2004 Manhasset grad becomes engineer

JASON SCOTT PELLEGRINO

THEN
Age: 17
Year Graduated: 2004 Manhasset High School
What's Ahead: Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. He's not sure of his major, but he's considering becoming a biomedical engineer.

NOW
Age: 24
Current residence: Manhasset
Education: Bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering, MIT, 2008.
Occupation: R&D engineer, Pall Corp.

Soon after graduating in 2008 from MIT, Pellegrino got a job in the pharmaceuticals division of Port Washington-based filtration firm Pall Corp.

A Plandome Fire Department volunteer since 2008, he’s now going for a master’s degree in material science and engineering at Stony Brook University. He will likely roll up that work into a PhD.

Pellegrino, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes in his freshman year of high school, won multiple scholarships for, among other efforts, research into finding a cure for the disease.

He kept at it during college, participating in clinical trials at a Harvard-affiliated lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. The lab was testing the efficacy of a drug already approved for tuberculosis that researchers hope could also be used for Type I diabetes.

Pellegrino, who also worked at the lab, still keeps in touch with the group -- in part because he’s apparently an ideal candidate for the research.

“They call me back because they like my blood,” he said. “They are getting good results.”

As part of his master’s program, Pellegrino is working on a thesis related to the treatment of brain aneurysms.