Washington University in St. Louis
McKelvey School of Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
No.
2
School of Medicine
ranking in Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (2023)
No. 2
St. Louis ranked second best large metro to locate for recent college graduates (Porch)
No. 15
WashU 2025 ranking in best colleges with Biomedical Engineering degrees (Niche)
No. 12
Biomedical engineering graduate program ranking in U.S. News (AY2024)
28 FULL-TIME FACULTY 53% OF BME STUDENTS ARE WOMEN 100% OF PHD STUDENTS ARE FULLY FUNDED
Students PhD student research support
240 undergraduate 168
Degree programs
BS in Biomedical Engineering
MS in Biomedical Engineering
MS in Imaging Science
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
PhD in Imaging Science
$14.7M ANNUAL RESEARCH AWARDS (FY2024)
40% of PhD students received a fellowship (2023 student population)
31 NIH TRAINING FELLOWSHIPS
15 UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS
6
NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
4
MD/PHD TRAINING FELLOWSHIPS
6 INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIPS
Inclusion & belonging
In the McKelvey School of Engineering, we believe in creating and maintaining a culture that embraces and appreciates the strength and value of differences in gender, race, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, age, politics, philosophy, disability and sexual orientation.
BME Research
Research areas
Biomedical & Biological Imaging
Cardiovascular Engineering
Molecular & Cellular Systems
Engineering
Neural Engineering
Orthopedic Engineering
Regenerative Engineering in Medicine
Women’s Health Engineering
130+
affiliate faculty members from across the university
Top departments for BME student research:
» Biomedical Engineering
» Cell Biology & Physiology
» Computer Science & Engineering
» Electrical & Systems Engineering
» Genetics
» Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
» Neurology
» Neuroscience
» Neurosurgery
» Obstetrics/Gynecology
» Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
» Orthopaedic Surgery
» Pathology & Immunology
» Radiation Oncology
» Radiology
What is the focus of your research?
I work in Spencer Lake’s lab, where we study the structure and mechanics of musculoskeletal soft tissues like tendons and ligaments. For my project, I use a model of elbow dislocation to develop better physical therapy techniques and identify potential drug targets to prevent stiffness and fibrosis from occurring after elbow injuries.
What are your plans for the future?
I hope to stay in academia after graduation to complete a postdoctoral fellowship and eventually become a professor with my own research lab.
Rebecca Reals phd candidate
WashU research centers
for biomedical research collaboration
» Center for Biomolecular Condensates (CBC)
» Center for Cellular Imaging
» Center for Cyborg and Biorobotics Research
» Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB)
» Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC)
» Center for Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Programs (CHiiPS)
» Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology (CINT)
» Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases (CIMED)
» Center for Regenerative Medicine (CRM)
» Center for Women’s Health Engineering (CWHE)
» Children’s Discovery Institute
» Genome Engineering & iPSC Center (GEiC)
» Hope Center for Neurological Disorders
» Imaging Sciences Pathway (ISP)
» Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS)
» Institute for Materials Science and Engineering (IMSE)
» McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience
» McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI)
» Musculoskeletal Research Center (MRC)
» Siteman Cancer Center
Research news
New technology allows researchers to precisely, flexibly modulate brain
Human brain diseases involve damage in more than one region of the brain, requiring technology that could precisely and flexibly address all affected regions simultaneously. Researchers at WashU have developed a noninvasive technology combining a holographic acoustic device with genetic engineering that allows them to precisely target affected neurons in the brain, creating the potential to precisely modulate selected cell types in multiple diseased brain regions.
Hong Chen, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of neurosurgery in the School of Medicine, and her team created AhSonogenetics, or Airy-beam holographic sonogenetics, a technique that uses a noninvasive wearable ultrasound device to alter genetically selected neurons in the brains of mice. Results of the proof-of-concept study were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 17, 2024.
Photoacoustic imaging improves diagnostic accuracy of cancerous ovarian lesions
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system, and there is no screening test that can help with early detection. Ultrasound imaging is not always accurate, leading some patients to have the ovaries removed unnecessarily.
Quing Zhu, the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, worked with a team of School of Medicine physicians to add photoacoustic imaging to the standard of care for women scheduled to have their ovaries and/or adnexal lesions surgically removed due to potential malignancy. Photoacoustic imaging has been used to assist in diagnosis of several other cancers, including breast, skin, colorectal and other cancers of the female reproductive system, however, it has not been used to classify adnexal malignancy risk, the researchers said. Their findings were published in the December 2023 issue of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Research news
Skin pigmentation bias in pulse oximeters to get closer look
Pulse oximeters send light through a clip attached to a finger to measure oxygen levels in the blood noninvasively. Although the technology has been used for decades — and was heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic — there is increasing evidence that it has a major flaw: it may provide inaccurate readings in individuals with more melanin pigment in their skin.
Christine O’Brien, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of obstetrics & gynecology in the School of Medicine, and Leo Shmuylovich, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Dermatology at the School of Medicine, are seeking ways to mitigate this potential bias. With a twoyear, $375,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, O’Brien and Shmuylovich are looking at using new experimental systems that allow skin pigmentation to be varied while all the other physiologic parameters remain the same.
Potential
Studying
how serotonin alters locust’s sense of smell
cells
Type 1 diabetes treatment may stem from outsmarting immune
Type 1 diabetes — one of the most common chronic diseases in children — destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, requiring lifelong daily management. The autoimmune disease affects up to 10% of people with diabetes worldwide. Cory Berkland, the Mark and Becky Levin Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and professor of chemistry at WashU, will lead a team to develop a potential new treatment for Type 1 diabetes (T1D) with a two-year, $2.6 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
To try to delay the onset of the disease and prevent its progression to insulin dependence, Berkland plans to use proinsulin, which is typically processed by the body to produce insulin and is one of the proteins the immune systems attacks in T1D.
Berkland’s team has been working on potential treatments for T1D for a decade and has previously shown success with auto-antigen-specific immunotherapy for several diseases in preclinical studies.
Researchers at WashU have spent the better part of the decade studying the ins and outs of how locusts smell, including how odors affect the insect’s behavior.
In research recently published in eLife, Barani Raman, a professor of biomedical engineering, starts to map out just how olfactory circuits are altered in driving different behavior in locusts.
Neuromodulator serotonin is a key factor in that behavior including how locusts can go from being a “loner” to “gregarious” — otherwise known as swarming phase.
“The same organism can exist in two different states — one is destructive, and one is shy and introverted,” Raman said.
Raman and PhD student
Yelyzaveta Bessonova wanted to investigate how serotonin affects the part of the neural circuit in the locust brain that senses olfactory cues and drives appropriate behavioral responses. The more researchers understand how sensory signals are processed, the easier it will be to control and prevent locusts from swarming. From an engineering point of view, understanding this biological system can inspire solutions for odor detection in dangerous and toxic environments.
Outside the classroom
Select student groups
» Association of Graduate Students (AGES)
» The Association for Women in Science (AWIS)
» Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
» Biotechnology and Life Science Advising Group (BALSA)
» Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Student Council (BMEDC)
» Future Educators
» Graduate Association of Latin American Students (GALAS)
» Graduate Student Senate (GSS)
» National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
» Out in STEM (oSTEM)
» Promoting Science Policy, Education, and Research (ProSPER)
» Sling Health
» Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
» Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
» Spectra (SPIE and OSA)
» Transcending Gender
No. 1
WashU and St. Louis resources and accelerators:
» 39 North
» Arch Grants
» Cambridge Innovation Center St. Louis
» Cortex Innovation Community
» Office of Technology Management
» Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation & Entrepreneurship
» Sling Health Network
» T-Rex Technology Incubator
Select startups with ties to WashU BME:
» Acera Surgical Inc.
» Armor Medical Inc.
» datadog health
» Encodia Inc.
» Epharmix
» Excera
» Geneoscopy
» Mindset
» NeuroLutions
» SentiAR Inc.
» Sparo Labs
» Caeli Vascular
» Osteovantage
st . louis is the
city for new grads to start a career (Insurify, 2022)
Awards & honors
WashU awarded up to $20 million to develop high-tech imaging technology
In the United States, more than onefourth of adults over age 40 have an eye disease, including glaucoma, cataracts or age-related macular degeneration, or a chronic health condition that affects the eyes. These conditions are a strain on an individual’s health as well as on the health care system, yet early diagnosis and management can help to prevent more than 90% of severe vision loss.
Chao Zhou, a professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering has been working to improve optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems that can conduct high-resolution imaging of the eyes. With an up to $20 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), he plans to create a portable OCT system that could offer advanced eye screening to many more patients and at a lower cost.
Award
Huebsch to grow heart muscle in the lab with NSF CAREER award
Heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, accounts for about 700,000 deaths annually. To help tackle this significant and wide-reaching health challenge, better drug treatments are needed. However, the lab-grown heart muscle used in drug development research does not accurately reflect how drugs will affect real patients.
With a five-year, $695,746 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, Nathaniel Huebsch, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering will grow heart muscle in the lab that is more representative of adult heart tissue and use that muscle to predict how drugs will affect patients’ hearts. CAREER awards support junior faculty who model the role of teacher-scholar through outstanding research, excellence in education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization.
Pappu honored by biochemistry group
Rohit V. Pappu, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Center for Biomolecular Condensates, will receive the ASBMB DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences. This award is given to a scientist for accessible and innovative developments or applications of computation to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular or cellular level.
of up to $31 million supports development of
osteoarthritis treatment
Researchers, including Lori Setton in McKelvey Engineering, aim to create treatment that promotes tissue regeneration, restores joints with ARPA-H award.
Chen, Silva named senior members of National Academy of Inventors
Hong Chen and Jonathan Silva, both faculty members in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering have been named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors.
Chen and Silva are being recognized as academic inventors who are rising leaders in their fields with success in patents, licensing and commercialization and for producing “technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.” They are among 553 senior members affiliated with NAI member Institutions worldwide.
Chen, associate professor of biomedical engineering and of neurosurgery in the School of Medicine, focuses on medical ultrasound. Her goal is to develop ultrasound technologies for noninvasive diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, as well as the deepening of our understanding of brain functions.
Silva, professor of biomedical engineering, developed software to provide a holographic display to physicians who perform catheter ablations for arrhythmia. Their system, the first FDA-cleared application of its kind, integrates existing imaging systems to create a real-time 3D holographic interface that provides physicians with a more precise way to deliver cardiac ablation therapy to treat arrhythmia patients.
Read more
Student news
2024 BME PhD retreat
Students and faculty members took part in the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s annual research retreat at Grant’s Farm. The retreat aims to encourage departmental collaboration and community. All of the department’s doctoral students were invited to take part in the retreat, which included keynote talks from faculty, presentations from senior doctoral candidates and a poster session.
The event brought together students and faculty to discuss achievements in their respective fields while encouraging collaboration. It also served as an opportunity to introduce incoming graduate students to the biomedical engineering community at Washington University in St. Louis. This retreat is a key event in the department’s calendar, aimed at fostering academic exchange and strengthening departmental connections.
BME students win prestigious fellowships in 2023
Twelve McKelvey School of Engineering doctoral students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering received or utilized highly competitive fellowships in 2023. Several students and alumni also received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships in 2023.
» Maria Bandres - F99/K00 award from the National Institutes of Health Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience program (D-SPAN)
» Austin Bell-Hensley - F31 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
» Lucy Woodbury - F31 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
» Martina Marras - American Heart Association Fellowship
» Shashank Anand - F31 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
» Zainab Harissa - F31 from National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
» Erica Ely - F31 from National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
» Ryan Bowen - F31 from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
» Yang-Yang Feng - F30 from the National Institute of Mental Health
» Rachel Mintz - F30 from the National Cancer Institute
» Abbie Hasson - STEM Chateaubriand Fellowship from the Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France
» Kaitlyn Strandberg received a fellowship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Biomedical Engineering Faculty
Dennis Barbour Professor and Director of Master’s Studies dbarbour@wustl.edu
Research interests: Auditory processing, cognitive neuroscience, machine learning and medical diagnostics
Song Hu Professor songhu@wustl.edu
Research interests: Photoacoustic technologies for high resolution, structural, functional, metabolic and molecular imaging in vivo and their applications in research of a variety of diseases
Christine M. O’Brien Assistant Professor c.obrien@wustl.edu
Research interests:
Wearable multimodal optical sensor for early detection of postpartum hemorrhage
Cory Berkland Professor coryb@wustl.edu
Research interests: Pharmaceuticals and biomaterials with an emphasis on molecular design, drug formulation, and transport in the human body
Nathaniel Huebsch Associate Professor nhuebsch@wustl.edu
Research interests: Basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology, with specific focus on hydrogels to control cell-mediated tissue repair, and 3-D heart-on-a-chip models derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells
Rohit Pappu Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor pappu@wustl.edu
Research interests: Protein aggregation and its effects on neurodegeneration; biophysics of intrinsically disordered proteins; proteinnucleic acid interactions; phase transitions in cell biology
Hong Chen
Associate Professor hongchen@wustl.edu
Research interests: Ultrasound imaging; ultrasound therapy; image-guided ultrasound drug delivery (IGUDD)
Abhinav Jha Associate Professor a.jha@wustl.edu
Research interests: Medical imaging systems and algorithms for optimized performance in clinical tasks using quantitative measures of task performance
Barani Raman Professor barani@wustl.edu
Research interests: Computational and systems neuroscience; neuromorphic engineering; pattern recognition; sensorbased machine olfaction, and bio-robotics
Jianmin Cui Professor jcui@wustl.edu
Research interests: Molecular basis of bioelectricity and related diseases in nervous and cardiovascular systems; ion channel function and modulation; discovery of drugs that target ion channels
Anastasia Khokhlova Research Assistant Professor khokhlova@wustl.edu
Research interests: Studies electromechanical activity of the heart
Yifan Dai Assistant Professor dyifan@wustl.edu
Research interests: Decoding and encoding the physical chemistry of biological soft matter to understand biology and engineer precision medicine
Daniel Moran Professor and Director of Dual Degree Studies dmoran@wustl.edu
Research interests: Motor control; braincomputer interfaces
Jai Rudra Associate Professor and Associate Director of Doctoral Studies srudra22@wustl.edu
Research interests: Design and synthesis of amyloid-inspired supramolecular biomaterials for applications in vaccine development and immunotherapy
Alexandra Rutz Assistant Professor rutzalexandral@wustl.edu
Research interests: Engineering of electronic tissues using materials design and fabrication-based approaches. Our goal is to achieve robust biointerfaces and long-lived function in bioelectronics and other medical devices
Ismael Seáñez Assistant Professor ismaelseanez@wustl.edu
Research interests:
Use of body-machine interfaces (BoMIs) to provide a higher level of control for existing assistive devices and neuroprosthetics, and to improve motor function through rehabilitation
Kurt Thoroughman Associate Professor thoroughman@wustl.edu
Research interests: Science and engineering education; human motor control and learning; computational neuroscience
Joseph Klaesner Professor of Practice klaesnerjw@wustl.edu
Lori Setton Department Chair and Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering setton@wustl.edu
Research interests: Mechanobiology of osteoarthritis and intervertebral disc disorders, tissue regeneration and drug delivery in musculoskeletal disease
Michael Vahey Assistant Professor mvahey@wustl.edu
Research interests: Developing imaging methods and microfluidic technologies to understand infectious diseases, with an emphasis on studying how viruses such as influenza A navigate and shape their hosts in order to replicate
Katie Schreiber Lecturer khschreiber@wustl.edu
Jin-Yu Shao Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies shao@wustl.edu
Research interests: Cellular and molecular biomechanics; proteinprotein interactions, mathematical modeling of biological processes
Yan Yu (Joining July 2025)
Art Krieg Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering yuy1@wustl.edu
Research interests: Integrating nanotechnology and advanced optical imaging to understand biophysics of immune functions, to design sensors for immune disease detection, and to develop new strategies for immune and infection therapy
Patricia Widder Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies pwidder9876@wustl.edu
Jingyi Shi Research Assistant Professor jshi22@wustl.edu
Research interests: Ion channel channel function, disease-associated ion channel mutations and drugs that target ion channels
Chao Zhou Professor chaozhou@wustl.edu
Research interests: Optical coherence tomography, a growing technology used to perform high-resolution crosssectional imaging using light
Jonathan Silva Professor and Director of Diversity jonsilva@wustl.edu
Research interests: Virtual and augmented reality; electrophysiology; molecular spectroscopy; mathematical modeling; cardiac arrhythmia
Quing Zhu
Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering zhu.q@wustl.edu
Research interests: Cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment assessment and prediction utilizing diffused optical tomography, photoacoustic tomography, optical coherence tomography and ultrasound
teaching faculty
Why did you pick WashU? I picked WashU for several reasons, including the proximity of the main campus and medical campus, its world-class reputation, and its strength as a pioneer in neural engineering and neurotechnology. Beyond the academic aspects, the students I met both at the WashU booth at the BMES conference and during my interview weekend in St. Louis solidified WashU as the choice for me. I felt confident I would have the ability to conduct exciting research while also getting involved in other aspects of grad student life, and that has proved true throughout my time here.
Kara Donovan phd candidate