, therapeutic discover, tissue and organ transplantation are also of interest. Other interests include microphysiological systems (including organs-on-chips and organoids), matrix biology, mechanotransduction, mechanobiology, and disease biophysics. In the Musah Lab, they work to understand how molecular signals and biophysical forces function synergistically or independently guiding organ development and physiology. The Lab looks at how these processes can be therapeutically harnessed for treatment of human disease, particularly kidney disease. The Musah Lab works on engineering stem cell fate for applications in human kidney disease, extra-renal complications, and therapeutic development.


Honors and awards

* 2017 Baxter Young Investigator Award * 2020 Whitehead Scholarship in Biomedical Research * 2020
Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...
100 inspiring Black scientists in America * 2021
Nature Biotechnology ''Nature Biotechnology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. The editor-in-chief is Barbara Cheifet who heads an in-house team of editors. The focus of the journal is biotechnology including research resu ...
Outstanding and Trailblazing Black Researchers


Published works

. Molecular Cell Biology, vol 22 no. 8 (2021) "Musah, S, ''Uncovering SARS-CoV-2 kidney tropism.''," ''Nature Reviews''. Molecular Cell Biology, vol 22 no. 8 (2021) [10.1038/s41580-021-00370-w
[abs">0.1038/s41580-021-00370-w">"Musah, S, ''Uncovering SARS-CoV-2 kidney tropism.''," ''Nature Reviews''. Molecular Cell Biology, vol 22 no. 8 (2021) [10.1038/s41580-021-00370-w
[abs/nowiki>]"
, vol 27 no. 2 (2020), pp. 200-201 [10.1016/j.stem.2020.07.016">"Introductions to the Community: Early-Career Researchers in the Time of COVID-19.," ''Cell Stem Cell'', vol 27 no. 2 (2020), pp. 200-201 [10.1016/j.stem.2020.07.016
[abs]
]
: Jove no. 161 (2020) [10.3791/61299">Burt, M; Bhattachaya, R; Okafor, AE; Musah, S, "Guided Differentiation of Mature Kidney Podocytes from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Under Chemically Defined Conditions.," ''Journal of Visualized Experiments'' : Jove no. 161 (2020) [10.3791/61299
[abs]]


References

{{Authority control University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni American women engineers Binghamton University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women