Sofie Finkelstein came to her undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University planning to work in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. But about halfway through, she encountered something that redirected her entire trajectory: a lab focused on women’s health and engineering reproductive organs. “I hadn’t really considered there were engineers performing research in this area,” Sofie recalls. It was a realization that stuck with her, particularly because sex differences were barely discussed in her physiology classes.
The gaps became impossible to ignore as she progressed through her degree. Her undergraduate research on anterior cruciate ligament injuries revealed a troubling pattern: the research had been conducted almost entirely on male subjects, with limited understanding of how age and sex affected injury and healing in women. She noticed the same omission repeated across her classes—everything had been tested on men, but not women. By senior year, Sofie knew she wanted graduate study not just to deepen her expertise, but to help fill these critical gaps in women’s health engineering research.
At BU, her direction solidified quickly. A women’s health engineering class in her first semester emphasized just how important this work is, while course content from guest speakers revealed the breadth of research opportunities in the field. She also discovered that the department housed something relatively rare: a strong women’s health research group with an established community of students and faculty committed to the area. That combination of institutional support and peer community was a deciding factor in choosing BU.
Sofie’s master’s thesis focuses on developing a murine explant model of the cervix to understand how the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the tissue remodels in response to mechanical and chemical stimuli. The initial goal is to create a robust, controllable platform to recreate and study cervical ECM changes across the estrous cycle. Once validated, the model can be further used to investigate mechanisms of cervical softening, repair, and resilience, with a long-term aim of applying the model to conditions such as cervical insufficiency and impaired healing, and potentially apply insights to other tissues with limited regeneration capacity.
Coming directly from undergraduate research, Sofie faced a new challenge: designing and carrying out her own project from start to finish. Rather than treating it as a barrier, she leaned on the support around her. “No one comes in knowing everything,” she reflects. “A lot of it is learning from others and trial and error. Asking for help is necessary to learn and advance.” Her willingness to seek guidance extends across the program—as a master’s ambassador, she’s built connections with her cohort and older classes, while also benefiting from the program’s strong emphasis on career development for students headed to PhDs or industry.
While Sofie is uncertain about the exact direction her career will take, she’s confident it will remain rooted in women’s health and excited for the expanding landscape of research in the area. The master’s program, she believes, will help her figure out the specifics—and in the meantime, she’s grounding herself in the life outside the lab. She’s embraced Boston, discovering new neighborhoods, trying bakeries, and reconnecting with ballet through classes at the BU gym. These moments of creativity and movement provide necessary breaks from research and coursework, offering the space and perspective she needs during this pivotal time.