Gitika Gorthi is the Founder and CEO of IgnitedThinkers, a non-profit organization she founded in the 8th-grade to spread space education by informing, inspiring, and igniting the passions of students in aerospace across the world.Website: www.ignitedthinkers.org

I am currently a student researcher at the Timothy C Wang Laboratory focusing on investigations surrounding the molecular mechanisms of gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. Working under Principal Investigator Dr. Timothy Wang (Chief of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, Silberberg Professor of Medicine and a member of the Irving Cancer Research Center) and Dr. Yosuke Ochiai (MD, PhD: Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine Digestive & Liver Diseases), I specifically work on testing potential drug treatments to combat the negative effects induced by radiotherapy when treating colon cancer with the use of gastrointestinal tract organoid models.Learn more about the lab's groundbreaking research at https://timothycwanglab.org/.

I am a former student researcher at the Kuo Lab in Columbia Medical School Research Center, where I studied the role of the cerebellum in ataxia/tremor. Using brain-pathology, preclinical-models using Mus musculus, human physiology, and stem-cell-derived human neurons, I worked with lab-members to understand the disease mechanisms of ataxia/tremor, as well as the best potential treatments. My specific role at the lab is collecting experimental data by capturing ​​microscopic images of areas with high-areas of affected puncta in the cerebellum, utilizing MatLab to analyze the collected data on the effectiveness of the different ataxia/tremor treatments on the Mus musculus, conducting behavior analysis tests on the mice, and performing mice perfusions.Learn more about the lab's incredible work at https://www.thekuolab.org/.

I was selected as one of the five interns in the Multidisciplinary Engineering and Renal Research for Innovation of Technology (MERRIT) Fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City in the summer of 2024. For my research work, I was awarded the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program 2024 Summer Enhancement Fellowship scholarship award.The internship program’s goal is to create solutions for people who suffer from kidney disease by connecting engineering students to the top talent in the field of nephrology, effectively preparing them with the knowledge to make meaningful treatment contributions. Supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the National Institutes of Health, this fellowship opportunity brings together nephrology researchers and engineering educators to teach skills needed to eradicate kidney disease.From providing mentorship to patient-centered design teams, fully funded individual summer research projects, digital educational content, weekly medical research didactic sessions, and the opportunity to present their findings at the MERRIT Research Symposium to Icahn Mount Sinai’s Department of Medicine faculty, the MERRIT Fellowship serves as a research and education pipeline for engineering students to study the development of new technologies for clinical applications.The goal of my research is to generate glomerular spheroids using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC-)derived podocytes and endothelial cells. While models of kidney organoids currently exist, the heterogeneity and complexity of the cell populations makes it a less suitable model for studying glomeruli-specific pathogenesis or drug responses. The spheroids generated will be cultured on a spheroid chip platform under control flow to improve vascularization and further employed for nephrotoxicity screening and basic science studies.Learn more at https://icahn.mssm.edu/education/non-degree/merrit.

I was named a Sandy Williams Alumni Legacy Scholar. I was selected to represent the 2022 Coca-Cola Scholar Cohort on the Coca-Cola Foundation's Alumni Board as nominated and selected by my fellow 2022 Coca-Cola Scholars and Mr. Sandy Williams, Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Directors for 14 years and President of Corinth Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Mississippi.My current role as part of the alumni board focuses on building the Coca-Cola Scholars network, branding, engagement, and programming.Learn more at https://connect.coca-colascholars.org/swals/overview.

I was selected to be an intern at The Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine at Harvard Medical School under Dr. Martin Pollak, the Chief Nephrologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, summer of 2023.The program includes a core curriculum that addresses the basic science and clinical fundamentals of kidney physiology and pathophysiology as well as challenges in the field. In addition, the program features several opportunities to put these lessons into action. Students will shadow a nephrologist in the clinic and will visit a dialysis unit, participate in a screening for kidney disease in the community, work with world-class investigators at HMS, experience how kidney disease affects lives through a unique clinical experience, attend weekly core curriculum sessions which will introduce the functions and dysfunctions of the kidney. and attend an all-expense paid trip to a national symposium to present their research.I developed induced pluripotent stem cell cultures and kidney organoids to understand the disease mechanism of chronic kidney diseases in relation to mutations in the gene encoding TRPC6 (transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily C, member 6). TRPC6 mutations have been linked to the development of familial forms of nephrosis, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, diabetic nephropathy, immune-mediated kidney diseases, and renal fibrosis.Learn more at https://hskp.bwh.harvard.edu/.

The Hines Family Foundation uses space missions and technologies to help students advance their 21st-century career capabilities by learning how to dream, design, and do. I, as a Student STEM Pathway Outreach Ambassador, work with the Hines Family Foundation to spread STEAM education to all students in various equitable tools. Most recently, I worked with them as a Youth-Lead for a Yeast Cell Culture experiment that is being sent on a SpaceX launch; now we are in the process of creating biomodule kits for students to access a similar experiment right from their homes!

I am a student researcher under Dr. Seetha Raghavan, a professor at the University of Central Florida, where I am doing research on the Calcium–magnesium–alumino-silicate particles that infiltrate yttria-stabilized zirconia thermal barrier coatings in wind turbines using x-ray phase analysis and Raman spectroscopy.Additionally, I am a collaborator on a space engine that will be an incubator for new technologies, an attractor of new startups to the region, a training ground for the Space Workforce, and an advocate for space outreach. Under a team led by Professor Mary McCay from Florida Tech and representation from multiple Florida universities and industry partners, we are hoping to accelerate technologies for In-Space Manufacturing. The team is working through the Regional Innovation Engines effort, an initiative under the National Science Foundation.

I am a student researcher under Brown University faculty member Dr. Prasanta Pal, where I help write grant proposals and am working on bringing new medical imaging technology to the market through a start-up, Ultrababy.

I was appointed to be a part of the select Girl Scouts representing the Girl Scout program in the USA and the millions of Girl Scout members, conducting research to amplify girl voices by considering topics such as equity and inclusivity, and continuously bettering the Girl Scout program.

I was appointed as one of the two teen board of directors of the Girl Scouts Nation's Capital to represent the thousands of Girl Scouts voices in Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, and bring greater diversity and equity to the current program.

I am the former Vice Chair of the Children's Science Center Youth Advisory Board, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and interactive museum where children, families and school groups can explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts through fun, engaging hands-on exhibits, activities and programs. We serve over 70,000 visitors a year at the Children’s Science Center Lab at Fair Oaks Mall and through our community programs delivered to schools, libraries and STEM festivals across Northern Virginia.

I was appointed to represent 185,000 students across Fairfax County Public Schools to develop a more equitable, accessible, inclusive, and diverse Career and Technical Education program in Fairfax County Public Schools.

I used to develop fun and engaging space education programs to inspire and motivate elementary school-level girls to pursue careers in the STEM industry for Rosie Riveters. Rosie Riveters provides a fun space for girls ages 4-14 to imagine, create and play while developing their skills in STEM.Rosie Riveters and IgnitedThinkers are currently still collaborators in spreading STEM education to under-represented communities.

Selected to be an intern at NASA Ames Center in the GeneLab Center. As an intern, I will be immersing myself in NASA space biology research, omics-based research, bioinformatics and computational biology methods, techniques to analyze omics data, and applications of the bioinformatics analyses to NASA Space Biology science. Additionally, I will be a part of a research team to propose an experiment on the ISS from analysis of data from the GeneLab Data Repository.