Celebrating Excellence in Biomedical Research: PhD student Andrew Boreland

Andrew Boreland, a current biomedical Ph.D. student, is a shining example of the excellence that exists in our RBHS graduate programs. Andrew has taken full advantage of the opportunities that Rutgers School of Graduate Studies–Biomedical Health Sciences has to offer and has succeeded at the highest level.

Andrew grew up in New Jersey and at the age of 16, he suffered a traumatic brain injury. His recovery was long and hard but through this journey, he developed a deep passion for research and neuroscience. He attended Rutgers University as an undergraduate, majoring in genetics. He garnered multiple awards including high honors at graduation, dean’s list for multiple semesters, and the Aresty Research Center Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Additionally, Andrew conducted research on melanoma at the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research and was later accepted into Rutgers’ Cell and Developmental Biology Ph.D. program.

He is currently finishing his thesis research in the laboratory of Zhiping Pang, M.D., Ph.D. at The Child Health Institute of New Jersey and department of neuroscience and cell biology, and is co-mentored by Peng Jiang, Ph.D. in the department of cell biology and neuroscience in the School of Arts of Sciences. His thesis research utilizes human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to model human disease. He has focused on neuro-immune dysregulation that may contribute to neurodegeneration seen in patients with alcohol-related dementia and HIV-related dementia. He has been very successful, publishing seven manuscripts with three more in preparation. He also has 10 meeting abstracts and is an author on two patents. Recently, he received the Aaron Shatkin Graduate Student Award for the very best graduating Ph.D. students across the Piscataway and New Brunswick campuses.

While he has been successful at the bench, he has also been an active participant in our community. He has been selected for two competitive National Institute of Health-funded training grants on campus: the Rutgers-NIH T32 Biotechnology Training Program and the NJ ACTS-CTSA TL1 Clinical and Translational Science Training Program. He has also participated in our career development program, iJOBS, and is very interested in translating lab-based discoveries to the commercial biotechnology sector. Recently, he was selected as the Entrepreneurial Lead for the Rutgers National Science Foundation-funded Innovation Corps. He is the co-lead investigator for a biotechnology company called Nervana Therapeutics that focuses on Cellularized Nerve Regeneration Graft (CNRG) technology. One wonders if Andrew sleeps at all to accomplish his many feats!

Andrew is also well respected by his peers and mentors. Recently, one of his mentors had this to say: “I’ve witnessed firsthand his unparalleled passion, intelligence, and resilience in the pursuit of biomedical research. Andrew is not just a student; he's a visionary with a mission. His remarkable passion for being exemplary in science and making impactful contributions to science and medicine is awe-inspiring.”