{"id":6397,"date":"2025-09-11T13:56:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/?post_type=profile&#038;p=6397"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:56:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:56:21","slug":"marva-lawrence","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/profile\/marva-lawrence\/","title":{"rendered":"Marva Lawrence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marva worked in <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the\u00a0<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-reu\/research-projects\/2022-summer-projects\/thomas-bifano-rem-project\/\" class=\"editor-rtfLink\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Bifano Lab<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> alongside graduate student mentor, Ruifeng Hu. Some of her tasks included creating PDMS devices, ensuring that the heart tissue can stay on the device&#8217;s posts, and taking side view images of them. She also communicated with Florida International University since they test the stiffness of the devices.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">More about My Experience<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Marva is from Charleston, South Carolina.  As a result of the pandemic, her previous research experiences were online. However, during the summer of 2022, Marva had the opportunity to research and collaborate with lab members in person, &#8220;Actually getting a hands-on experience is important to me and that&#8217;s what I got from this REU&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Scaffold Manufacturing for Engineered Heart Tissues:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">At Boston University, she worked in the\u00a0<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-reu\/research-projects\/2022-summer-projects\/thomas-bifano-rem-project\/\" class=\"editor-rtfLink\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Bifano Lab<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0alongside graduate student mentor, Ruifeng Hu. Some of her tasks included creating PDMS devices, ensuring that the heart tissue can stay on the device&#8217;s posts, and taking side view images of them. She also communicated with Florida International University since they test the stiffness of the devices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After completing the REU program, Marva earned her BS in Laser and Optical Engineering from Norfolk State University. She is currently working on her MS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from George Washington University while working as a Mechanical Engineer. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_5148\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5148\" style=\"width: 511px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"501\" height=\"334\" class=\"wp-image-5148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-636x424.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/files\/2022\/12\/08.11.22_PosterSession_MarvaLawrence-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5148\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marva Lawrence at the 2022 Poster Session.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Learn more about Marva&#8217;s REM experience!<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/766235869?h=88732a8e38&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" title=\"Marva Lawrence Interview - REU Program\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/api\/player.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"author":24547,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/6397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/6397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6920,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/6397\/revisions\/6920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cell-met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}