Kara Spiller has recently been awarded the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award. This award is designed to recognize outstanding achievements by members of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) who is in the early stages of a career in regenerative medicine. The award consists of a certificate, a $2,500 cash prize and recognition at the 2009 TERMIS World Congress.

Kara's thesis project is entitled "Semi-degradable, multi-functional hydrogels for the repair of cartilage defects." She has continued her thesis work as an NSF Fellow in the Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Lab, under the advisement of Dr. Anthony Lowman.

Following TERMIS-WC, Kara will continue on to the Shanghai Key Tissue Engineering Laboratory, under the advisement of Drs. Yilin Cao and Wei Liu, to complete the capstone project of her research as part of the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Program.