As a junior pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Edina native Shrey Ramesh spends much of his time studying or at the lab. But in what is undoubtedly a very technically challenging field, he draws much of the drive for what he does from people. The end of the product life cycle is, for Ramesh, the patient.
“Even though you have to put in a lot of hours and a lot of hard work for it … there’s obviously things that motivate me throughout the semester, like going to clinic and seeing patients,” Ramesh says. “I think about what my end goal is.”
Ramesh traces his initial interest in the biomedical field back to Project Lead the Way engineering classes offered through Edina Public Schools and a longtime affinity for biology and healthcare. In 2019, Ramesh was awarded the Connecting With Kids Leadership Award for volunteering for more than 800 hours at a hospital.
When looking at colleges, he says, “I thought, why not be an engineer and a doctor? … There are not a lot of people who are both, and it’s a really, really cool space.” Ramesh plans to attend medical school after he graduates with his engineering degree.
Ramesh has been conducting research since freshman year in a radiation oncology lab, and he has played a role in two papers which are soon to be published. The first explores the effectiveness of using high-powered X-rays as opposed to radioactive material in cancer treatment. The second examines the radiation-enhancing effect of inhibiting the expression of a mutated receptor to treat lung cancer patients. This year, he also presented research at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.
This past summer, Ramesh built on his engineering experience by interning at Boston Scientific. He also returned to volunteering at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital. “After COVID-19 shut [volunteering] down, I was bummed because I never really got to ease out of it,” Ramesh says. “I’m working with a lot of really good people and getting a lot of really good experience.”
Contributed by Izzy Wagener on behalf of the Edina Community Foundation.
