Student Profile: Emma Berman
Health, access and community
Emma Berman grew up in San Diego with an interest in medicine and community. She discovered bioengineering in high school, working on a 3D bioprinting project, where she became interested in the intersection between engineering and medicine. She appreciates the innovative and entrepreneurial perspectives at Berkeley, and how the curriculum has broadened her knowledge of the different fields in bioengineering.
Emma finds the rate of change within the field of bioengineering exciting, with so much research being done in so many different areas – whether that’s new treatments or diagnostics or AI. “I love learning about my friends’ research,” she said, “and all of the work that is being done is really fascinating to me.”
Growing up with French-speaking family members in a Spanish-speaking community, Emma has seen first hand how difficult it can be to navigate the healthcare system if you don’t speak English. That is why she decided to do a double major in Spanish.
“I thought that really dedicating my time to learning Spanish would help me better connect with future patients.”
Emma with Chancellor Richard Lyons after accepting the Strauss Fellowship
After watching friends with hearing impairments feel uncomfortable with wearing their hearing aids in school or social settings, Emma partnered with physician mentors at UCSD to found “Listen Up: Hear Here.” Now expanding to Berkeley, the initiative has received a grant from the Strauss Foundation to combine community outreach, creativity and engineering to improve the wearability and decrease the social stigma of hearing aids.
Outside the classroom, she has also done outreach with Berkeley’s Bioengineering Honor Society through high school visits, BioE Day and the Bioengineering High School Competition, and has been an instructor for the Introduction to BioE DeCal course for new Berkeley students.
Group photo of the Messersmith Lab
Emma has been a member of Professor Phil Messersmith’s research lab since her sophomore year, after learning about his research in a presentation to the BioE 26 Introduction to Bioengineering freshman seminar. There she is working with Dr. Erika Salzman to develop a tissue-regenerating prodrug, which could be used to restore lost tissue in currently incurable conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. Her focus this semester is specifically on exploring the drug’s anti-microbial properties for application in conditions such as periodontitis.
After graduation, Emma hopes to become a physician serving underrepresented communities while using her BioE background to design cost-effective medical solutions. If she could describe Berkeley Bioengineering in one word, it would be “collaborative”.
“Students are really excited to work together in class or in the lab, from freshmen up through PhDs, and there is such an interdisciplinary focus as well. I feel very supported by the people in this environment that emphasizes everyone working together.”