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Stewart Humble

Postgraduate Student

Stewart graduated from Louisiana State University in May 2012 while earning a university medal, summa cum laude with College Honors, Upper Division Honors Distinction, and recognition as a Distinguished Communicator. He was a Rhodes scholarship finalist in fall 2012, and now attends medical school at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans.

Under the direction of Dr. Kevin M. Smith, Humble’s undergraduate work at LSU attempted to combat cancer by analyzing porphyrin molecules that naturally accumulate within malignant tissues. His Upper Division Honors thesis, “Synthesis and Cellular Investigations of the 13^1-Lysyl Derivative of Chlorin e6,” explored the development of novel photosensitizers for applications in photodynamic therapy, or PDT cancer treatments.

Stewart’s post-bachelor work consisted of two projects in Grenoble, France via a partnership between LSU, Grenoble INP, and Université Joseph Fourier. He first worked with the iGEM Grenoble-EMSE-LSU Team in 2013 to develop an automated system that controlled key parameters within a bacterial colony, including cell density and intracellular protein concentration. The project utilized light-activated optogenetic promoters, a genetic algorithm, and the genetically encoded photosensitizer KillerRed. This system gave his team the ability to produce ROS, enabling control of bacterial cell populations without any direct human contact.

Following his iGEM experience, he pursued a second internship in Grenoble with the Néel Institiute, LMGP, and G2E Lab. The main goal of his project was to utilize micro-magnetic flux sources for medical diagnosis via protein capture and detection. By combining biological and material sciences research with immunological methods and physical processes, his research aimed to streamline the current approach to clinically relevant applications such as viral recognition, disease detection, or other medical diagnoses. 

Stewart believes that pursuing an MD/PhD through the NIH OxCam program will allow him to gain expertise in both the basic sciences and clinical medicine, offering the opportunity to enhance his experiences serving local communities and combating local and global health issues such as inherited genetic and neurological disorders.

Mentors

Dr. Michael Ward (NINDS) &
Dr. Richard Wade-Martins (Oxford)

Degrees

Louisiana State University, B.S. in Biological Sciences (minor in Chemistry), 2012; Medical Student at LSU Health Sciences Center -- New Orleans, in progress; DPhil Biomedical Sciences, University of Oxford, in progress

Research Interests

Neuroscience, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Gene Therapy/Molecular Biology