News
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 Released. 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 Profesional 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 long-term 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 Brandie’s 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 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 Univerity 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 Awad” 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 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 a Scienciti’s 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