From Drug Delivery Research to Pharmacy School

Mohammed Bazrouk, Verrazano Class of 2018, earned a degree in Biology with a concentration in Health Science, and minors in Chemistry and Biochemistry.


My first year of college with the Verrazano School was exciting and very active between VELA’s, community service and other events for Verrazzanish students to attend. I was trying to find my inspiration in life by educating myself in different topics. My social and loving nature lead me to the field of medicine. I began taking classes in the basic core but I come to find I really enjoyed my biology courses. At the start of my second year I chose a major in Biology with a minor in biochemistry and chemistry. It was safe to say I would be pursuing a career in the sciences. Many of my peers worked in laboratories as research assistants and I always found their new and interesting discoveries to be really insightful and progressive. I thought that if my friends were capable of such outstanding work and then I should be able to part take in research that not only helps other people but can be used in practical medical applications. So I started research in an all-green (!) lab run by Dr. Krishnaswami Raja. This lab was perfect for me because the lab used only biologically safe materials that can be found in everyday life like curcumin and other plants to make protein polymers for the objective of drug delivery. My capstone project has been a string of experiments over the span of three years. 

Mohammed presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

I was hopeful with the help of my mentor Andrew Mancuso that we could attain valuable results that would someday be able to help the community with treatment of diseases like cancer. The importance of a mentor cannot be understated when going through the learning process of bench top research. The beginning of research was a little bit of a bumpy ride and results weren’t be achieved as expected. However I learned that you need to have a lot of patience because nothing is easy! But through hard work you can achieve anything. This is exactly what I did but volunteering several hours in the lab each week. One important lesson I learned is when doing the research we are striving to change the world one slow step at a time and there will always be road bumps. One of my favorite activities during my polymer protein research is the ability to place my work under a microscope and be able to tell the exact shape size and morphology of the particles. This was by far my favorite part of volunteering my research hours because when you look under the microscope you can see all of your hard work revealed in front of you. My research deals with creating a drug delivery system that will hopefully be used in chemotherapy one day to attack cancer tumors at the site of proliferation. 

I am really proud of what I’ve been able to do given the time and classes during my undergraduate program. Along the road I met many friends that have been like family to me and have inspired me to keep pursuing my interests as I further my career. Next semester I will be attending a graduate pharmacy program right here in Brooklyn at the Long Island University of Pharmacy. Hopefully I will be able to bring my acquired skill with me to a research lab in my graduate program.