Tanya Roysam is headed to Canada this summer to broaden her research experiences as part of a Fulbright Canada program for students in the United States.

The second-year biomedical engineering student will work in François Jean’s lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as a Fulbright-MITACS Globalink scholar. She’s one of just 60 students selected for the program nationwide and one of two at Georgia Tech alongside computer science major Alice Ponte.

“This program stood out as a unique opportunity to broaden my perspectives — as a researcher, by exploring a field with which I'm not too well-acquainted, and as a person, by traveling to another country on my own and getting to know Canada's diverse culture,” Roysam said.

The Houston native is no stranger to a research lab. She has been working on computational systems biology projects with Melissa Kemp’s research group in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, most recently using image analysis to understand the metabolic features of pluripotent stem cells.

In Vancouver, Roysam will shift gears and focus on a project exploring antiviral drugs designed to be effective against a broad range of viruses, like Zika and the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. She will work to understand the molecular mechanisms of such broad-spectrum drugs using stem-cell derived brain organoids.

The Fulbright Canada MITACS Globalink program matches undergraduates with researchers across Canada for a 10- to 12-week research experience. Students also participate in professional development opportunities and are encouraged to explore cultural and recreational experiences.