Jacob Boykin

"Jacob Boykin, Honors in the Major, Bess H. Ward Thesis Award Winner-Fall 2021"
JACOB BOYKIN

Thesis: Synthesis of Mussel Inspired Bioadhesive Poly(MDOPA-co-AMPS) for the Delivery of HDAC Inhibitors for Keloid Treatment

Thesis Director:  Dr. Hoyong Chung, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

"The Bess H. Ward Honors in the Major Thesis Award played an incredibly large impact towards my success in completing my Honors in the Major thesis throughout this year. Prior to this award, when completing my Honors in the Major project, I had run into some major difficulties that impeded my progress and were difficult to resolve with my limited resources. In the lab I work with, we primarily focus on the polymer synthesis and science. However, my Honors in the Major project instead aimed to take these and apply them to the biomedical field in a unique way. In order to overcome this gap, I applied for the Bess H. Ward Thesis Award to obtain not only materials that were not already present in the lab, such as more biocompatible chemicals, but also used it to fund my ability to do further research by purchasing polymer science for biomedical applications books written by authors who are specialized in this field. With these new materials and the knowledge gained from these new texts, I was able to solve a large number of the problems that came up and was able to continue solving new ones as they arose due to my larger array of resources within the lab. This award was a major contributing factor in my success in writing and defending my thesis, and I greatly appreciate the ability to take my research further due to this grant."

-Jacob BoykinFall 2021 Bess H. Ward Thesis Award Winner