As an MIT Portugal Bioengineering doctoral student visiting MIT for two years, Maria Pereira is boosting her research aimed at a future career in industry. But she is also taking part in efforts to attract local primary school children to join her one day as researchers.  Maria Pereira demonstrates lab equipment to visiting students Hosted by the Karp Laboratory at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Pereira is pursuing her research on development of a cardiac patch for biomolecule delivery. This project builds on the work of her advisors, Jeffrey Karp and Lino Ferreira from the University of Coimbra/BioCant Technology Park, while both were postdoctoral fellows in the Langer Laboratory, where they developed the “gecko bandage.” This year the Karp Lab hosted a group of students from the Wellington School in Belmont, Massachusetts, led by their teacher Cristina Nicolson. Nicolson has long-standing connections with academic researchers in the Boston area and Karp volunteered to demonstrate his lab’s work, as part of Nicolson’s year-long “National Lab Day” project entitled “Becoming Citizen Scientists.” Pereira was one of the young researchers who took the lead in demonstrating the tools of the leading-edge laboratory to the students, and building on the lab’s “gecko” work to show different adhesive properties of wet and dry materials.  Dr. Jeffrey Karp, Maria Pereira, and other Karp Lab researchers with visiting students Pereira said she appreciated the students’ interest in the visit and hopes to host young people again. “I was amazed by the creativity and curiosity of these 'young scientists,' two of the main characteristics a good scientist or engineer must have. It is critical to stimulate these capacities at young ages and to inspire children to use them for helping others. Mrs. Nicolson’s work is an excellent example of this and it was a fantastic opportunity for me to be part of it." | 
