Herr lab researcher wins prestigious fellowship

Kwasi Apori conducts research on microfluidics in Amy Herr's lab at UC Berkeley. (Photo: Elisabeth Fall)

March 11, 2010
By Kaspar Mossman, QB3

Kwasi Apori, a 5th year bioengineering graduate student in the laboratory of QB3's Amy Herr, has been named a 2010 Merck/UNCF Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellow.

The fellowship, administered by Merck and the United Negro College Fund, is one of 10 awarded each year, and will provide $52,000 for fees and a stipend over the next 12 months.

Apori won the award for work he has done developing a technique to analyze cerebrospinal fluid for the concentration of biological markers for dementia and traumatic brain injury. The technique, "immunosubtraction," is well established, but Apori is developing a method, based on microfluidics—a specialty of the Herr lab—that can provide quick, accurate results from a tiny sample.

"The technique currently requires a lot of interpretation, and can be subjective," Apori says. "We're trying to make it more quantitative and rapid." Physicians—both civilian and military—have expressed interest in Apori's work, Herr adds.