Bridgette Han ’18 Wins Cogito Grant

Lower Bridgette Han has been selected to receive the CTY Cogito Research Award, a prize annually given to middle and high school students from around the world to those who demonstrate ambition, creativity and promise in their research-project proposals.The research award was established by John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) in 2013 and is given to only 10 students from a pool of over 250 competitive applications. The program was created to inspire students to challenge tough scientific problems and research to find answers. Students may apply for research grants in archaeology, biology, engineering, mathematics, physics or the social sciences. Past grant recipients have used the funds to accomplish impressive tasks, especially given their age as young researchers. The grants have funded projects which tackled the issues of delivering vaccination to rural areas of the world and worked to capture carbon through algal growth.

“She is dedicated to her work and works nonstop.”

This year, the awards were funded by the Thakor Family Fund, which was created by a CTY parent and donor Nitish V. Thakor and his family. After the winners for this award were chosen, each was paired with a member of the John Hopkins University CTY faculty in a relevant field, who would guide the winner as an adviser to the project’s progression. The research grant will not only give Han a mentor, but it will also help provide  Han with funds to purchase equipment and rent lab space.Han first found out about Cogito Research while she was at the CTY summer program last summer, which draws many Exonians. She had received an email from Cogito and as she read possible research ideas on their websites, she became interested in applying for it.She decided to research cardiovascular diseases, specifically heart attacks, as she experienced her best friend’s father suffer from a heart attack and pass away when she was in seventh grade. The experience left a lasting impression and convinced her to take a step forward in finding a way to open another gateway in the currently existent studies.Once the topic was chosen, and she decided to develop it, she went to research in San Diego to meet a mentor and better understand it. While Han was in San Diego, she was able to complete half of the project’s work.“My mentor was actually interested in hydrogels, and she tried to synthesize them for arthritis. Using this similar idea of injecting the hydrogels and scaffolding them to help reform heart structure, I thought this could [present] a possible new solution,” Han said.With the research she had started last summer, she applied during the beginning of this summer, which was due in November. It took her about three months to finish the entire process where Bridgette had to write a proposal (which included how the research was going to be conducted, how the funds were going to be spent and the possible real world applications her results would have), make a poster, do an interview and finally apply.When the winners were announced in January, Han was ecstatic to hear from her mother that she had won the research grant while she was at school.“I actually didn’t even know that I won the research grant until my mom called me one day after class. I was super excited, and I’m still excited, knowing that I can continue my research over the summer and that I’ll be provided with a mentor,” Han said.Christopher Matlack, science instructor, previously had Han as a student in his prep biology class and also wrote her recommendation letter for this program.“She was always good around the table and very interested in things,” Matlack said. “I’m impressed that she’s just a lower and was selected as one of the winners of this research grant.”Her mentor,  Andrea Carlini, whom she met in San Diego last summer, describes her as one of the most determined students she has ever met.“She is dedicated to her work and works nonstop. During the summer, she stayed in my lab for over 10 hours experimenting and reading articles without break. She is so energetic in everything she does and puts so much effort in her passions. I am so proud of her continuous work on this research, and I know she has a great future ahead of her,” she said.Throughout her research, Han will try to design new hydrogels that can repair heart tissue after a heart attack, which would have to be injected directly into the catheter. With the development of new hydrogels, paramedics could inject them after a heart attack. This would be a less invasive and much more efficient technique that could enable the patient’s heart to repair itself immediately.Like most scientific experiments, there has been a lot of trial and error involved in her project. One of Han’s biggest challenges will be to perfect a peptide sequence, which makes it more difficult for her to ballpark a finish date. Although she previously had a sufficient amount of research done, she has decided to start over with most of the research, now that she is being fully supported with this research grant. Once she continues her research this summer, Han believes that this project will continue in years to come.Contributions from Don Assamongkol