NREF Success Story:
Aditya Mittal
Aditya Mittal, from the University of Pittsburgh, received the 2022 NREF Medical Student Summer Research Fellowship to develop a blood test for cerebral aneurysm detection.
In the past two years, Adi and his mentor, Kamil Nowicki, MD, PhD, have been recognized by national institutions and received substantial additional funding.
They have won over $500,000 in funding, including an NSF SBIR phase I grant for $275,000 on which Adi serves as the PI. Most recently, they were awarded a grant from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation in support of our research.
Adi is a co-inventor on two patents related to the blood test they have developed, and he has started a company, along with other faculty from the Department of Neurosurgery at UPMC, called Astria Biosciences, Inc.
His mentor Kamil Nowicki, MD, PhD, won the Academy Award from the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons, and Adi won 1st place in the national Collegiate Inventors Competition and the members choice award from the National Academy of Inventors.
Adi and Dr. Nowicki are now starting the regulatory process with the FDA to bring this test from the bench to the bedside.
The University of Pittsburgh published more information about their achievements here.
Adi shared his story with us to say thank you to the NREF for their support of this project, and to say, “Without NREF, none of these achievements would have been possible!”