Newsletter 8 10 13 Fall 2016 Physical Sciences Oncology New Faculty Ilana Brito: Summer Immersion Term BMECenter Aims to Understand Studying Mobile Genes in the Connects Ph.D. Students with and Control Breast Cancer Human Microbiome Clinical Medicine

ENGINEERING LIVING SYSTEMS: THE MEINIG SCHOOL UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR TAKES OFF PAGE 4 BME MESSAGE

program development. Our inaugural undergraduate curriculum. The NIH MESSAGE FROM class of majors, the Class of 2018, was support for our Ph.D. immersion term THE DIRECTOR: positioned to fulfill the BME affiliation at Weill Cornell was renewed this requirements when the major was summer through the leadership of MARJOLEIN C.H. first announced in August 2015, and Professor Yi Wang and the Department brought 19 majors who affiliated and of Radiology (see pg. 13 for a program VAN DER MEULEN began their coursework in January overview). Building on prior success 2016. Last year’s freshmen, the Class with high school educators, we will In 2015-16, of 2019 and now sophomores, were soon be initiating a NYS Department after the Meinig admitted prior to the B.S. degree of Health-funded Teacher-Scientist family naming approval, but are expected to be nearly Partnership in stem cell biology. gift and New double the size of the first group. These large efforts all provide unique York state The current freshmen, Class of 2020, experiences for our graduate trainees. approval of our chose Cornell with the BME major We are excited to expand our undergraduate in place and are expected to have faculty this year with unique expertise major in the healthy interest in the major. This that nicely complements our current prior year, we growth rate is ideal as we stage our research areas. This summer we focused on curriculum. Ryan Sauvé joined the staff welcomed Ilana Brito who joined us as moving BME last fall as our inaugural undergraduate an assistant professor after her tenure forward into a new era at Cornell. coordinator and has been getting to as a postdoc at MIT. Ilana brings an Once the BME major was know our majors (meet Sauvé on pg. 6). exciting area of microbiome research approved, the next critical task was One incredible statistic I’d like to the school and curriculum. Next implementing the undergraduate to highlight is the diversity of our summer we look forward to welcoming program. Professor Jonathan Butcher, incoming classes. Current and prior Mert Sabuncu to the faculty as an our Associate Director and Director freshman College of Engineering assistant professor in Electrical and of Undergraduate Studies, continues classes are 48% female. In BME, we Computer Engineering, with a 25% to provide outstanding vision for are thrilled to contribute our share to appointment in BME. Mert’s expertise the major. Now that the sophomore improving diversity representation, in biomedical imaging applied to the year classes have been developed with our first class of majors brain will contribute unique insights and taught, our focus is on the comprised of 75% females and greater to the newly established Cornell junior year courses, including a new than 20% from underrepresented Neurotech program. With an ongoing instrumentation lab required of all minorities. Indeed, our commitment search for the McAdam Professor of majors. After this fall, all majors will to diversity is evidenced not only by Heart Assist Technology and a junior have completed the initial courses in the numbers but also in the form of faculty search being initiated this fall, each concentration, allowing them to awards recently bestowed upon our we look forward to adding two new focus on their concentration electives faculty and staff; Associate Professor faculty to our team in the coming year. in the spring. For more detail on the Cynthia Reinhart-King was awarded We are fortunate to congratulate undergraduate program, see our the Zellman Warhaft Diversity Award faculty member Newton de Faria as one feature article on pg. 4. last year for her efforts to increase of the first professors of practice in the Welcoming BME-focused participation of underrepresented College of Engineering, which recently undergraduate students into the fold students in engineering, and this year established this new academic title. has been an exciting and fulfilling our Graduate Coordinator Belinda Newton initially joined us a year ago as a Floyd received a Diversity Programs in lecturer after a 20-year career at National Engineering (DPE) Award. Instruments. He leads the Master of THE BME MISSION Our faculty continue to have Engineering (M.Eng.) program, which o educate students to under- a strong interest in pedagogy and had several key individuals recently stand the human body as an in- training experiences for our graduate retire. Newton has brought tremendous T tegrated system and the mech- students. We received a Department energy, insight, and new ideas to the anisms of disease through quantitative of Education Graduate Assistance in M.Eng. program, which you can read engineering analysis, and to use that Areas of National Need (GAANN) more about on pg. 7. understanding to design better thera- award that will train our graduate Among our current faculty we peutic strategies, devices, and diagnos- students to be outstanding educators have had lots of good news, as featured tics to improve human health. through teaching experiences in the in this newsletter (pg. 16), and a few

2 | BME Newsletter items that I’d like to highlight here: are welcome, and we hope you will Professor Claudia Fischbach-Teschl share your own good news with us. As CORNELL BME is leading the recently announced NIH- always, please reach out if you or your funded Center on the Physics of Cancer family are back on campus. NEWSLETTER is published once a year by the Metabolism. This Physical Sciences- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering Oncology Center will span the Ithaca Sincerely, at Cornell University. and Weill Cornell Medicine campuses to advance our understanding of the Director: regulation of tumor metastasis and Marjolein van der Meulen function (read more about the center on pg. 8). Marjolein C.H. van der Meulen Managing Editor: In March Professor Chris Schaffer James M. and Marsha McCormick Nozomi Nishimura was elected to a three-year term as Director of Biomedical Engineering the Associate Dean of the Faculty. Swanson Professor of Biomedical Production Editor: This position follows on Chris’s prior Engineering Kathryn Henion involvement with the Faculty Senate and University Faculty Committee. We Photography by: Sarah Nickerson, look forward to his contributions to Cornell University Photography faculty governance at Cornell. Robyn Wishna, Frank Di Meo Please read further to get the full scope of the Meinig School faculty, staff, student, and alumni ABOUT accomplishments in the past year. THE COVER Cornell University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action Beyond the newsletter, our webpage Undergraduate BME majors in the educator and employer. and social media sites are continually BME 3020 lab updated. Your thoughts and feedback

Andrew Firlik Buddy Ratner 2016 Foundation Medical Partners University of Washington ADVISORY David Fischell Beckie Robertson COUNCIL Angel Medical Systems Versant Ventures Matthew Jenusaitis George Truskey David Anderson OCTANe Duke University Orteq Sports Medicine Steven M. Klosk Bruce Tromberg William Bentley Cambrex Corporation University of California, Irvine University of Maryland Deborah Leckband Craig Wheeler Albert Di Rienzo University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign Momenta Pharmaceuticals Radicle Innovation, LLC Gloria Matthews Kenneth Diller Histogenics University of Texas—Austin EX OFFICIO MEMBERS: Larry McIntire James McCormick Fred Dinger III Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory First Manhattan Consulting Group Aerin Medical, Inc. University Peter Meinig Avram Edidin Donald Morel HM International, LLC Relievant, Inc. West Pharmaceutical Services David Farrar Rich Newman Thoratec Corporation Syracuse University

3 | BME Newsletter FEATURE: NEW BME UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

FROM ATOMS TO ORGANS: UNDERGRADUATE BME MAJOR UNDERWAY

Shivaun Archer, the John and Janet Swanson Senior Lecturer (far right), with undergraduate students in the BME 3020 laboratory workspace. The 2015-16 academic year progressive pedagogical features that levels, and (2) a concentration module of was a transformative one for distinguish this program from parallel interdisciplinary engineering skills that biomedical engineering at programs at peer institutions. First is its fit key biomedical engineering career Cornell, with a $50 million areas: molecular, cellular, and systems gift from the Meinig Family A COMMITMENT TO engineering; biomaterials and drug delivery, Tcoming alongside N.Y. state approval biomedical imaging and instrumentation; DIVERSTIY: INCOMING to offer a four-year Bachelor of Science BME MAJORS ARE and biomechanics and mechanobiology. (B.S.) degree in the summer of 2015. The Each concentration module culminates in department was upgraded and renamed, 75% FEMALE, 20% a unique laboratory practicum in which and in January 2016 the Meinig School UNDERREPRESENTED students gain real-world, practical expertise of Biomedical Engineering welcomed 19 MINORITIES working with the latest technologies affiliated sophomores to the inaugural class and processes in their chosen specialty. of BME majors. While at first glance the curricular platform, designed to develop a This schedule, says Jonathan Butcher, program may seem to be ramping up, in quantitative understanding of the human associate professor, associate director fact the idea for an undergraduate major body as integrated, multi-scale systems. of BME, and director of undergraduate in biomedical engineering has been over To establish this knowledge base, students studies, “encompasses the variability and ten years in the making. And with focused pursue two parallel curricular streams: (1) uncertainty of disease mechanisms that program planning by Cornell’s faculty a sequential series of four core laboratory- initiate and propagate across various scales, leadership in the past two years, the Meinig supported courses that present engineering providing a strong platform from which School B.S. in biomedical engineering (as analysis of disease mechanisms at students learn to engineer robust therapies, well as its majors) are indeed ready to fly. molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ system devices, and diagnostic procedures to Of particular note are the several improve human health.”

4 | BME Newsletter Additionally, in their final year, all from Cornell’s Office of Engagement with these BME students pursue a year-long design Initiatives. All BME majors embark on unpredictable, sequence ideating and building solutions extracurricular, long-term, student-driven real-world to real-world, open-ended problems from projects, and participate in experiential situations the biomedical industry and the clinic. learning seminars designed to connect provides These team-based projects are designed coursework with real-world experience. continually to reflect the irreducible working units in They choose from a variety of individual varying today’s biomedical industry. Students are and team-based opportunities such as engineering trained to recognize where and how to serving as research assistants in faculty contexts and add value to a product, and then to utilize laboratories, participating in design develops their complementary team projects, students’ skills to innovate a “A SIGNATURE OF THE or engaging capacity to solution confidently. MAJOR CURRICULUM in community adapt to an “This environment outreach. Flexibility uncertain IS AN EMPHASIS creates essential in their project and changing A BME undergraduate student training in professional ON EXPERIENTIAL choices means professional pipetting samples in the BME skills necessary for LEARNING, DESIGNED students can build biomedical 3020 lab. long-term career TO CONNECT knowledge specific terrain. progression,” says to their own Within seminars and in more Butcher. Students can COURSEWORK interests and career traditional courses, the curriculum further broaden their WITH REAL-WORLD goals. In addition to incorporates exercises that blend material education by pursuing EXPERIENCE” a richer experience from lectures, textbooks, and the student’s tailored course paths —Jonathan Butcher, Director of for students, this real world experiences. In this way, within Cornell’s Undergraduate Studies program also builds students take engineering concepts from renowned liberal arts direct ties between the classroom into the communities tradition, including the Meinig School within which they work; in other words, pre-medicine, public policy, study abroad, and various community members as they put theory into practice, and bring and entrepreneurship. diverse as local hospitals, the public, and practice into discussions of theory. The Another unique program feature industry. Juxtaposition of coursework experiential learning seminar also provides is its “flipped curriculum” (continued next page) whereby students first explore the applications landscape before digging into intellectual and technical UNDERGRADUATE PROFILE: content. “Traditionally, JORDAN HARROD content is presented the other ordan Harrod hails from Montclair, N.J., and way around,” says Professor is excited to be a part of Cornell’s first class of Lawrence Bonassar, who was undergraduate BME students. Cornell didn’t have integrally involved in designing J a biomedical engineering undergraduate major when the major's program with Harrod arrived on campus in 2014 as a freshman, but Butcher. This unique twist, he that didn’t stop her from getting involved. She’s worked says, “primes students with the on research in both the Bonassar (BME) and the Estroff challenges and opportunities (MSE) groups since her freshman year. “It has been inherent to biomedical amazing,” says Harrod, “to see how the research that engineering so that they I work on connects back to the classes that I now have are motivated to pursue the the opportunity to take.” Harrod has also been happily necessary deeper expertise to surprised to develop her research interests further meet those needs.” through classes that focus on skills and topics that do not relate to her research (specifically, A highlight of the Meinig biomedical signals and systems with Professor Steven Adie), alerting her to additional School major's curriculum is research topics for graduate studies. Harrod looks forward to the opportunity to work with an emphasis on experiential other professors in the Meinig School, and to the skills she will gain through the experiential learning, facilitated by an learning classes she has yet to take. Engaged Curriculum Grant

5 | BME Newsletter FEATURE: NEW BME UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

complimentary training in soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and leadership. As an example, BME MEET UNDERGRADUATE has partnered with Poppy Mcleod, associate professor in Cornell’s COORDINATOR RYAN SAUVÉ Department of Communication, to yan Sauvé grew up not too far from Ithaca assess and develop students’ teamwork Rin Solvay, N.Y. After earning B.S. and M.A.T skills and to guide them in how to degrees from Northeastern University in Boston, apply these skills to their real-world Mass., he worked doing professional development and class projects. for math and science educators, expanding the With the curriculum in place program to direct STEM education outreach with and a stream of incoming freshman teachers, students, and schools. Prior to Cornell, interested in BME, the Meinig School’s Ryan was at the University of Houston providing future looks bright. “We expect healthy academic scholarships and support to STEM majors. growth for the BME majors program in the next few years,” confirms Sauvé is glad to be back in upstate New York and Marjolein van der Meulen, the James at the Meinig School as undergraduate coordinator M. and Marsha McCormick Director of for the new major in biomedical engineering. He “I LOVE THE Biomedical Engineering and Swanson serves as both an academic and personal resource COMMUNITY FEEL Professor of Biomedical Engineering for students. Whether it’s helping a student plan AT CORNELL BME” at the Meinig School. “This is due in out their schedule, connecting them with research part to a global need for qualified BME opportunities, or providing a space to vent, his door is always open! His goal is to engineers in industries from healthcare help make the path through the BME degree as smooth and rewarding as possible. and pharmaceuticals to medical devices and consulting, but also because of the Sauvé's favorite thing about Cornell is its community; both the university as a whole, strength of our program vision and as well as at the Meinig School. “It’s a great feeling to come in every day and see our faculty.” Within this growth, the so many hard working students, faculty and staff, all supporting each other and program is thrilled to see increasing working towards the same goals.” diversity. In 2015, 75% percent of affiliating BME majors were women Besides being the proud (and often tired) father of a four-year-old boy and two-year- and 20% were underrepresented old girl, he is proud of having survived six summers of Texas heat. Having been born minorities. Compared to the national and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., he sees this as quite an accomplishment. average for all undergraduate engineering students, which is 18% and 13% respectively (source: American Society for Engineering Education), these numbers demonstrate Cornell Engineering’s (and the Meinig School in particular) commitment to diversity in the STEM fields. Van der Meulen expects the program to double enrollment year- to-year, with a graduating class of around 80 by the time the first BME majors graduate in 2018. With all this curricular muscle behind them, Meinig School graduates are ideally positioned for careers or further education in the engineering and life science industries.

Jonathan Butcher (standing), associate professor, Meinig School associate director, and director of undergraduate studies, working with BME majors in the Experiental Learning Seminar.

6 | BME Newsletter BME M.ENG. 2.0

M.ENG.PROGRAM sponsors, as well as targeted placement UPDATE of students within teams addressing these projects. mproving Incoming upon students also something I benefit from already great another program is always a development challenge, supporting these but Newton design projects, that de Faria, the Professor of Practice Newton de Faria (blue hood) celebrates with graduating of a newly-enhanced Newton de Faria Meinig School’s biomedical M.Eng. students at the May 2016 ceremony. infrastructure professor of including the addition of multiple biomedical field. “By training students practice and Master of Engineering (M. collaborative environments including to understand and communicate their Eng.) program director, is focused on a student lounge, a design studio, dry acquired marketable skills,” says de Faria, just such a task. Specifically, in a quest to and wet laboratories, and a fabrication “they are best able to inform potential make the program the best of its kind, de laboratory. Each space is designed employers about the quality and value our Faria has been working this past year to specifically to catalyze team-building and M.Eng. graduates bring, enhancing the strengthen the program’s three P's: People creativity, as well as cross-fertilization student placement overall.” (incoming students), Process (program), of ideas. The program has also acquired With these improvements and more and Product (graduates). many different hardware and software to come, de Faria expects the program “We are not only looking for the technologies, such as high-performance will continue to meet and exceed its best and brightest,” de Faria says of the computers, multiple design-enabling goal to train and place students as improved processes for recruiting and software platforms, 3-D printers, a CNC professional biomedical engineers who selecting new students into the program, machine, a surface mounted electronic can both identify unmet clinical needs “but also for individuals with diverse circuit station, and many other tools for and apply that knowledge to invent, academic and cultural backgrounds who building prototype products. design, develop, and deploy innovative are capable of fulfilling the needs of a Finally, all of these improvements to medical technologies for the benefit of the broad and diverse healthcare industry.” the M.Eng. program at the Meinig School organizations they serve and humanity in Part of recruiting these top-level culminate in graduates with real-world general. individuals includes presenting them with problem-solving skills specific to the an engaging and inspiring curriculum. Center to the Meinig School’s M.Eng. program is a design project—typically sponsored by academic and clinical THE BME M.ENG. PROGRAM institutions. De Faria’s outreach efforts he Meinig School's Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) program focuses have focused on bringing in sponsors on engineering practice and design. Our goal is to prepare students for from industry, humanitarian, and T professional practice in BME For outstanding students who are interested in community outreach organizations. These entrepreneurship and engineering, Our M.Eng. students acquire a broad perspective projects offer students depth in learning of the biomedical engineering discipline that complements their undergraduate principles of sciences and engineering, training in engineering or science, and an in-depth knowledge of an essential as well as unparalleled opportunities to area in biomedical engineering. In addition to coursework, students complete a design products with real-world impact collaborative design project. and develop professional leadership skills. “The goal of the design project,” Graduates are equipped to design biomedical devices and develop therapeutic says de Faria, “is to provide students a strategies within the bounds of health care economics, the needs of patients and rich academic and professional exercise physicians, the regulatory environment for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, as well as deliver value to the project and stringent ethical standards of biomedical engineering practice. Our M.Eng. sponsors.” Improvements to this part of program incorporates industry-oriented training using a design-centric approach the program include streamlined processes to prepare students for a wide range of careers in medicine, academia, and industry for soliciting and selecting projects and from large pharmaceutical firms to entrepreneurial startups.

7 | BME Newsletter INTERCAMPUS COLLABORATION ON CANCER RESEARCH

GRANT LAUNCHES CENTER ON THE PHYSICS OF CANCER METABOLISM by Syl Kacapyr

Prof. Claudia Fischbach-Teschl (left) with Ph.D. students Peter DelNero and Young Hye Song in her Weill Hall Lab at the Meinig School.

he mechanisms controlling how and the University of California, San breakthroughs in the field, dovetails with breast cancer develops, spreads Francisco. The partnership will also foster Fischbach-Teschl’s acumen in engineering T to other parts of the body and collaborations across the Ithaca campus of cancer models to enable the team to responds to therapy remain poorly among researchers from the College of explore tumor development, progression understood, but researchers from Cornell Engineering, the College of Arts and and metastasis from a completely Engineering and Weill Cornell Medicine Sciences and the College of Veterinary new perspective. Complemented by hope to change that through the Center on Medicine. other investigators’ expertise in micro- the Physics of Cancer Metabolism—a new and nanofabrication, imaging and multi-institutional translational research “THE PHYSICAL computational approaches, they can unit to be established with a National SCIENTISTS IN ITHACA monitor and predict tumor metabolism Cancer Institute grant. ARE BRINGING and cell migration, and test drugs or other On Aug. 25 New York Senators TECHNOLOGIES THAT therapies in a patient-specific manner. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer DON’T EXIST HERE AT “The physical scientists in Ithaca are announced first-year funding for the WEILL CORNELL.” bringing technologies that don’t exist here center of $1.9 million. The grant could —Dr. Lewis Cantley, Weill at Weill Cornell,” Cantley said. total $9.3 million over five years. Cornell Medicine Fischbach-Teschl said teams in Ithaca Led by Claudia Fischbach-Teschl, will also benefit from access to patient The goal of the center is to combine associate professor of biomedical samples and clinical knowledge that will the strengths of different interdisciplinary engineering at Cornell University, and be provided by Weill Cornell Medicine research groups to gain unprecedented Dr. Lewis Cantley, the Meyer Director of and other partners. The ultimate goal, understanding of the biological and the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer she said, is to develop new therapeutic physical mechanisms regulating how Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in approaches to breast cancer, and tumors function and metastasize, New York City, other partners include eventually other types such as prostate or spread, in the human body’s researchers from Memorial Sloan and pancreatic cancer. microenvironment. Kettering Cancer Center, the University “Doing validation studies with Cantley’s expertise in cancer of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center patient-derived cells is always the end goal metabolism, which has led to several

8 | BME Newsletter and we’ve done that, but we haven’t done it as extensively because the resources are not there,” Fischbach-Teschl added. The center will focus on three main research areas over the next five years: the mechanisms that regulate tumor metabolism and how obesity affects the process; how membrane-surrounded vesicles produced by tumor cells affect their behavior; and the physical and metabolic constraints influencing tumor cell migration. “DESPITE ADVANCES IN BREAST CANCER TREATMENT, METASTATIC DISEASE REMAINS INCURABLE. Endothelial cell-coated vessels embedded within microfluidic collagen scaffolds like this one will be used USING PHYSICAL at the center to look at the role of oxygen and nutrient transport in regulating cancer metabolism. SCIENCES APPROACHES MAY HELP US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND MORE ON CANCER RESEARCH THE UNDERLYING MECHANISMS.” espite advances in breast cancer treatment, metastatic disease remains —Claudia Fischbach-Teschl, incurable and is of particular concern in patients with triple negative breast Cornell Meinig School of BME D cancer. Both aberrant metabolic signaling and physical properties of the microenvironment have been independently defined as hallmarks of cancers, and The center will also provide an experimental evidence suggests that they may be functionally linked. opportunity for next-generation scientists to receive unique interdisciplinary Cell culture models are powerful tools in cancer research because they enable training, Fischbach-Teschl said. control over experimental parameters. In addition, culture models can be based on “Students and postdocs in Ithaca are patient samples, enabling rapid translation of basic science to the clinic. However, going to be trained in applying oncology traditional cell culture consisted of a thin layer of cells growing on a flat petri dish. principles to their engineering-focused This geometry and mechanical environment is so different from what is found in study of cancer, and clinical trainees in patients, so that these models do not behave the same as cancers in patients. The New York City are getting exposed to the current lack of physiologically relevant culture models that capture important technologies and ideas that we develop physical details prevents studying the specific mechanisms that link metabolic here,” she said. reprogramming, the physical microenvironment, and clinical outcomes of Patients will benefit in another way as malignancy. With the development of novel, three-dimensional models that more well: the inclusion of a patient advocacy accurately recreate the true environment of tumors, the Center on the Physics of component will link researchers directly Cancer Metabolism will study how the physical microenvironment can contribute to cancer patients and survivors to share to the reprogramming of cancer cell metabolism and vice versa. Understanding emerging information about the disease how cancer cells produce and use energy is vital to developing new therapies that with the people it is affecting. And adding can target tumors while minimizing the side effects on patients. In addition the the perspectives of patients will inform center will address how cancer cells can communicate with each other and normal research approaches, ultimately leading cells through the release of soluble signals and microvesicles carried in the fluids to a more complete understanding of the around cells. Such signals may render distant organs vulnerable to colonization by disease. migrating tumor cells, increasing metastasis and cancer malignancy. “There’s an opportunity to understand how to prevent metastasis In 2009, Cornell became one of the initial National Institutes of Health Physical from occurring, but even if we don’t cure Sciences Oncology Centers. This grant continues Cornell’s participation in this cancer, we’re going to learn a lot from each nation-wide network of investigators exploring the contribution of physical other,” Cantley said. sciences to cancer biology.

9 | BME Newsletter FACULTY RESEARCH

BRITO WENT TO FIJI TO STUDY MOBILE GENES IN HUMAN MICROBIOME by Tom Fleischman

ow far will sampled their water and identified who selective pressures that shape mobile gene a scientist touched livestock, and took samples from pools, and that acquisition of mobile genes H travel those livestock. is important for colonizing specific human in pursuit of She was also “basically going door to populations. answers? In the door, asking for stool samples,” she said For a gene to be transferred into case of Ilana Brito, with a laugh, eventually returning home someone’s microbiome, Brito said, the new assistant with more than 1,000 genetic samples. transporting microbe doesn’t even have to professor in the The group’s exhaustive research combined survive. Its genes can still be passed on and Meinig School of Ilana Brito both single-cell sequencing of nearly 200 integrated into another bacteria’s genome. Biomedical Engineering, the answer is: genomes derived from seven FijiCOMP one-third of the way around the globe. participants and metagenomics from all of Brito, the Mong Family the samples, to identify more than 22,000 HORIZONTAL Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in mobile genes. It required, to some extent, Biomedical Engineering, co-authored inventing as they went along. “About GENE a report with Massachusetts Institute 200 single cells, that’s quite a large study of Technology professor Eric Alm on by today’s standards,” Brito said. “The TRANSFER “mobile genes” and the role they play in technology to be able to do sequencing on acteria engage in a process of the human microbiome. Mobile genes are one cell is fairly new and required some gene sharing called horizontal genetic material that, unlike that passed new engineering on our part.” B gene transfer. Bacteria can pick from parent to child, moves between The Nature paper describes the new up genes from their environments or organisms by horizontal gene transfer. method that uniquely combines two from other bacteria to adapt to their In early 2011, Brito—then a approaches—shotgun metagenomic environments. Before Professor Brito’s postdoctoral researcher working in sequencing with single cell sequencing. study, it was not clear whether this Alm’s lab at MIT—traveled more than Her study uses a new method that she pool of mobile genes that bacteria could 8,000 miles from Boston to the South and colleagues at the Broad Institute sample from was uniform around the Pacific islands of Fiji to study remote, developed in which cells are encapsulated world or whether there were local isolated populations and compare the in a hydrogel matrix and isothermally flavors of genes that bacteria living mobile genes within the microbiomes to amplified in situ, improving the fidelity in those environments could sample those of people living in metropolitan of single-cell sequencing. By examining from. On one hand, horizontal gene North America. The information on these genomes, she determined which transfer can be an extremely efficient North Americans was gathered in 2008 genes were transferred between cells and way of transferring genes and in the in the Human Microbiome Project of the then looked into over 500 individuals’ cases of a few infamous genes, namely National Institutes of Health. microbiomes to determine who harbored ndm1, a carbapenem resistance gene The Brito group’s work, “Mobile this set of mobile genes. Her work and most recently a colistin-resistance genes in the human microbiome are uncovered tiered structure to the mobile gene, mcr-1, these genes have managed structured from global to individual gene pool, with some portion of genes to spread around the globe. Yet, other scales,” was published July 21 in Nature. capable of sweeping the globe, but others examples suggest that these pools of The study of 172 Fijian islanders— more local. Interestingly, these local pools mobile genes may be localized. In the called the Fiji Community Microbiome of mobile genes were reflective of different mouths of individuals who have had Project (FijiCOMP)—represents the first cultural practices, including diet and amalgam fillings, containing trace terabase-scale metagenomic view of the antibiotic use. amounts of mercury, the organisms microbiome in the developing world. Among their findings, the team have acquired mercury resistance Brito was in Fiji for six weeks, living with reported large differences in mobile genes. Similarly, in the guts of Japanese local families and conducting an extensive gene content between the Fijian and individuals, microbes can be found survey of villagers she met. She mapped North American microbiomes, with who have acquired genes from the out family trees and social networks, variations consistent with known dietary organisms living on the seaweed they noted what medications they took, and and behavioral differences between the are consuming that helps them degrade recorded exact locations of their homes populations. Those findings support the seaweed polysaccharides. and drinking water supplies. She also hypothesis that human activities provide

10 | BME Newsletter “It’s thought that that’s primarily questions, it has raised new the way antibiotic resistance spreads,” ones. “It has given us a lot she said. “Pathogens acquire resistance of preliminary data to chew from the microbiome. This is actually on and figure out the next a fundamental question that I want to steps,” she said. continue looking at in my lab.” Brito said that while the group’s years of research and study answered many

Read more: [1] “Mobile genes in the human microbiome are structured from global to individual scales,” Brito I.L., Yilmaz S., Huang K., Xu L., Jupiter S.D., Jenkins A.P., Naisilisili W., Tamminen M., Smillie C.S., Wortman J.R., Birren B.W., Xavier R.J., Blainey P.C., Singh A.K., Gevers D., Alm E.J. Nature. 2016 Jul 21;535(7612):435-9.

[2] “Virtual microfluidics for digital quantification and single-cell sequencing,” Xu L., Brito I.L., Alm E.J., Blainey P.C., Nat Methods. 2016 Sep;13(9):759-62. doi: 10.1038/ nmeth.3955. Epub 2016 Aug 1.

About the Research Image (right): Reference genomes from the Human Microbiome Project with close to 200 single-cell bacterial genomes from the FijiCOMP cohort from a diverse set of lineages, making this study one of the largest bacterial single-cell studies to date. They employed a novel sequencing approach they developed in which cells are encapsulated in hydrogel and amplified in situ [2]. These genomes could then be compared to identify a putative set of mobile genes. Adapted from [1].

WELCOME MERT SABUNCU

ert of pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease—the About the Research Image (below) Sabuncu phase of the disease where no symptoms The heritability of the shapes of neuroanatomical structures estimated using computational M will join have yet appeared and an intervention techniques developed by Mert Sabuncu and the Meinig School is likely to be successful. Most recently, colleagues. as an assistant as part of a BrightFocus grant, his work professor in July focused specifically on developing a 2017 with joint computer system to analyze brain MRIs appointments and saliva-derived DNA data to reliably in BME and determine risk of Alzheimer’s before ECE. Sabuncu Mert Sabuncu memory complaints begin. received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering In the coming year Sabuncu will from Princeton University, where his transition from a faculty position at the dissertation work focused on the image A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical processing problem of establishing spatial Imaging (Massachusetts General Hospital correspondence across multiple clinical and Harvard Medical School). As a new scans. He then moved to Massachusetts assistant professor at Cornell, his lab will Institute of Technology (MIT) to do a post- develop cutting-edge machine learning doc at the Computer Science and Artificial and probabilistic inference algorithms Intelligence Lab, where he continued to to analyze and exploit biomedical image work on algorithms for biomedical image data, together with other clinical data analysis. types such as genomics and electronic Sabuncu’s main research interests health records. lie in medical image analysis with an emphasis on neurology and neuroscience, Read more: computational imaging genetics, signal/ “Morphometricity as a measure of the neuroanatomical signature of a trait,” Sabuncu M., image processing, pattern recognition, Ge T., Holmes A.J., Smoller J.W., Buckner R., and and artificial intelligence. One area of Fischl B., Proceedings of the National Academy of particular interest is the characterization Sciences, USA. Epub 2016 Sep 9.

11 | BME Newsletter FACULTY RESEARCH

CANCER CELLS’ ABILITY TO SELF-REPAIR MAY SPAWN NEW TREATMENTS ByTom Fleischman

ecause they have narrow bodies “Most cells in the body stay in place, and and damage to the and no collarbones, mice are able it’s presumably mostly cancer cells that cell’s DNA. B to squeeze through holes as small are moving around. So if we can block “We’re as a quarter-inch in diameter. the mechanisms that allow them to repair still trying to Cancer cells similarly are able to themselves, then we potentially could find out if there migrate through extremely tight quarters target metastatic cancer cells.” are differences but with a major difference: The journey Lammerding began his work in this between cells, and often comes at a price—the deformation area while teaching at Harvard Medical a lot of what we and, in some cases, rupture of the outer School. Part of the reason he came to see is very similar Jan Lammmerding lining of a cell’s nucleus. Cornell in 2011, he said, was to take between normal A research group headed by Jan advantage of the fabrication capabilities cells and cancer cells,” he said, adding that Lammerding, associate professor of at the Cornell NanoScale Science and by trying to identify potentially unique biomedical engineering, has been studying Technology Facility, where the model deformation-and-repair properties of this phenomenon in hope of using it to environments used in the study were built. cancer cells, treatments that are minimally develop both treatment and diagnostic deleterious to healthy cells may be solutions for the millions of people who developed. deal with cancer every day. “Now that we kind of know what Lammerding’s group reports on we’re looking for, now that we know this research in a paper published in the the molecular pathways involved in journal Science. His group’s paper was the repair,” he said, “could we then being published simultaneously with specifically target invasive cancer cells research by a French group, which found and not have the sledgehammer that hits similar results in immune cells. everything?” While deformation and rupture can Other contributors to the paper, sometimes lead to apoptosis (cell death), “Nuclear envelope rupture and repair the cell also has the ability to repair itself. during cancer cell migration,” included: “I think most cell biologists would Rachel Gilbert, former undergraduate and probably say that these cells will not do master’s student in biological engineering; very well after deformation and rupture,” Alexandra McGregor, Cornell graduate said group member Philipp Isermann, a student in biomedical engineering; and visiting scholar in biomedical engineering. former postdoctoral fellow Patricia “And it was quite surprising that about 90 Davidson, now at the Institut Curie in percent of these ruptured cells survived.” Paris. The group was also assisted with Added post-doctoral researcher A live cell fluorescence microscopy image sequence in vitro and in vivo experimentation showing a cancer cell undergoing nuclear envelope Celine Denais: “You would think that, as rupture during migration through a constriction, by Katarina Wolf and Peter Friedl of with a balloon, at some point it will pop. visualized by green fluorescent protein spilling from Radboud University Medical Center in the We’ve been amazed with how these cells the nucleus into the cytoplasm. Netherlands. can handle this deformation.” “They work very well and have This work was supported by grants There is also the possibility that a become very popular,” he said. “Every from the National Institutes of Health, ruptured cell could mutate into a more time I go to a meeting and present this the Department of Defense Breast aggressive form of cancer. work, people come up to me and say, ‘Can Cancer Research Program, the National “You have so many migrating cells,” we get some of these models?’” Cancer Institute and the National Science Lammerding said, “that even if a small The group looked at two factors in the Foundation. fraction of them picks up a mutation, cell’s migration process: the rupturing of the Read more: that is bad because it means the cancer is nuclear envelope, which they tracked using “Nuclear envelope rupture and repair during evolving. green and red fluorescent proteins normally cancer cell migration.” Denais C.M., Gilbert R.M., “The good part is, this rupturing also Isermann P., McGregor A.L., te Lindert M., Weigelin localized to the cell nuclei, but that spill into B., Davidson P.M., Friedl P., Wolf K., Lammerding makes the cancer cell vulnerable,” he said. the cell body when the nucleus ruptures; J. Science: 352, Issue 6283, pp. 353-358 (2016).

12 | BME Newsletter PH.D. SUMMER IMMERSION

SUMMER IMMERSION TERM CONNECTS STUDENTS WITH CLINICAL MEDICINE

long term career and a multiple principal investigator towards improving on the NIH T35 grant. “When students healthcare.” discover technical needs during their Located at visit, their basic science training may start the Weill Cornell to cross-pollinate with clinical science, Medicine campus leading to synergistic productivity in their and associated biomedical research pursuits.” institutions in “It’s a great way to connect a student’s New York City, the laboratory work with healthcare,” agrees program brings professor Peter Doerschuk, interim director Ph.D. students of graduate studies. “They develop a from the Ithaca perspective on what kinds of technology campus for seven solutions can be clinically workable. weeks of dedicated They begin to learn the language of and intensive clinical medicine and how to interact exposure to clinical with clinicians in a meaningful way. They practice. They are come to appreciate the impact of medical paired with expert technology. It gives their discoveries the clinical faculty best chance to benefit clinical medicine.” The 2016 Ph.D. Summer Immersion Group at Weill Cornell Medicine’s campus mentors, whom In his 2016 immersion term blog, in New York City. they shadow in Matthew Zanotelli confirmed: “The various settings immersion experience brought me hile much can be learned from from the operating room and outpatient important insight into how medical focused time in the academic clinic to participating in clinical research. devices, biomaterials, or tissue W classroom and research lab, for The experience is further enhanced by engineered constructs are actually used biomedical researchers nothing is quite coursework on organ anatomy, diseases, in the operating room and/or clinic. like the knowledge that can be gained and diagnosis directly related to a specific This knowledge will surely impact how from exposure to the real-world challenges clinical practice, as well as lectures in I approach my own research back in of the clinic. Such is the purpose of the bioethics and regulatory affairs bioethics. Ithaca.” Meinig School’s summer immersion term Through this close interaction and From seeing patients’ struggles to for first-year Ph.D. students. Now in its focused study, students become familiar understanding the physicians’ challenges 11th year and supported by an NIH T35 with clinical issues and clinical thought and opportunities, students in the Ph.D. training grant just renewed this summer processes, and chronicle their experience summer immersion term are exposed for another five years, the program gives weekly on an immersion term blog, the to knowledge that cannot be obtained students the ultimate insider’s look at most recent of which can be found at: in classrooms or the basic research the successes and challenges of human http://bmeimmersion2016.blogspot.com/. laboratory. They come to appreciate the medicine and an opportunity to integrate The summer immersion term culminates urgency and importance of developing that information into their thesis research back on campus in Ithaca with a poster medical technology solutions as well and careers. session, in which the student participants as the utility of medical technology in “The clinical summer immersion is present an aspect of what they learned to medicine. In this manner, the clinical designed to connect BME to healthcare their peers and professors. summer immersion both provides and society and to steer and enhance Students are not the only ones perspective and enhances enthusiasm for students’ research interests towards who benefit from the program. “As improving healthcare through medical medicine,” says Yi Wang, director of clinicians we face many unsolved medical research. the program and faculty distinguished problems in our practice and do not professor in radiology. “It impacts have the technical expertise or time to their Ph.D. thesis research by adding a develop needed technology,” says Dr. medical conscience and influencing their Martin Prince, professor of radiology

13 | BME Newsletter INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

BRINGING CROWD POWER TO ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH

wo years ago, Dr. Pietro Michelucci data collection, it could take a was a hammer looking for a nail. trained laboratory technician an T Michelucci, an artificial intelligence entire year to analyze the data. expert with a longstanding interest in Schaffer explained that, although distributed human-machine systems, their findings were promising, had been a science advisor to DARPA, because of this analytic bottleneck the research arm of the U.S. Department it could take decades to run the of Defense. After 10 years of supporting series of studies needed to arrive at national security, he was ready to refocus a treatment target. his efforts onto humanitarian activities “I was very excited to with global impact; he wanted to apply meet Chris,” says Michelucci. his expertise to building powerful “Alzheimer’s disease is the only problem-solving systems that combined top 10 killer without an effective the complementary abilities of humans treatment, so it definitely met our Pietro Michelucci, a cognitive scientist, joins BME this fall and computers to achieve new capabilities criterion of being a high impact as a visiting professor to bring “the power of crowds” to that neither humans nor computers could problem. The next question was: Alzheimer’s disease research. achieve in isolation. And that’s exactly can we use human computation to what he did. help solve it?” Michelucci contacted the progenitors of At the same time, the Schaffer- It turned out that Schaffer had already both platforms, who recognized the good Nishimura Lab had been studying tried machine-based solutions, and the fit and graciously offered to help adapt brain blood flow in mouse models of best one was only 85% accurate. But their existing platforms to Schaffer’s data. Alzheimer’s disease. Using multiphoton once Michelucci saw the specific visual With a high impact societal problem, a microscopy, they found that a small tasks involved, he realized that those well-defined solution, and a dream team of fraction of capillaries were plugged tasks mapped almost perfectly onto two collaborators in place, Michelucci was able and had no blood flow. Such stalled existing and highly-successful citizen to attract the funding from the BrightFocus capillaries are also found in the brains science platforms: stardust@home and Foundation. of myeloproliferative disease mouse EyeWire, which both use online games to Since the project kicked off at the models. However, the image analysis for crowdsource data analysis. Both platforms beginning of 2016, the growing 15-member finding the stalled capillaries is extremely have had tens of thousands of volunteer team has been heavily engaged in challenging. Professor Chris Schaffer participants and their crowd-based results developing the citizen science platform explained that for each week’s worth of have been published in top-tier journals. for Schaffer’s research. Indeed, one of the two platforms is poised to launch in October 2016. Called “Stall Catchers,” this new software will allow members of the general public, ages eight and older, to play an online game that will analyze Schaffer’s Alzheimer’s data. With an active community of online participants, Michelucci estimates that the analysis time for each experiment will be reduced from one year to one week. “In practice, this means we could potentially get In March, Schaffer-Nishimura Lab members got together to use a prototype of StallCatchers, a web-based software that to an effective treatment allows the general public to play an online game that analyzes data from experiments on Alzheimer’s disease.

14 | BME Newsletter target for blood flow deficits in Alzheimer’s disease in a few years instead of decades,” says Michelucci. “That’s the power of human computation.” Michelucci, who published a seminal text and established the first scholarly journal on human computation, is also the founder of the Human Computation Institute (HCI), a distributed organization that now includes 28 external professors representing 15 related disciplines. “Operationally, HCI conducts scientific research, but our agenda is driven by societal need,” says Michelucci. “So once organizational constructs were in place, I was looking for a big problem to solve—a way to help millions of people, and that’s when the stars began to align.” Michelucci recently moved to Ithaca to work more closely with the Schaffer-Nishimura Lab as the project develops. He hopes to develop EyesOnALZ (formerly known as WeCureALZ) into a sustainable enterprise that could support researchers around the globe, enabling blood flow studies related to a variety of diseases, including diabetes, macular degeneration, and cancer tumors. To learn more about EyesOnALZ, and to pre-register to A screen shot from the StallCatchers interface shows flowing and stalled participate in an online activity that will directly contribute to capillaries in multiphoton microscopy images of a mouse brain. Go to www.stallcatchers.com to play. Alzheimer’s research, visit eyesonalz.com.

MEET THE 2016 NSF FELLOWS he Meinig School of Biomedical novel multiplexed Engineering proudly congratulates immunoassays, Tthe five students who each won a which will facilitate 2016 National Science Foundation Graduate differential diagnosis Research Fellowship. of acute febrile Three Fellows will study cancer. Johana illnesses such as Uribe, in the Reinhart-King Lab, will study dengue, malaria, and the forces used by cancer cells to migrate Zika. from the primary tumor, investigating the Pablo role of matrix architecture and cell shape Palomino, from the and size changes in metastatic cell migration. Donnelly Lab, will Lauren Hapach, also in the Reinhart- investigate the role King Lab, will investigate intratumor of type 2 diabetes NSF Fellowship winners (from L to R): Lauren Hapach, Pablo Palomino, heterogeneity by characterizing invasive mellitus (T2DM) Ruisheng Wang, Johana Uribe, and Monet Roberts. and noninvasive cancer cell phenotypes in in altering bone Congratulations also go to students relation to their metastatic potential. And quality by comparing cortical bone receiving honorable mentions this year: Monet Roberts, of the Pazseck Lab, will properties from T2DM and non-diabetic Matthew Zanotelli (Reinhart-King Lab), study the biophysical mechanisms involving patients. Specifically, he will quantify non- Stephen Sloan (Bonassar Lab), Sarah Snyder the role of glycoproteins in breast cancer enzymatic glycation of the collagen matrix, (Putnam Lab), Shivem Shah (Singh Lab), progression and metastasis. assess spectroscopic measures of bone Amanda Rooney (van der Meulen Lab), Ruisheng (Rick) Wang, from the composition, and examine the behavior of Yehudah Pardo (Ma/Luo Lab), Adam Erickson Lab, will work on developing cortical microbeams in bending. This study Munoz (Reinhart-King Lab), Zeinab the FeverPhone, a point-of-care platform will help to understand why T2DM patients Mohamed (King Lab), Nicole Diamantides for rapid detection of infectious diseases fracture more often than non-diabetics with (Bonassar Lab), Victor Aguilar (Cosgrove in low-resource settings. His effort will otherwise similar risk factors. Lab), and Marysol Luna (Hernandez Lab). involve the design and development of

15 | BME Newsletter HONORS & AWARDS

CORE FACULTY Appointed a Mong Elected Fellow of the Awarded a Family Sesquitennial College of Fellows of Distinguished Faculty Fellow the American Institute Investigator award in Biomedical for Medical and from the Academy of Engineering. Biological Engineering Radiology Research. (AIMBE). Assistant Professor Associate Professor Professor Yi Wang Ilana Brito Claudia Fischbach- Teschl Appointed Professor Elected Program of Practice, a newly Chair of the 2016 FIELD FACULTY created title for faculty BMES Annual Lynden Archer (CBE), the James A. with significant, high- Meeting. She was also Friend Family Distinguished Professor of level experience in elected a fellow of the Engineering, was featured by the National College of Fellows of industry, who enrich Science Foundation (NSF) for its online Professor of Practice student experiences Associate Professor the American Institute After the Lecture series. Newton de Faria by bringing to Cornell Cynthia Reinhart- for Medical and King a deep understanding Biological Engineering Adele Boskey (Hospital for Special and appreciation of the standard practice in (AIMBE). Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine), industry. professor, received the 2015 Lawrence G. Raisz Award from the American Society Appointed the Robert Elected Associate for Bone and Mineral Research. N. Noyce Assistant Dean of Faculty. Susan Daniel (CBE), associate professor, Professor in Life Science He was also awarded a has been awarded a seed grant from and Technology. 5-year, $2M R01 grant the MSKCC-Cornell Center for Cancer from the NIH to study Nanotechnology Excellence to begin new Alzheimer’s Disease. cancer research. The award is for $150,000 Assistant Professor Associate Professor over two years. She is also one of two Iwijn De Vlaminck Chris Schaffer women to receive an inaugural Schwartz Award. Elected to Awarded a 2015 Membership Lush Science Prize Minglin Ma (BEE), assistant professor, Committee award recognizing won a Hartwell Individual Biomedical of the Orthopaedic projects and Research Award, worth $300,000 over Research Society individuals who work three years to fund early-stage, innovative (ORS). towards replacing and cutting-edge biomedical research to benefit children in the United States. Ma’s Associate Professor Professor Michael animals in toxicity Chris Hernandez Shuler testing. research will focus on his diabetes work. Matthew Paszek (CBE), assistant Inducted Fellow Elected to Board professor, received a National Institutes of the Biomedical of Directors of of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Engineering Society the Biomedical Award for his project, “Mechanobiology (BMES) at the annual Engineering Society of the cellular glycocalyx.” conference in Tampa (BMES), as well as in October. to the Orthopedic Ankur Singh (ECE), assistant professor, received a National Science Foundation Professor Mike King Professor Marjolein Research Society van der Meulen (ORS) Program Faculty Early Career Development award. Committee. He also received the 2015 Biomaterials Outstanding Paper award at the 10th World Biomaterials Congress.

16 | BME Newsletter Aniqua Rahman and Matthew Zanotelli STUDENTS & from the Reinhart-King Lab both won ALUMNI POSTDOCS student travel awards from BMES. Karen Duffy, a 2014 M.Eng. graduate of the Nora Springer, a Ph.D. student in the Shuler Lab, was named a Gates Cambridge Olufumilayo Adebayo, a Ph.D. student in Fischbach-Teschl Lab, was awarded second Scholar. She will work to engineer new the van der Meulen Lab, won second place place in the American Veterinary Medical biopolymers with advantageous properties in the NSBE (National Society of Black Association Young Investigator Award. for therapeutic applications. Engineers) Technical Research Exhibition poster competition. Derek Sung, an undergraduate student in Chelsea Gregg, a 2016 Ph.D. graduate of the Butcher Lab, was awarded the Elena the Butcher Lab, was selected to participate Sung Ji Ahn, a Ph.D. student in the Aikawa Best Abstract & Keynote: Basic in AIMBE's 2016-17 FDA Scholars Program, Schaffer-Nishimura Lab, won the 2016 Science to Elucidate Mechanisms of Valve a highly competitive program consisting Biomedical Optics Student Poster Disease at the annual Heart Valve Society of one-year immersion experiences in the Presentation Award. meeting. Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) within the U.S. Food and Drug Brandon Borde and Stephen Sloan, Ashley Torres, a Ph.D. student in the Administration (FDA). graduate students in the Bonassar Lab, Hernandez Lab, was inducted into co-authored a paper that won the Best Oral the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, Darvin Griffin, a 2015 Ph.D. graduate of the Presentation award at the World Forum 2016, and received Best Poster and Best Bonassar Lab, was named a 2016 DiscoverE for Spine Research. Graduate Poster at the Society of Hispanic New Faces of Engineering Honoree. The Professional Engineers National Meeting, award honors engineers under 30-years-old Alexander Boys, a Ph.D. student in the who are making a mark on their industry. Bonassar Lab, received the NSF EAPSI fall 2015. Fellowship to travel to China to perform Five students, David Bassen (Butcher Katie Hudson, a 2016 Ph.D. graduate in research at the National Center for Lab), Ashley Earle (Lammerding Lab), the Bonassar Lab, received a RoosterBio Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) in Frank He (Fischbach-Teschl Lab), Travel Award to attend the 2016 ORS society Beijing. Derek Holyoak (van der Meulen Lab), meeting. and Emmanuel Lollis (Reinhart-King Erin Cresswell and Jason Guss, both Lab), were awarded 2016 Graduate Ryan Jefferis, a 2015 M.Eng. graduate, and Ph.D. students in the Hernandez Lab, each Assistantships in Areas of National team won the Cleveland Medical Hackathon received a 2016 Young Investigator Travel Need (GAANN) fellowships, which by designing a blood pressure cuff that Award from the American Society for Bone focus on developing a fellow's teaching, integrates its measurements into the cloud and Mineral Research. communication, and leadership skills, for direct review by a clinical professional. as well as providing them with a solid Peter DelNero, a Ph.D. student in the Julius N. Korley, a 2010 Ph.D. graduate foundation for conducting research. Fischbach-Teschl Lab, received a Cornell of the Putnam Lab, Sloan Scholar, and The program provides training in best- Engaged Graduate Student Grant and a President and CEO of Affinity Therapeutics, practice pedagogical techniques and Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship to enhance an introduction to education research. was named to Crain’s Forty Under 40 in public awareness and communication The students are mentored in a practical 2015. related to cancer. teaching experience by faculty and Michael Mitchell, a 2015 Ph.D. graduate trained by Cornell's Center for Teaching Joshua Elacqua, an undergraduate of the King Lab, was selected as a member Excellence. student in the Lammerding Lab, received of the 2016 Tissue Engineering Young a BMES Student Travel Award to attend Investigator Council; and received a the 2016 BMES Annual Meeting in Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award Minneapolis. at the Scientific Interface for his research on developing a new class of materials and Natalie Kelly, a Ph.D. student in the devices that detect and treat bone marrow van der Meulen Lab, received a Young disorders. Investigator travel grant from the American Society of Bone and Mineral Han Tang, a 2016 M.Eng. graduate of Research to attend its 2015 Annual the Adie Lab, won the Hamamatsu Meeting. Best Paper Award and $500 for her talk GAANN Assitantship Fellows (L to R): David and proceedings manuscript “GPU- Julie Kohn, a Ph.D. student in the Bassen, Derek Holyoak, Frank He, Emmanuel Lollis, and Ashley Earle. based computational adaptive optics for Reinhart-King Lab, won a Whitaker volumetric optical coherence microscopy” Fellowship to study for a year at the at the SPIE Photonics West BIOS 2016 University of Cape Town in South Africa. conference.

17 | BME Newsletter ALUMNI PROFILES

Jaclyn the Lester B. Knight Scholarship for bright Carlson, low-income students with a strong interest ALUMNI M.Eng. 2012 in engineering and business. The impact Jaclyn Carlson of the scholarship went beyond financial received an freedom to pursue his passions, and Dotse Waleed Abdel- M.Eng. in 2012, was compelled and motivated to explore Naby, Ph.D. after working ways he could positively impact others in 2015 with mentor Dr. the way that the scholarship opportunity While studying Jonathan Black to design a conformable opened up doors for him. This led him under Dr. Mark bone graft substitute. This experience to establish a 30,000-book library in his Rosenblatt at sparked her interest in orthopedics home country, Ghana. And now with his Cornell, Waleed and following graduation she worked non-profit Teach For Ghana, Dotse hopes Abdel-Naby‘s graduate research focused for a healthcare consulting firm based to provide access to an excellent education on the development of novel technologies out of New York City. As a consultant to all children in Ghana. utilizing silk-derived biomaterials for she worked to optimize hospital and Prior to establishing Teach For regenerative medicine and biomedical pharmaceutical company operations, Ghana, Dotse worked at Regeneron applications. Specifically, his dissertation and during one engagement was sent to Pharmaceuticals, Inc. At Regeneron, described bio-engineered, silk-based Romania for three months to work with his role entailed purifying protein biopolymers for use in reconstruction of a local hospital. However, through this molecules for the manufacture of the ocular surface. Excelling in both the position she realized she desired a more active pharmaceutical products for academic and laboratory settings garnered hands on role in healthcare and medicine. treating various diseases. He credits this him multiple awards; he received the While volunteering at a stray dog experience for exposing him to the power 2013 Clinical and Translational Science shelter in Romania, she decided that of social change on a large scale. For him, Center Novel Technology Team Award veterinary medicine was a perfect way to it was incredibly rewarding to produce from Weill Cornell Medical College for his incorporate her engineering degree, love innovative drugs that were accessible to a dissertation, as well as a prestigious NSF for animals, and willingness for a hands- large number of individuals. Graduate Research Fellowship Program on medical role. She transitioned from Award. He is also the inventor on two her consulting job to a research position Cornell-owned patents for his promising in a neurotrauma lab at the University of Katy Fang, silk technology. California, San Francisco. Her research M.Eng. 2014 Realizing the potential translatability focused on adolescent concussion, and Katy worked of his technology, Abdel-Naby has this experience furthered her ideas about in Jonathan made significant contributions to the incorporating biomedical engineering Butcher’s lab development of novel technologies into a career as a veterinarian. Her working on utilizing silk-derived biomaterials since desire to blend biomedical research and genetic factors graduating from Cornell. He co-founded veterinary medicine grew and led her to of aortic Novyx Technologies, LLC, to focus on her current role as a student in the VMD/ calcification. the commercialization of novel, silk- Ph.D. combined degree program at the After graduating with an M.Eng. degree based therapeutics for epithelial tissue University of Pennsylvania. Carlson in 2014, she moved to Warsaw, Ind., to be regeneration and wound repair. Currently will pursue this degree with a focus in an engineer with Zimmer Biomet working he is collaborating with Dr. Jason Spector orthopedics. with design controls of orthopedic and Dr. Enrique Rodriguez-Boulan at implants. She then moved to Chicago Weill Cornell Medicine to develop novel, where she’s lived for the past year and silk-based dressings for the treatment Daniel Dotse, works as an engineer in the medical device of chronic diabetic wounds. As CEO of M.Eng. 2011 division of Fresenius Kabi, a German Novyx, he is also raising seed funding Daniel Dotse company that makes blood filtration to support the commercialization of this studied and transfusion machines. At Fresenius promising technology. biomedical Kabi, her work is half dedicated to being engineering a technical contributor and half to being at Cornell a project manager, a skill developed University with at Cornell while working multiple a keen interest in nanotechnology. Dotse’s simultaneous projects as part of the Cornell education was made possible by M.Eng. program.

18 | BME Newsletter Darvin Griffin, with several organizations and startups of Pennsylvania in 2009 and her Ph.D. Ph.D. 2015 including Venture Cafe, XX in Health in biomedical engineering from Cornell While earning Boston, Biotech Connection Boston and in 2016. Through the guidance of thesis his M.S. and Archimedes Project. She was recently advisor, Professor Chris Schaffer, Wayne Ph.D. at Cornell, honored with the 2016 Tufts University used intravital imaging techniques to Darvin Griffin Presidential Award for Citizenship and understand ways in which the innate built a portfolio Public Service for her leadership of the immune cells can be used to control cancer of research Tufts Biomedical Business Club and her metastasis. in orthopedics and articular repair work creating professional opportunities While at Cornell, Wayne led multiple in collaboration with entities such as for scientists. Julian will be defending this initiatives, including the Cornell NCI Genzyme, Histogenics, and Massachusetts December and relocating to the Bay Area. Physical Sciences in Oncology Cancer General Hospital. Griffin recently joined Brainstorming Club and the 2013 the Medtronic—Advanced Energy (MAE) Northeast Conference for Undergraduate team as a Clinical Project Manager in Stephanie A. Women in Physics. Wayne was very active Medical Affairs. In his role at Advanced Parker, Ph.D. within the Cornell community; she was a Energy, Griffin collaborates with 2015 Graduate Resident Fellow at Hans Bethe marketing, R&D, and regulatory, focusing At Cornell House on West Campus, a mentor in the on preclinical and human clinical research Stephanie Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, projects, expanding indications for surgical conducted and a Learning Specialist in the Cornell devices, and growing MAE’s portfolio of research in Dr. Engineering TA Training Program. She claims. Carl Batt’s lab also received campus-wide recognition Passionate about the value of diversity focusing on for her service, receiving awards such in the workplace, professional mentorship, protein engineering for targeted cancer as the Alice & Constance Cook Award, and STEM education, Griffin has co- therapeutics. Following graduation, Dr. Cornell Women’s Day Leadership Award, authored multiple peer-reviewed scientific Parker moved back to home to sunny and the Cornell BME Robert I. Mozia publications and presented research at Southern California. She is currently Distinguished Service Award. major healthcare conferences. working as a postdoctoral researcher At present, Wayne is an NIH-NCI on a joint project between the Keck Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Graduate Institute in Claremont, Calif., Fellow in the Carolina Center for Bina Julian, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Training Program at M.Eng. 2006 of Fremont, Calif., using computational the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Throughout fluid dynamics (CFD) to model Under the supervisor of Professor her tenure at biopharmaceutical unit operations. This Alexander Kabanov, she is developing Cornell (B.S. ‘05, project is motivated by the desire to technology to deliver therapeutic genes M.Eng. ‘06), Bina modernize the antibody manufacturing to solid tumors using macrophages. In Julian pursued process. Currently the biopharmaceutical particular, her work aims to improve her passion industry produces products in batch mode, the efficiency of in vivo gene delivery. for hands-on however they are moving to continuous When she is not doing science, Wayne is teaching in both physiological engineering operations is the future. Specifically, currently knitting baby hats for her niece and the molecular principles of biomedical Dr. Parker is designing prototypes for and nephews, frolicking on a nearby engineering. She received her M.Eng. continuous unit operations, utilizing CFD beach, trying to figure out how to eradicate degree in biomedical engineering to characterize the designs, and validating spring as a season, and enjoying every studying drug-receptor kinetics under designs with experimental data. sunrise she gets. Dr. Linda Nowak. Julian then went on Wayne co-hosts PhDivas, an academic to advance drug discovery and precision and cultural podcast that showcases the medicine research at Pfizer Global R&D Elizabeth accomplishments, challenges, and daily and the Broad Institute of Harvard and Wayne, Ph.D. lives of women in academia. So far it has MIT. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate 2016 generated over 15,000 plays from listeners in the lab of Dr. Alan Kopin of Tufts Dr. Elizabeth all over the world. PhDivas has been Medical Center where she develops Wayne earned featured in the Cornell Chronicle and The pharmacological tools to probe receptors her B.A. in LA Times and content can be found on involved in inflammatory disease. In physics from Soundcloud and iTunes. addition to her research, she has worked the University

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