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Arianna McCarty

���������� Boulder student Arianna McCarty has been awarded the prestigious . McCarty, a senior studying chemical and biological engineering, is the fourth ���������� Boulder student chosen for this honor in the university’s history, with the most recent recipient selected in 2010.

The Churchill Scholarship was formed in partnership with Cambridge University to strengthen the scientific community’s relations between England and the United States. Up to 18 scholars are chosen each year for this highly selective, rigorous program, based on their scientific endeavors and academic achievement.

The scholarship includes one year of master’s study at Cambridge University in science, mathematics, engineering and science policy.

McCarty is an accomplished student, tacking this impressive scholarship on to a list of achievements this academic year alone. In addition to being a Boettcher Scholar, McCarty received the Goldwater Scholarship and Astronaut Scholarship in 2025.

Her journey with ���������� Boulder began while still a high school student in Lafayette, Colorado, when she explored computational genomics in the Layer Lab as part of the BioFrontiers Institute. Then, McCarty transitioned to researching how "certain bacteria native to our airways can actually help protect against respiratory infections" at the Clark Lab on the ���������� Anschutz campus. Most recently, McCarty joined the Burdick Lab, where she “engineers heart tissues to model focal cardiac fibrosis, a type of cardiac scarring that occurs after heart attacks and has no approved therapeutics, enabling high-throughput drug discovery.”

Learn more about McCarty, her academic journey and the people who have shaped her experience.

What inspired you to pursue an academic career in STEM?

I was originally drawn to medical school, driven by a desire to directly impact patients’ lives. However, after working in both clinical and laboratory settings, I became acutely aware of the disconnect between the two. Clinicians often lack access to cutting-edge research that could transform patient care, while researchers sometimes pursue questions disconnected from real clinical needs. I felt that I could ultimately impact more lives by bridging this gap through translational research, ensuring that scientific innovation is truly informed by what patients need and that promising discoveries actually make it to the clinic. This realization shifted my focus toward academia, where I aim to dedicate my career to developing effective regenerative therapies that could transform outcomes for millions of patients.

Long term, what do you hope to achieve with your research?

I aim to work at the intersection of tissue engineering, immunology and systems biology to address wound healing throughout the body, from diabetic ulcers to cardiac scarring. As a professor at an R1 research institution, I want to delve into how cells communicate, how the immune system responds and how microbes influence healing to answer the fundamental questions of why regeneration succeeds or fails. By combining traditional wet lab research with computational sequencing techniques, I aim to not only understand these biological interactions but engineer interventions to induce tissue regeneration in the clinic.

What are you looking forward to studying while at Cambridge?

I’m thrilled to be pursuing an MPhil (Master of Philosophy) in Biological Science by Thesis at the as part of the Behjati lab. There, I’ll have the opportunity to investigate how immune and blood cell populations develop during adolescence. Using cutting-edge single-cell and whole genome sequencing techniques on patient bone marrow samples, I’ll work towards filling a major gap in our understanding of how our immune systems mature, which has implications for diagnosing childhood blood disorders such as leukemia as well as improving lifelong immune health. Beyond the research itself, I am particularly excited to be joining Sanger’s bold intellectual community, where collaboration and a shared commitment to discovery drive groundbreaking science.

Over the course of your academic career, you have been the recipient of several honors and achievements. What is the driving factor behind your success?

Arianna with her brother, Bryan

I don’t believe there’s any single driving factor behind my success; it’s a combination of many things and, frankly, a lot of luck. That said, two elements stand out: intrinsic motivation and grit. Lasting success requires being motivated by genuine passion and curiosity rather than external validation or competition. For me, a profound fascination with complex biological systems and a drive to translate research into meaningful clinical impact carries me through late nights and failed experiments. However, passion without discipline results in unrealized potential. Success also requires relentlessness – being willing to tackle tedious work, finding creative approaches when standard methods fail and pushing through repeated setbacks. Intelligence alone, no matter how exceptional, doesn’t produce results without the willingness to sustain effort over time.

Is there anyone you would like to thank or acknowledge in your achievement?

None of this would have been possible without the incredible mentors who have shaped my research journey. I’m profoundly grateful to Drs. Sarah Clark, Jason Burdick and Ryan Layer; each of these mentors has invested countless hours in my growth and development as a researcher and left an invaluable mark on my career. Beyond the lab, my deepest gratitude goes to my brother, Bryan McCarty, and my sister-in-law, Dr. Jessica Stelzel. I’d like to thank them for celebrating victories with me, talking me through setbacks and providing me perspective on life’s uncertainties.