Ali, Falade, Usman selected for mentoring program

Bashir Ali, Omolara Falade and Olalekan Usman have been selected to participate in the Scientist Mentoring & Diversity Program for Biotechnology, or SMDP. The program pairs ethnically diverse students and early career researchers with industry mentors in the medical technology, biotechnology and consumer healthcare industries for one year.

Ali is a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He performs research in Assistant Professor Brooke Gardner’s laboratory on the function of substrate binding domains of the enzyme peroxisomal biogenesis factor 1 and factor 6 in peroxisome biogenesis. In 2020, he won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Falade is a graduate student at Texas A&M University pursuing her Doctor of Pharmacy degree. She is also an AbbVie EMERGE Program Scholar and completed an internship with the Federal Drug Administration in 2024.

Usman is a graduate student at Florida State University. He is studying the mechanobiology of cancer progression with Assistant Professor Jerome Irianto at FSU. In 2023, Usman completed an internship with Eli Lilly and Company.