I grew up in Amarillo, TX as a first-gen American and very eager nerd who had an early passion for science and social justice. I then moved to Cambridge, MA and got my undergraduate degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, where I first joined the Whited Research Lab studying axolotl limb regeneration. That work inspired my research interests, and I then came to Chicago in 2016 to earn my MD and PhD degrees at UIC. Clinically, my interests focus on reproductive and LGBTQ+ health, abortion access, and mental health, and I am deeply passionate about medical education and student advocacy. I have been a peer educator at UIC since 2017 and spent nearly all my life before that in some kind of teaching or tutoring role. My PhD research studied the role of the transcription factor NRF2 in diabetic wound healing using the non-electrophilic small molecule NRF2 activators ADJ-310 and PRL-295. Outside of work, I love food, travel, terrible puns, word games, everything in the New York Times Games app, live music, craft beer, exotic pets, and cold, gray, rainy days :)

Clinical Interests:

• LGBTQ+ Health
• Reproductive Health and Abortion Access
• Mental Health
• Medical Education

Honors/Awards:

• Gold Humanism Honor Society Inductee (2024)
• NIH F30 Fellowship Principal Investigator (2020-2024)
• UIC Chancellor's Student Service Award (2020)
• Harvard Stem Cell Institute Nada Anzak Memorial Award (2015)

Han C, Barakat M, DiPietro LA. Angiogenesis in Wound Repair: Too Much of a Good Thing?. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2022 Oct 3;14(10). doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a041225. Review. PubMed PMID: 35667793; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9524283.

Barakat M, DiPietro LA, Chen L. Limited Treatment Options for Diabetic Wounds: Barriers to Clinical Translation Despite Therapeutic Success in Murine Models. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle). 2021 Aug;10(8):436-460. doi: 10.1089/wound.2020.1254. Epub 2020 Dec 18. PubMed PMID: 33050829; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8236303.

Xu M, Sun J, Yu Y, Pang Q, Lin X, Barakat M, Lei R, Xu J. TM4SF1 involves in miR-1-3p/miR-214-5p-mediated inhibition of the migration and proliferation in keloid by regulating AKT/ERK signaling. Life Sci. 2020 Aug 1;254:117746. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2020.117746. Epub 2020 May 3. PubMed PMID: 32376266.

Okonkwo UA, Chen L, Ma D, Haywood VA, Barakat M, Urao N, DiPietro LA. Compromised angiogenesis and vascular Integrity in impaired diabetic wound healing. PLoS One. 2020;15(4):e0231962. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231962. eCollection 2020. PubMed PMID: 32324828; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7179900.

Shi J, Barakat M, Chen D, Chen L. Bicellular Tight Junctions and Wound Healing. Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Dec 4;19(12). doi: 10.3390/ijms19123862. Review. PubMed PMID: 30518037; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6321209.

Saltman AJ, Barakat M, Bryant DM, Brodovskaya A, Whited JL. DiI Perfusion as a Method for Vascular Visualization in Ambystoma mexicanum. J Vis Exp. 2017 Jun 16;(124). doi: 10.3791/55740. PubMed PMID: 28654050; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5608450.

B.A. Harvard University '16; M.D., Ph.D.
University of Illinois at Chicago '24