News
2025
Nov. 6th Mariah led a virtual Leadership Training session for the Controlled Release Society on “Inclusivity in Science.” She spoke about how diversity drives discovery, why inclusion strengthens research teams, and how recognizing unconscious bias helps scientists do better work.
Nov. 6th Rebecca Pinal gave a talk on the newly published paper, “Protein corona formed on lipid nanoparticles compromises delivery efficiency of mRNA cargo,” highlighting years of collaborative work that began during our Ph.D.s and was carried forward by Elizabeth Voke and the Landry group.
Nov. 3rd Mariah led the session “Inclusive Academia: Navigating Challenges and Creating Opportunities for Disabled Scholars” at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting as part of launching the new ADA (Alliance for Disability Advocacy) community. She was excited to kick off this initiative and elevate conversations around disability inclusion in STEM.
Nov. 2nd Mariah dipped her toes into the faculty job market. She presented her poster, “The Arral Lab: Innovating Drug Delivery for Diverse Physiologies and Material Platforms,” at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting. She enjoyed sharing her vision for building drug-delivery systems that embrace sex- and age-based physiological diversity as core design principles.
Oct. 9th Dr. Jeffrey Halpern (co-PI with Mariah) gave a talk at the Electrochemical Society Meeting highlighting their joint engineering-education research on mentoring neurodivergent students in STEM. It’s wonderful to see this work shared with a broader community!
Oct. 7th Alison Mazich, a sophomore biomedical engineering student, joined Mariah in the Kaplan Lab as an undergraduate researcher. Alison will be focusing on rheology work with hydrogels!
Sept. 30th Overjoyed to share the publication of “Protein corona formed on lipid nanoparticles compromises delivery efficiency of mRNA cargo,” in Nature Communications! This project began with Rebecca Pinal (now a Prof. at Stanford!) and me during our Ph.D.s, and later Elizabeth Voke took on the work from Markita Landry’s group and carried it across the finish line. After so much collective effort over the years, it’s wonderful to see it published.
Aug. 11th Excited to share the publication of “Limiting endosomal damage sensing reduces inflammation triggered by lipid nanoparticle endosomal escape,” led by first author Serena Omo-Lamai and PI Dr. Jacob S. Brenner. This work began as a preprint and is now published in Nature Nanotechnology! So, proud to have contributed to this work during my time in the Whitehead Lab.
July. 23rd Mariah gave a virtual lecture for AIChE’s Disabilities Outreach & Inclusion Community (DORIC) on disability literacy, accessibility, and neurodiversity in STEM. She was honored to be invited and to share inclusive practices for both academic and professional settings.
July. 10th Mariah attended the Controlled Release Society (CRS) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, where she led a Leadership Training session on “Inclusivity in Science,” co-chaired a session on gene delivery, and organized a lunch social focused on building community within CRS.
June. 21st Mariah gave a seminar for the Tufts IRACDA program titled “Lessons Learned from a Quantitative Scientist Doing Mixed-Methods Research.” She walked fellow postdocs through preparing IRBs, analyzing educational data, and exploring publishing and networking opportunities in STEM education.
June 4th First grant as a Postdoc! Mariah received the Natalie V. Zucker Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by women in science and engineering at Tufts University. She is honored by this recognition and grateful for the support of the Tufts community.
May. 19th Another paper is out from my Ph.D. days! Excited to share the publication of “Synthetic Strategy for mRNA Encapsulation and Gene Delivery with Nanoscale Metal-Organic Frameworks.” I contributed flow cytometry support and mRNA delivery expertise — so happy for Harrison Lawson!
May. 17th Aria Yang, an undergraduate researcher who worked with Mariah, graduated from Tufts University and is now pursuing her master’s degree at Northeastern. Mariah is incredibly proud of Aria’s accomplishments and grateful for her contributions to the lab. She can’t wait to see all that Aria achieves next!
May. 5th Mariah attended the University of Notre Dame’s 2025 Future Faculty Workshop. She enjoyed connecting with members of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department and learning more about the research environment and community at ND.
Jan. 30th Jing-Jie “Ashley” Huang, a first-year student, joined Mariah in the Kaplan Lab as an undergraduate researcher. She will be focusing on cell culture work, and Mariah is excited to support her growth as she begins developing her skills in the lab!
2024
Nov. 11th Congratulations to Dr. Namit Chaudhary on the publication of his paper, “Lipid nanoparticle structure and delivery route during pregnancy dictate mRNA potency, immunogenicity, and maternal and fetal outcomes,” that was published in PNAS!” Mariah assisted in collecting data and revisions!
Oct. 20th Mariah was invited to give a training to the Controlled Release Society Board of Directors on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Oct. 3rd Congratulations to Dr. Namit Chaudhary on his paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering: “Amine headgroups in ionizable lipids drive immune responses to lipid nanoparticles by binding to the receptors TLR4 and CD1d.”
Oct. 1st Aria Yang began working with Mariah in the Kaplan Lab after her previous postdoctoral mentor moved on to their next position. Mariah is grateful for Aria’s expertise in the lab and excited to continue learning and growing alongside her.
Sep. 21st Student loans paid in full! Mariah announced on Instagram that she had been able to pay off her student loans. She mentioned that she was able to do this due to her low loan amount and her dual household income. Student loan reform is still needed.
Sep. 1st Congratulations to Dr. Daria Strelkova Petersen on the publication of her paper “Branched‐Tail Lipid Nanoparticles for Intravenous mRNA Delivery to Lung Immune, Endothelial, and Alveolar Cells in Mice.” in Advanced Healthcare Materials. Mariah contributed to this work via her chemistry knowledge and in in vitro and in vivo assays!
Sep. 1st Mariah officially starts in the IRACDA postdoctoral program.
July 9th At the Controlled Release Society annual meeting, Mariah received her “Member of the Year Award” for her commitment to Diversity, Equity, and inclusion within the drug delivery sciences.
Aug. 5th Mariah attended the Gordon Research Conference for Drug Carriers.
June 1st Mariah started her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Tufts University with Dr. David Kaplan. Mariah’s new research will explore the use of silk biomaterials and nanoparticles as a platform for disease modeling and drug delivery.
May 27th Merck PECS DE&I and SSF CAN teams invited Mariah to give a seminar on Neurodiversity in the Workplace
May 19th Mariah moved to the greater Boston area to start her postdoc!
May 11th Dr. Mariah Arral and Dr. Alexandra Newby attended the commencement ceremony along with their advisor Dr. Kathryn Whitehead.
May 4th Mariah Arral got married to Nicholas Weber.
April 18th A collaborative paper led by Serena Omo-Lamai in Dr. Jake Brenner’s Lab was published as a preprint! Check out “Lipid nanoparticle-associated inflammation is triggered by sensing of endosomal damage: engineering endosomal escape without side effects.”
April 16th Mariah Arral passed her thesis defense and became a Doctor of Philosophy.
Jan. 20th Mariah presented a Poster at the Keystone Conference!
2023
Oct. 13th AIChE posted an article titled “Meet Mariah L. Arral, Chemical Engineer and Advocate for Disabled People.” in celebration of National Disability Employment Month.
Oct. 4th New paper is out from the Whitehead in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics! “The mixing method used to formulate lipid nanoparticles affects mRNA delivery efficacy and organ tropism.” Mariah is the 3rd author of this paper. PDF
Oct. 1st. “AIChE’s 35 Under 35: This Year’s Young Trailblazers” was released, and Mariah was listed! Mariah is the only graduate student on the list.
Aug. 31st The Controlled Release Society Young Scientist Committee held an online event: “Get up and Get Educated: Grant Writing” that Mariah led.
July 31st Whitehead Labs’ first paper on drug delivery during pregnancy is published online in the Journal of Controlled Release. Mariah is the second author of the paper. The paper is titled “Placental drug transport and fetal exposure during pregnancy is determined by drug molecular size, chemistry, and conformation." PDF
July 24-28th The Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting was held in Las Vegas, and Mariah attended, was a poster judge, invited to be on a panel on Allyship, and helped run two YSC sessions. The first session was the Professional Development Workshop on Science Communication, and the second was the Scientific Workshop, which was an international oral presentation competition. Mariah and the President of the YSC presented the awards during the closing ceremony.
July 20th Mariah was featured on the DisabledInSTEM Twitter as part of Disability Pride Month.
June 30th Mariah attended the National Institute on Aging Division of Aging Biology New Investigator meeting in Bethesda Maryland.
June 7th The NASEM invited Mariah to serve on a panel to discuss Disrupting Ableism and Advancing STEM. Flyer.
June 4th Mariah shared that she became engaged to her partner.
March 15th Mariah was invited to give an international talk about neurodiversity to the European Society for Engineering Education.
March 7th Mariah started a first-year mentoring program at CMU during her 3rd year. The success and continuation of it were featured in the department newsletter.
Feb 22nd Mariah was invited to give the BMES Diversity Committee a crash course on disability literacy.
Feb. 15th Preprint posted of a Whitehead Lab paper about the effect of lipid nanoparticle structure and administration route during pregnancy and the resulting mRNA potency, immunogenicity, and pup health! Mariah is the 3rd author of the paper.
Jan 18th New paper from the Whitehead lab is published titled “Ionizable lipid nanoparticles deliver mRNA to pancreatic β cells via macrophage-mediated gene transfer.” Mariah is the 3rd author of the paper. PDF
2022
Dec 22nd Mariah Received her Notice of Award for her F31!
Dec. 6 Mariah gave a seminar at Brandeis University. The invited talk was titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Neurodiversity and Accessible Education.”
Nov 25th An article in Nature Career Column, “How a pandemic Ph.D. peer network group stood the test of time,” features Mariah and her peer mentoring group.
Nov. 13-17th At the AIChE Annual Meeting, Mariah presented twice. Once on “Branched-Tail Lipid Nanoparticles Potently Deliver mRNA across Multiple Murine Models” and “10 Tips to Make Your Course More Accessible and Inclusive to Disabled Students.”
Nov 3rd. Mariah was elected to the Controlled Release Society Young Scientist Committee executive board as the Marketing Lead.
Nov 2nd Mariah was awarded an AIChE WIC Travel Award to attend the annual meeting!
Oct. 26th Dr. Halpern and Mariah gave a talk on “Tips for Neurodiverse Mentoring and Education.”
Oct. 24th During the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association Annual Symposium, Mariah Arral received an Honorable Mention for her presentation on the “Effect of Age on mRNA Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery.”
Oct. 7th Mariah Arral gave a Seminar at the University of New Hampshire and then attended the University of New Hampshire Diversity Hall of Fame ceremony, where she was inducted.
Aug. 23rd Mariah’s single-author paper was published titled “10 Tips to Make Your Course More Accessible and Inclusive to Disabled Students”. Link or Download.
Aug. 1-5th Mariah also attended the Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology Gordon Research Conference and presented her research.
July 30-31st Mariah attended the Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology Gordon Research Seminar and presented a poster on her ongoing work with multiple murine models.
July 18th Mariah received an Impact Score of 17 on her NIH F31-Diversity application!
July 11-15th At the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, Mariah led four sessions: Professional Development Workshop, Chats with a Luminary, Vaccine Delivery Technical Session, and the Scientific Workshop. Mariah also acted as a poster judge.
June 26-29th Mariah attended the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Meeting in Minneapolis Minnesota where she presented her paper titled “10 Tips to Make Your Course More Accessible and Inclusive to Disabled Students.” Mariah also co-presented another paper with Dr. Julianna Gesun. In addition to her presentation, Mariah also moderated a student presentation section.
May 30th Adam Lammi started his summer research project with Mariah! Excited to have him in the lab this summer.
April 8th Mariah resubmitted her NIH F31 application.
March 26th New Whitehead lab publication “The replacement of helper lipids with charged alternatives in lipid nanoparticles facilitates targeted mRNA delivery to the spleen and lungs" was published today! Mariah is the second author of this manuscript. PDF
March 25th Mariah and Dr. Halpern give an invited Keynote presentation at the Grad Career Consortium on “Tips for Neurodiverse Education and Mentorship.” A copy of the recording is available upon request.
March 16th Mariah’s solo-author paper was accepted by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Additionally, her Second author paper with Dr. Jeffrey Halpern and Dr. Julianna Gesun was also accepted.
Feb. 18th Mariah submitted her first solo-author paper to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Additionally, she submitted a second paper along with her collaborators Dr. Jeffrey Halpern and Dr. Julianna Gesun.
Feb. 17th Mariah was featured in the Chemical Engineering Department Newsletter!
From battling through financial hardship, to overcoming disabilities like autism and dyslexia, Ph.D. student Mariah Arral continues to work towards a career in academia, one that many told her would never happen.
Jan. 20th Mariah’s student spotlight was featured in the Carnegie Mellon University online letter The Piper
2021
Dec. 14th Mariah was featured in a student spotlight. Follow the Link to read the story!
Nov 18th The Whitehead lab, in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Siegwart and Dr. Drew Weissman, published a paper in the Journal of Controlled Release. Mariah was 4th author of the paper! (PDF)
Nov 18th Adam Lammi, an undergraduate in chemistry working with Mariah, received a Small Undergraduate Research Grant! Congratulations Adam!
Oct. 6th Mariah’s poster was displayed online for the 2021 National Biomedical Engineering Society Online Conference
Sept. 17th Mariah participated in the CMU BME Forum and presented a pitch presentation.
Sept. 15th We welcome Adam Lammi to the Whitehead Lab! He is a Junior Undergraduate in Chemistry at CMU and will be working with Mariah for the coming year!
July 27th Mariah was awarded a second-place “Best Poster Award” at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting. There were over 600 posters.
July 5th Mariah uploaded a recording of a poster presentation to the Controlled Release Society’s online conference page.
June 28th Mariah presented a poster at the GRC Connects on Preclinical Form and Formulation.
June 26th Mariah hosted the Whitehead Labs’ first in-person gathering after all group members were fully vaccinated!
June 15th Mariah was awarded the JEDI Award from the Life Science Editors Foundation.
June 3rd Mariah gave an invited talk on “Up, Down, and Adjacent Mentoring” as part of the Undergraduate Professional Development Program hosted by Prof. Jeffery Halpern from the University of New Hampshire.
May 22nd Pooja Pandya graduated with her bachelor’s in Chemistry and a minor in Neuroscience. She will continue on to Weill Cornell for her Ph.D.
April 19th Roshan Paul received a Small Undergraduate Research Grant for Fall 2021! Congratulations Roshan!
Jan. 1st Mariah starts her position as a Diversity Equity, and Inclusion Co-Chair in ChEGSA.
2020
Oct. 5th Mariah was featured on Skype on Scientists Instagram Page
Oct. 2nd Mariah gave a talk at the 42nd annual ChEGSA symposium.
July 15th Mariah gave a talk titled “The Power of Inclusive Mentorship” as part of the Undergraduate Professional Development Program hosted by Prof. Jeffery Halpern from the University of New Hampshire.
July 8th Mariah was invited to speak on applying to graduate school for an Undergraduate Professional Development Program hosted by Prof. Jeffery Halpern from the University of New Hampshire.
June 1st Roshan Paul was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship. Way to go, Roshan!
May 4th Pooja Pandya was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Congrats Pooja!
April 13th ChEGSA efforts in developing socially engaging programs were highlighted in Fortune Magazine by the department head Prof. Anne Robinson
Jan. 17th Roshan Paul joined the team as an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome, Roshan!
2019
Nov. 18th Pooja Pandya was awarded a Small Undergraduate Research Grant! Congrats Pooja!
Oct. 27th Lakeside Junior High School shared photos of Mariah’s Skype A Scitenitit talk!
Oct. 2nd Mariah presented a poster at CMU ChEGSA 41st Symposium titled “Branched Tail Lipid Nanoparticles for Messenger RNA (mRNA) Delivery”
Sept. 20th Mariah was a Mentor at this year’s NexProf Pathfinders Workshop at the University of Michigan
Sept. 18th Mariah was elected president of the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association for 2020
Sept. 6th Pooja Pandya was hired as an undergraduate research assistant
Aug. 22nd Mariah passed her qualifying exam and became a Ph.D. Candidate
2018
Sept. 28th Mariah attended NexProf Pathfinders Workshop at the University of Michigan
Sept. 20th Mariah was elected a Social Chair for the Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association (ChEGSA)
Aug. 28th Mariah joined Katie Whitehead’s Lab at Carnegie Mellon University for her Ph.D.
May 29th Mariah was mentioned in another UNH Today article
May 23rd UNH Today article titled “A Future in Academia” was published about Mariah
May 18th Mariah graduated from the University of New Hampshire Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering: Bioengineering
May 16th Mariah presented her research at the 233rd Electrochemical Society Meeting
April 2nd Mariah was awarded the NSF GRFP