My name is Sarah Boermeester, and I鈥檓 currently a summer intern at ARMI. I鈥檓 a rising junior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where I study Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Tissue Engineering. When I鈥檓 not studying I love being outdoors, painting, and being with family and friends. My educational background revolves around bioreactor culture and bioprocessing, as I work at the Biomanufacturing Education and Training Center on campus. This lends itself well to my work at ARMI as the Tissue Engineering Technology and Process Development Intern. My duties include helping to optimize different modules of the Tissue Foundry, as well as developing resources for the ARMI community and the growing BioFabUSA incubator space. Working on multiple projects at ARMI has allowed me to not only strengthen my lab skills, but my research and problem solving skills as well. I鈥檝e been able to gain experience working with interdisciplinary groups, complex thinking, and design of experiments, all of which will help me in my future endeavors.
What I鈥檝e loved the most about ARMI is the community and seeing how ARMI works to make connections and inspire innovations within it. The Spring Summit was such a great experience for me. From hearing about cutting edge technologies to helping to facilitate working group sessions on member day, there is no doubt in my mind that the regenerative medicine field is moving in an amazing direction. I鈥檓 grateful for the opportunity to work with so many talented people. I鈥檓 still not sure what I want to do when I graduate, but being exposed to so many options and connections within ARMI has helped me along the decision path. Being a part of ARMI鈥檚 mission to make practical the large scale manufacturing of tissue related technologies has confirmed for me that this is the field I want to work in.