NIH F31 Fellowship Awarded to Laura Sherwood

This Kirschstein-NRSA program aims to “enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into  productive, independent research scientists, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.” Laura’s F31 fellowship is entitled: “Human Pluripotent Stem Cells and Organoids for Salivary Gland Regeneration”. In this work, Sherwood is using a developmentally inspired approach to generate functional salivary gland organoids (mini organs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells. These mini organs can be used for development of cell therapies and as a platform to screen drugs to restore salivary gland function in patients receiving radiation for head and neck cancer or suffering from autoimmune diseases such Sjögren's syndrome. This award speaks to Laura’s exceptional promise as a young scientist and highlights the potential impact of her project in the field of regenerative medicine, which aims to develop innovative cell- and gene-based therapies for tissue regeneration. It follows an earlier honor recognizing her poster and oral presentation at the 2025 Salivary Glands and Exocrine Biology Gordon Research Conference (GRC), the premier international forum for cutting-edge, unpublished advances in salivary gland science.