Arfan Sivarooban

Hi! My name is Arfan Sivarooban, and I am a third-year Health Sciences student at Wilfrid Laurier University. Some of my hobbies include playing basketball, cooking, and eating food. My research interests include cancer biology and regenerative medicine, with a focus on exploring novel therapeutic strategies to better understand and treat human diseases.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to further explore these interests in Dr. Michael Suits’ Lab and Dr. Nirosha Murugan’s Lab. In the Suits Lab, I contributed to antigen-antibody protein crystallization with specific point mutations to improve targeted treatments for diseases such as breast cancer and blindness. I have also worked under Dr. Murugan on two separate projects: developing a natural product with anti-cancer properties and investigating light-induced cellular differentiation.

Through the Amgen Scholars Program, I will have the privilege to join Dr. Molly Shoichet’s Lab, where I will contribute to a project that uses hydrogels as a delivery system for retinal regeneration. This project will deepen my skills and understanding in drug delivery and bioengineering, and how these techniques can be applied to not only tissue regeneration, but also cancer. I am extremely grateful for this invaluable opportunity and look forward to learning from scientists within and outside the Shoichet Lab, as well as from my fellow Amgen Scholars, while I work towards my goal of becoming a scientist.