With over 240 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 20 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding by eight federal agencies, the College of Engineering is a leader in experiential education and interdisciplinary research focused on discovering solutions to global challenges to benefit society. Northeastern’s global university system— with engineering programs on campuses across the U.S. and in multiple countries—provides flexible academic offerings, innovative partnerships, and the ability to scale ideas, talent, and solutions.
About Northeastern
Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experiential lifelong learning. Our approach of integrating real-world experience with education, research, and innovation empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create worldwide impact.
Northeastern’s personalized, experiential undergraduate and graduate programs lead to degrees through the doctorate in 10 colleges and schools across our 13 campuses worldwide. Learning emphasizes the intersection of data, technology, and human literacies, uniquely preparing graduates for careers of the future and lives of fulfillment and accomplishment.
Our research enterprise, with an R1 Carnegie classification, is solutions oriented and spans the world. Our faculty scholars and students work in teams that cross not just disciplines, but also sectors—aligned around solving today’s highly interconnected global challenges and focused on transformative impact for humankind.
We are a leader in experiential education and interdisciplinary research, focused on innovating for global impact.
DEAR COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, AND STUDENTS,
Being connected is our motto at the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University. We strive to be connected to the needs of our students and society through innovative research and impactful experiential education.
Research pursued today in bioengineering may take time to manifest in the form of breakthrough therapies, similar to early work on mRNA immunogenicity and its chemical modifications that ultimately laid the groundwork for COVID-19 vaccines. This potential for profound impact is what motivates us every day. From developing advanced 3D-printed vascular systems for tissue engineering to creating devices that enhance the lives of the visually impaired, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of what bioengineering can achieve.
One particularly exciting development this year is the establishment of the Institute for Mechanobiology, which will focus on the study of the mechanical forces that govern biological systems. It is among only a few in the world specifically dedicated to mechanobiology study and innovation, and just one example of the ways in which our department is positioning itself to make significant strides in both fundamental research and real-world applications.
Another noteworthy achievement is University Distinguished Professor Eduardo Sontag’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, faculty were named Fellows of professional societies and received early-career awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. These honors reflect the exceptional caliber of our faculty and their contributions to the field.
At Northeastern, we foster a collaborative environment where students and faculty work together to blend academic learning with research and hands-on experience. With over 70 tenured, tenure-track, and affiliated faculty members, our department spans a wide range of research areas within biological and biomedical engineering. Our faculty’s achievements are complemented by the successes of our students, including several NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipients, a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a Hodgkinson Achievement Award, Fulbright Scholarships, and more.
Industry connections are another cornerstone of our program. Through our robust co-op program, we partner with leading companies in the Boston biotech sector and around the country, providing our students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience. These co-op opportunities prepare them for their careers and empower them to succeed in a rapidly evolving work environment.
The Annual Report offers a snapshot of these accomplishments, along with many more stories of innovation and impact. I encourage you to explore the research, achievements, and collaborations that make our bioengineering community at Northeastern so vibrant.
With best regards,
Abraham Joy, PhD Professor and Department Chair Bioengineering a.joy@northeastern.edu
For more details, visit our website at
by Alyssa Stone
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Scan to view a video recap of the Bioengineering Department’s 10th-anniversary celebration event.
886 267 Graduate Students
Promotion
Students 59% Students are Women (Fall 2023)
Nikolai Slavov Professor
Institute for Mechanobiology up 140% vs. 2018
Samuel Chung Associate Professor
Michael Jaeggli Teaching Professor
Young Investigator Awards Professional Society Fellowships 20 16 47 $34M
Research Institutes
Institute for the Chemical Imaging of Living Systems
Degree Programs
Bioengineering — BS, MS, PhD
Bioengineering and Biochemistry — BS
PhD program offered at both the Boston and Portland, Maine campuses
Quick Facts college of
With 246 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 20 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding by eight federal agencies, the college is a leader in experiential education and interdisciplinary research focused on discovering solutions to global challenges to benefit society.
Full-time Faculty External Research Awards (2022-2024)
Academy Members Awards
Herbert Levine University Distinguished Professor
Eduardo Sontag University Distinguished Professor
Mona Minkara Assistant Professor
National Science Foundation CAREER Award
National Institutes of Health R35 MIRA Award
142
Including 73 NSF CAREER Awards, and 24 DOD Young Investigator Awards
110 Engineering Departments 5 YOUNG INVESTIGATOR Awards
Professional Society Fellowships
10,481 3,274 2,420
Total Co-op Hires (AY2024)
Co-op Employer Partners (AY2022-2024)
TOTAL ENROLLMENT (Fall 2023) 65% Graduate 35% Undergraduate
Graduate Enrollment Growth
up 63% vs. 2018
New Faculty
Lital Davidi Assistant Professor
Jointly Appointed: Biology
PhD: The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 2014
Previously: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles
Scholarship Focus: Phyto-molecular biotechnology, with a focus on biofuels, natural products, and extreme environment adaptation
Caroline Blassick Assistant Teaching Professor
PhD: Boston University, 2024
Scholarship Focus: Single-cell optogenetics for the induction of gene expression and selection of individual Escherichia coli cells; control and characterization of temporal dynamics and cell-to-cell heterogeneity of gene regulatory networks in E. coli
Faculty by Research Area
Biomechanics and Mechanobiology
Rouzbeh Amini
Chiara Bellini
Guohao Dai
Daniel Grindle
Jessica Oakes
Harikrishnan Parameswaran
Jeffery Ruberti
Sandra Shefelbine
Tao Sun
Amir Vahabikashi
Ning Wang
Biomedical Devices and Bioimaging
Samuel Chung
Qianqian Fang
Miten Jain
Timothy Lannin
Mark Niedre
Esin Sozer
Tao Sun
Mohammad
Abbas Yaseen
Molecular, Cell, and Tissue Engineering
Anand Asthagiri
Ambika Bajpayee
Samuel Chung
Guohao Dai
Michael Jaeggli
Elizabeth Libby
Lee Makowski
Mona Minkara
Harikrishnan
Parameswaran
Sara Rouhanifard
Jeffrey Ruberti
Shiaoming Shi
Systems, Synthetic, and Computational Bioengineering
Saeed Amal
Benjamin Gyori
Miten Jain
Erel Levine
Herbert Levine
Elizabeth Libby
Mingyang Lu
Mona Minkara
Jessica Oakes
Nikolai Slavov
Eduardo Sontag
Kiran Vanaja
Lei Wang
Jing-Ke Weng
Raimond Winslow
New Institute for Mechanobiology at Northeastern
The Institute for Mechanobiology at Northeastern is one of only a few in the world specifically dedicated to mechanobiology study and innovation. It aims to accelerate mechanobiology discovery and technology to advance human medicine and health. Ning Wang, professor of bioengineering, is director of the institute, which is made up of faculty experts from the College of Engineering, College of Science, and Bouvé College of Health Sciences.
The institute will investigate the role of force and mechanics in biological systems, discover the root causes of mechanobiological pathologies that negatively affect
quality of life, design interventions and sensors to alter mechanical inputs and biological outputs, and pursue mechanotherapeutics that restore function or slow the progression of diseases. Mechanobiology can provide the critical link between a variety of pathologies and their root causes, leading directly to the development of effective therapeutics and prevention strategies for many currently untreatable and debilitating medical conditions. Learn
Institute for Mechanobiology
Faculty Honors and Awards
selected highlights
Named a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Eduardo Sontag, University Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, and bioengineering, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his career that has made breakthroughs in the mathematics of nonlinear and complex systems, with repercussions for biomedicine, systems biology, and neural networks. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the most prestigious organizations a scholar can be invited into. An interdisciplinary organization, it “convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor” to address the issues facing the world and to tackle new ideas.
Sontag’s work has focused on determining how to “model systems mathematically and how one can steer them in order to achieve desired purposes,” a field more broadly called control theory. These systems— and the purposes they might be steered toward—are numerous. The unifying concept in his work is the idea that states of systems change over time, such as the variables describing the dynamics of an airplane or a car in the context of a self-driving vehicle, or a cell in the
human body. His research is on theoretical foundations and underlying mathematics, developing conceptual principles and algorithms which enable applications by scientists and practitioners in different fields.
Sontag is a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), American Mathematical Society, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Other prestigious honors include the IFAC Technical Committee Award on Non-Linear Control Systems, which is the “highest distinction on nonlinear control systems research,” the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award—the highest recognition in control theory and engineering in the U.S., the W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize presented by SIAM, the IEEE Control Systems Field Award, and the IEEE CSS Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize.
Recognized With Young Investigator Awards From the NSF and NIH
Mona Minkara, assistant professor of bioengineering, received a five-year, $827,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award for “Decoding the Code of Glycan-Collectin Interactions: Computational Engineering of Surfactant Proteins for Tailored Glycan Recognition.” She also received a $1.95 million R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for Early-Stage Investigators from the National Institutes of Health for “Foundational Investigations into Bacterial Surface Glycan Dynamics.”
Minkara’s research applies advanced computational techniques to model and analyze the interactions of surfactant immunoproteins in the lungs, focusing on pulmonary surfactants, vital to lung function and immune defense. By investigating the molecular interactions between collectins, particularly surfactant proteins, and different pathogens, her work provides critical insights into how the body identifies and responds to disease.
Using cutting-edge computational methods, including molecular dynamics simulations, homology modeling, and molecular docking, Minkara’s research is decoding
the molecular mechanisms of glycan-collectin interactions to engineer surfactant proteins with enhanced viral glycan binding capabilities, while also conducting foundational investigations into the dynamics of bacterial surface glycans. Her work has the potential to influence global health by informing new approaches to combat respiratory conditions, improving diagnostics, and optimizing drug delivery systems through the lungs.
In addition to her research, Minkara has pioneered the Blind Scientist Toolkit, a comprehensive resource designed to enable nonvisual multisensorial scientific research. Through tactile models and technologies, this toolkit provides blind researchers with the tools necessary to engage with and contribute to cuttingedge scientific work, advancing inclusivity in STEM fields. As a blind scientist, Minkara continues to engineer multisensory tools for scientific research such as the lithophane data format featured on NPR.
by Alyssa Stone
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AIMBE Fellow
Eno Ebong, associate professor of chemical engineering, jointly appointed in bioengineering, was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering “for outstanding contributions to the field of vascular and endothelial cellular mechanobiology, focused on glycocalyxmediated health and disease mechanisms.” This prestigious honor is drawn from the top 2% of biomedical engineers.
Developing Methods To Control Cell-State Transitions
Lei Wang, assistant professor of bioengineering, jointly appointed in the College of Science, published research on “Sensing and Guiding Cell-State Transitions by Using Genetically Encoded Endoribonuclease-mediated MicroRNA Sensors” in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Such conditional activation of gene expression is durable and resistant to epigenetic silencing and could facilitate the monitoring of cellstate transitions in physiological and pathological conditions and eventually the “rewiring” of cell-state transitions for applications in organoid-based disease modelling, cellular therapies, and regenerative medicine.
Biomedical Engineering Society Fellow
Guohao Dai, professor of bioengineering, has been named a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society for contributions in vascular mechanobiology, 3D bioprinting vascular networks for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine applications, and transcriptional regulation of arterial venous vascular differentiation in health and diseases.
$4M NIH Grant To Develop Tools To Analyze Individual RNA Molecules
Meni Wanunu, professor of physics and bioengineering, and Sara Rouhanifard, assistant professor of bioengineering, in collaboration with Yale University, were awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for “Direct RNA Sequencing Using Electro-optical Zero-mode Waveguides and Custom Click Fluorescent Nucleotides.” They are developing an ultra-sensitive technology capable of reading the sequence and detecting the diversity of chemical modifications in RNA molecules, which would be a huge step forward in understanding the biology and diseasecausing events in human cells.
Photo by Bella Martinez
Photo by Matthew Modoono
Photo by Bella Martinez
Research Published in Matter Discovers
How Connective Tissues Are Formed
Research by Jeffrey Ruberti, Distinguished Professor of bioengineering (right), published in the journal Matter, suggests that connective tissues in the human body are more likely formed by cells pulling apart than coming together. Collaborators include Associate Research Scientist Seyed Mohammad Siadat, bioengineering; Alexandra Silverman, MS’21, bioengineering; and Jason Olszewski, E’24, bioengineering (left). The discovery could help lead to better treatments for fibrosis and other medical conditions that cause wounds to heal poorly.
Cell Nuclear Force Probe Reveals Mechanomemory That May Impact Cell Memory and Health
Ning Wang, professor of bioengineering, published research in Cell Reports that demonstrates a process of mechanomemory, or response long after applied force has ceased, within a cell’s nucleus. This discovery prompts a prolonged period of activation of a protein complex responsible for gene expression, which can lead to making new proteins and potentially healthier cells. Co-authors were his PhD students Fazlur Rashid and Sadia Kabbo.
AI Architecture To Detect Breast Cancer
Saeed Amal, assistant research professor of bioengineering, and his research team developed a new AI architecture that has detected breast cancer with a 99.7% accuracy rate. His research was published in the journal Cancers. The AI looks at high-resolution images and learns from historical data to identify cancer patterns and perform diagnoses. The framework could also help develop new AI models that can be used to diagnose rare and uncommon cancers that lack a lot of patient data.
ASME Top 25 Early-Career Professionals
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized Jessica Oakes, associate professor of bioengineering, on the Watch List of top 25 early-career professionals, and her work was highlighted in the ASME magazine in the article, “What Happens When We Inhale Things?” with applications from wildfire smoke to e-cigarettes.
Research on Cover of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Meni Wanunu, professor of physics, jointly appointed in bioengineering, had his research on “A Marcus-Type Inverted Region in the Translocation Kinetics of a Knotted Protein” featured on the cover of the November 30, 2023, issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Learn more about our accomplished faculty
Photo by Alyssa Stone
Student Successes
selected highlights
2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award Recipients
Bioengineering students Eden Gordon, E’23, Jason David Olszewski, E’24, and Ashka Patel, E’24, were recipients of the prestigious 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high-achieving scientists and engineers early in their careers.
IBSA Foundation for Scientific Research Doctoral Fellowship
Helna Mary Baby, a bioengineering PhD student advised by Associate Professor Ambika Bajpayee, is one of only six students worldwide to earn the prestigious IBSA Foundation for Scientific Research Doctoral Fellowship to continue her work on developing a novel gene delivery system to treat osteoarthritis. Her project was selected from a group of 248 project entries from 47 countries.
by Adam Glanzman
Knight-Hennessey Scholarship
Kritika Singh, E’20, bioengineering, was awarded the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, which will enable her to pursue a doctor of medicine degree at Stanford University. She received the Rhodes Scholarship in 2020. She also previously received the Harold D. Hodgkinson Achievement Award, and was a National Institutes of Health Oxford-Cambridge Scholar, and a Truman Scholar.
American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
PhD student Ana Vargas, bioengineering, received a Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association. Vargas was selected for her project “Pregnancy Induced Mechanobiological Remodeling in Maternal Vasculature in Health and Disease.”
ASTM Award for Innovative Amputation Implant Design
A team of Northeastern students, including bioengineering students, received an ASTM International Grant for their design of an implantable osseointegrative pylon for transradial amputations. The award recognizes senior undergraduate and graduate student projects that incorporate ASTM International standards.
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Eden Gordon, E’23 bioengineering
Jason Olszewski, E’24 bioengineering
Ashka Patel, E’24 bioengineering
Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Kaitlyn Ramesh, E’25, bioengineering, received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, one of the nation’s most prestigious, merit-based awards for undergraduate students who plan to pursue research careers in natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. She aspires to earn a PhD in computational biology to investigate the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration.
Three Fulbright Scholarships
Bioengineering students Emin Abrahamian, E’24, Benjamin Field, E’24, and Matthew Hiller, E’24, received Fulbright Scholarships, which are awarded to exceptional students to research, study, or teach English abroad, fostering diplomacy and mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries.
Research on Cover of Biomaterials Science
Research conducted by Chenzhen Zhang, PhD’23, bioengineering, and Hengli Zhang, PhD’25, bioengineering, advised by Associate Professor Ambika Bajpayee, was featured on the cover of Biomaterials Science Rebecca Carrier, Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering, collaborated with the team.
Emin Abrahamian, E’24
Benjamin Field, E’24
Matthew Hiller, E’24
Student Spotlights
Research, Co-op, and Global Experiences Lead to Medical School
Zachary Hoglund, E’24, bioengineering and biochemistry, received the 2024 Harold D. Hodgkinson Achievement Award, one of the highest honors a Northeastern University senior can receive.
The award caps off a remarkable undergraduate journey that included achieving academic excellence; completing two co-ops in a research lab; serving as president of Innovators for Global Health, a student group that partners with industry and universities in underdeveloped countries; presenting at academic and industry conferences; and co-authoring published papers.
“I really don’t think there’s anywhere other than Northeastern that could have given me that breadth of experience,” says Hoglund, who is now attending the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Hoglund was also the 2023 recipient of the Sears B. Condit Award, which provides a scholarship for outstanding scholastic achievement.
Growing up, Hoglund knew he wanted to be a physician, a plan that was inspired by two of his grandparents who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. He chose Northeastern in part because of the co-op option, which he believed would help him acquire work and research experience.
“I really wanted to pursue engineering because I saw it as a more unique path to becoming a physician,” Hoglund says. “I felt a technical background could allow me to have a greater impact as a doctor.”
He enrolled as a bioengineering student and soon switched to the combined bioengineering and biochemistry major to include pre-med courses. For his first co-op, he joined the Hyman Lab at Harvard Medical School, affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, and worked with a team of researchers focused on the neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease. His researched focused on tau, one of the proteins known to have a role in Alzheimer’s.
He was so inspired by the research that he continued working in the lab on a part-time basis at the conclusion of his co-op and then returned to the lab for a second sixmonth co-op experience.
“One of the reasons this went so well was the relationships with the people in the lab,” Hoglund says. “We trusted each other, and it was a great collaborative experience. It showed me how I want to collaborate with others in the future.”
One result of this collaboration for Hoglund was co-authoring research papers, including “Spatial Characterization of Tangle-Bearing Neurons and Ghost Tangles in the Human Inferior Temporal Gyrus With Three-Dimensional Imaging,” which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Communications in 2023. He presented the research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in 2023. He also presented an updated version of this research later in 2023 at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting.
During his undergraduate years, Hoglund made campus involvement a priority. His role as president of the Innovators for Global Health student group had the greatest impact on him. As part of the organization, he worked to develop low-cost medical devices for communities in Ghana through partnerships with three medical centers, the University of Ghana, and Academic City University.
Hoglund and other members of the student group received two Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships’ Project-based Exploration for the Advancement of Knowledge (PEAK) Experiences Awards from Northeastern in 2024 and 2023 to fund the design and development of a suction pump stopper, an oxygen line splitter, and hospital beds. In each case, materials that can be sourced in Ghana, including the bedding, were used.
The Northeastern team visited Ghana during Spring Break and worked with partners to ensure they could continue developing these products using local materials.
“This taught me about addressing the deficits in healthcare with current solutions that we have,” Hoglund says.
“I think this was the best place for my undergraduate experience,” Hoglund says. “The level of research experience I was able to get would not have been possible through traditional internships. I really appreciate the opportunities that were offered here.”
“ I really don’t think there’s anywhere other than Northeastern that could have given me that breadth of experience.”
Zachary Hoglund, E’24 Bioengineering and Biochemistry
Harold D. Hodgkinson Award recipient, Zachary Hoglund, E’24, bioengineering and biochemistry, has completed two research co-ops, traveled to Ghana as president of the Innovators for Global Health student group, published research, and presented at conferences. Next step: medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vineel Kondiboyina, PhD’24
BIOENGINEERING
Advised by Sandra Shefelbine, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Bioengineering
After earning his master’s degree in bioengineering at Northeastern, Vineel Kondiboyina worked in industry as a product development engineer before beginning his PhD in bioengineering in 2020. Kondiboyina focused his research on the mechanobiology of limb growth. Using mechanical testing, computational modeling, and biochemical characterization, he explored the dynamics of tissue stiffness and composition changes during limb development.
His investigations elucidated the role of calcium signaling in mechanotransduction processes within cartilage cells. By applying mechanical load to cartilage under a confocal microscope, he observed and quantified changes in calcium signaling, shedding light on the intricate interplay between mechanics and cellular responses during limb growth.
Kondiboyina was a co-author of published research in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. He also shared his research and fostered academic dialogue at industry conferences such as the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering & Biotransport Conference.
As a student, Kondiboyina excelled as both an educator and a mentor. He was honored with the 2024 Outstanding PhD Student Award in Teaching from Northeastern, and the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the College of Engineering. In 2023, he conducted a virtual workshop on research principles with graduate-level students at Sarojini Naidu Vanitha Mahavidyalaya, a women’s college in Telangana, India. He is also the founder of the Rachapalli Suryakumari Scholarship, created in honor of his grandmother who was an advocate for women’s education and social change, to support female students in Kodiboyina’s hometown in India. To date, scholarships have been awarded to 20 female students.
Following graduation, Kondiboyina began postdoctoral work at Northeastern to continue his research on how cartilage mechanical properties and material composition change during skeletal growth. He will be collaborating with Niamh Nowlan, professor of biomedical engineering at the University College Dublin (UCD) School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and teach mechanical testing of cartilage to UCD students.
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Mona Minkara, assistant professor of bionengineering, is the recipient of two early-career awards, including the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and the R35 MIRA Award from the National Institutes of Health. Using advanced computational techniques, she is studying glycan immune response to viruses and bacterial behavior, leading to new ways to enhance health and prevent infections. She also pioneered the Blind Scientist Toolkit to enable nonvisual multisensorial scientific research. Read the full article on page 5.
