Samira Musah
{{Short description|American biomedical engineer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Samira Musah
| image =
| nationality =
| fields = Biomedical engineering
| workplaces = Duke University Pratt School of Engineering
| alma_mater = SUNY Binghamton (BS)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (PhD)
| thesis_title =
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year = 2012
| doctoral_advisor = Laura L. Kiessling
| known_for =
}}
Samira Musah is an American biomedical engineer and professor at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering. She is known for her work in biomimetic systems, in particular for her work in developing an organ-on-a-chip model of the kidney glomerulus during her postdoctoral fellowship.
Education
Musah received her BS in chemistry at SUNY Binghamton, where she worked under Omowunmi Sadik for her undergraduate thesis.{{Cite journal|last1=Kikandi|first1=Samuel N.|last2=Musah|first2=Samira|last3=Lee|first3=Kyoungyun|last4=Hassani|first4=John|last5=Rajan|first5=Shawn|last6=Zhou|first6=Ailing|last7=Sadik|first7=Omowunmi A.|date=2007|title=Comparative Studies of Quercetin Interactions with Monophosphate Nucleotides Using UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Electrochemical Techniques|url=https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/elan.200703954|journal=Electroanalysis|language=en|volume=19|issue=19–20|pages=2131–2140|doi=10.1002/elan.200703954|issn=1521-4109|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite web|title=Principal Investigator: Samira Musah, Ph.D. {{!}} Musah Lab|url=https://musahlab.pratt.duke.edu/principal-investigator-samira-musah-phd|access-date=2021-06-08|website=musahlab.pratt.duke.edu}} Musah completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her work focused on material environments for induced pluripotent stem cells.{{Cite journal|last1=Derda|first1=Ratmir|last2=Musah|first2=Samira|last3=Orner|first3=Brendan P.|last4=Klim|first4=Joseph R.|last5=Li|first5=Lingyin|last6=Kiessling|first6=Laura L.|date=2010-02-03|title=High-Throughput Discovery of Synthetic Surfaces That Support Proliferation of Pluripotent Cells|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/ja906089g|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=132|issue=4|pages=1289–1295|doi=10.1021/ja906089g|issn=0002-7863|pmc=2819098|pmid=20067240}}
Career
From 2014 to 2018, Musah was a Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, where she completed her training between the labs of George Church and Donald E. Ingber.{{Cite web|title=Samira Musah {{!}} IMPACT Program|url=https://impactprogram.mit.edu/samira-musah/|access-date=2021-06-08|language=en-US}} At the Wyss Institute, she led a project to develop a functioning in vitro model glomerulus with differentiation of stem cells into mature podocytes.{{Cite journal|last1=Musah|first1=Samira|last2=Dimitrakakis|first2=Nikolaos|last3=Camacho|first3=Diogo M.|last4=Church|first4=George M.|last5=Ingber|first5=Donald E.|date=July 2018|title=Directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into mature kidney podocytes and establishment of a Glomerulus Chip|journal=Nature Protocols|language=en|volume=13|issue=7|pages=1662–1685|doi=10.1038/s41596-018-0007-8|pmid=29995874|issn=1750-2799|pmc=6701189}}{{Cite web|date=2018-10-21|title=Futuristic organ-on-a-chip technology now seems more realistic than ever|url=https://www.salon.com/2018/10/21/futuristic-organ-on-a-chip-technology-now-seems-more-realistic-than-ever_partner/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Salon|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2017-07-06|title=Kidney filtration on a chip: Here's how it could be done|url=https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/stem-cells-kidney-filtration-chip/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Medical Design and Outsourcing|language=en-US}} She was honored for her interdisciplinary work in this project by a Physics World "Faces of Physics" short documentary.{{Cite web|date=2017-10-03|title=Faces of Physics: human organs on a chip|url=https://physicsworld.com/a/faces-of-physics-human-organs-on-a-chip/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Physics World|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|date=2018-03-08|title=Celebrating International Women's Day|url=https://physicsworld.com/a/celebrating-international-womens-day/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Physics World|language=en-GB}}
Since 2019, Musah has been an assistant professor at Duke. As a member of the Duke MEDx program, Musah holds a joint appointment between the engineering and medical programs.{{Cite web|date=2018-08-23|title=MEDx Investigators|url=https://medx.duke.edu/community/investigators|access-date=2021-06-08|website=MEDx|language=en}} Her laboratory focuses on understanding human kidney development and guided differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells.{{Cite web|title=Engineering Stem Cells to Understand Human Tissue Development and Disease – J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering|url=https://www.bme.ufl.edu/events/samira-musah-ph-d-assistant-professor-department-of-biomedical-engineering-duke-university/|access-date=2021-06-08|language=en-US}} At Duke, Musah has spoken of the value of a writing program for underrepresented faculty in which she participated.{{Cite web|title=A Community That Writes Together|url=https://today.duke.edu/2020/03/community-writes-together|access-date=2021-06-08|website=today.duke.edu|date=20 March 2020 |language=en}}
Musah's interest include Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), disease mechanisms, regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human kidney development and disease. Organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarkers, therapeutic discover, tissue and organ transplantation are also of interest. Other interests include microphysiological systems (including organs-on-chips and organoids), matrix biology, mechanotransduction, mechanobiology, and disease biophysics.
In the Musah Lab, they work to understand how molecular signals and biophysical forces function synergistically or independently guiding organ development and physiology. The Lab looks at how these processes can be therapeutically harnessed for treatment of human disease, particularly kidney disease. The Musah Lab works on engineering stem cell fate for applications in human kidney disease, extra-renal complications, and therapeutic development.
Honors and awards
- 2017 Baxter Young Investigator Award{{Cite web|title=Baxter Young Investigator Award - 2017 Winners|url=https://www.baxter.com/our-story/fueling-collaborative-innovation/baxter-young-investigator-awards/baxter-young-1|access-date=2021-06-08|website=Baxter|language=en}}
- 2020 Whitehead Scholarship in Biomedical Research{{Cite web|title=Whitehead Scholarship in Biomedical Research. Whitehead Foundation. {{!}} Scholars@Duke|url=https://scholars.duke.edu/display/awdrec34543|access-date=2021-06-08|website=scholars.duke.edu}}
- 2020 Cell 100 inspiring Black scientists in America{{Cite web|last=Hinton|first=Antentor O. Jr.|title=100 inspiring Black scientists in America|url=http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/100-inspiring-black-scientists-in-america|access-date=2021-06-08|website=crosstalk.cell.com|language=en-us}}
- 2021 Nature Biotechnology Outstanding and Trailblazing Black Researchers{{Cite web|title=Congratulations to Dr. Samira Musah on her feature by Nature Biotechnology {{!}} Duke Black Think Tank|url=https://blackthinktank.duke.edu/news/congratulations-dr-samira-musah-her-feature-nature-biotechnology|access-date=2021-06-08|website=blackthinktank.duke.edu|date=February 2021 }}
Published works
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8049073/ "Musah, S, Uncovering SARS-CoV-2 kidney tropism.," Nature Reviews
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1934590920303544?via%3Dihub "Introductions to the Community: Early-Career Researchers in the Time of COVID-19.," Cell Stem Cell
[https://www.jove.com/t/61299/guided-differentiation-mature-kidney-podocytes-from-human-induced Burt, M; Bhattachaya, R; Okafor, AE; Musah, S, "Guided Differentiation of Mature Kidney Podocytes from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Under Chemically Defined Conditions.," Journal of Visualized Experiments