CrossLink 2024

IMMUNITY BY DESIGN: RE-ENGINEERING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

FEATURES INNOVATIVE INSIGHTS

Pioneering discoveries transforming health

AI- POWERED ATHLETICS

Newly funded UF and Sport Collaborative.

Page No. 16

HARNESSING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TO TRANSFORM IMMUNITY AND COMBAT DIVERSE DISEASES

NEW DATA BIOREPOSITORY

Transforming the way chronic pain is studied and treated.

Page No. 22

UF biomedical engineers are developing innovative approaches to tackle a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, osteoarthritis, cancer, HIV, periodontal disease, bacterial vaginosis, and psoriasis. Despite the diversity in their methods, their research is united by a common goal: employing engineering principles to decode and harness the immune system’s potential in discovering new therapies. BRIDGING THE GAP

Inspiring students through hands-on cell culture workshop.

Welcome to the 11th issue of CrossLink, a magazine dedicated to the research and education activities of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida.

As chair of this distinguished department, I am filled with immense pride and excitement to connect with you. Being part of this extraordinary community at the University of Florida is both an honor and a privilege.

What sets our department apart is not only our top-tier academic programs, groundbreaking research, and commitment to societal impact, but also the remarkable people behind it all. Our dedicated faculty, talented students, and supportive staff foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and academic excellence. In this latest edition of CrossLink, I am thrilled to showcase their outstanding achievements.

The 11th edition of CrossLink highlights the transformative field of immune engineering, where our faculty are pioneering new approaches to harness the immune system to treat diseases. This reflects the innovative and forward-thinking spirit that defines our department. We are also proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our esteemed alumni, whose mentorship and contributions to our students continue to be invaluable.

In this issue, you’ll read about the ongoing Wertheim transformation, a faculty member’s inspiring

recovery from a brain injury, and how another is revolutionizing the field of radiation oncology. We spotlight two faculty members using AI to elevate UF’s sports programs and explore the development of a new data biorepository to advance pain research.

We also pay tribute to Dr. Win Phillips, a pivotal figure in the history of BME at UF, whose legacy will be long remembered.

Additionally, we shine a light on our incredible students—some who have first-authored impactful publications, and others who share why they chose UF BME to pursue their Ph.D. We also introduce a new hands-on cell culture workshop created by students, for students.

Looking ahead, our department is poised for even greater accomplishments. With continued investment in research infrastructure and strong support from our partners, we are well-positioned to lead in the rapidly evolving landscape of biomedical engineering.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement with our mission. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare and making a lasting impact on society.

Sincerely,

Cherie Stabler

J. Crayton Pruitt Family and UF Foundation Preeminence Professor

A publication of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida FALL 2024

INTERIM DEAN, HERBERT WERTHEIM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FORREST MASTERS

DEPARTMENT CHAIR

Cherie Stabler

EDITORS

Candi Crimmins

Emily Jackson Cherie Stabler

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Candi Crimmins

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Jessica Aldrich

Melissa Lutz Blouin

Candi Crimmins

Karen Dooley

Michelle Jaffee

Dave Schlenker

UF BME STAFF: Ismael Arroyo Engineer II, Teaching Specialist for Senior Design

Janie Barnes Fiscal Assistant

Jeff Clarke Associate Director of Development

Karen Crespo Research Administrator

Candi Crimmins Marketing & Communications

Kimberly Depue Academic Assistant and Events Coordinator

Kaitlynn Gravely IT Professional

Jessica Grecco Fiscal Assistant

Kelley Hines Manager of Core & Laboratory Infrastructure

Mae Howell Fiscal Assistant

Emily Jackson Assistant to Department Chair

Ade Kumuyi Graduate Advisor

Francis Lai Undergraduate Advisor

Hollie Martin Human Resources Generalist

Britt Moore Fiscal Assistant

The establishment and growth of UF’s biomedical engineering department owe much to the visionary leadership of Win Phillips, a distinguished figure in UF history. As a multifaceted leader deeply committed to the university’s advancement, Phillips played a pivotal role in shaping UF’s trajectory toward becoming a top-tier public institution. His legacy of selflessness, strategic insight, and dedication to excellence will continue to inspire generations within the Gator Nation.

Jenna Ross Research Administrator

Obed Santana Research Administrator

Matt Taylor BMS Building Manager

Natalie Wasykowski Associate Director of Administrative Services

Cherie Stabler

Dr. Win Phillips at UF BME’s 15th anniversary celebration. Front row, left to right: Drs. Anthony Brennan, Christopher Batich, Win Phillips, former Dean Cammy Abernathy, and Ed “Mark” Staples.

FINDING INSPIRATION

REFLECTING ON THE PAST TO SHAPE THE FUTURE

On Oct. 1, 2015, a bold new vision was unveiled at our college, setting the stage to transform the future of engineering education and inspiring generations of Gator engineers to come. Many remember that auspicious day, yet few know the extraordinary journey that aligned all the stars for this pivotal moment.

For nearly four years, the college had been diligently executing its new critical mission: to usher in the New Engineer — one who is not only technically competent but also capable of leading and innovating in the 21st-century world. During this transformative period, the college found a champion to help lead this ambitious mission.

2015

The naming of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering with a $50 million gift from Herbert and Nicole Wertheim that catalyzed a $300 million public-private partnership.

2020

From 2017-2020, the college grew to more than 10,000 students and expanded faculty to more than 300.

Enter Dr. Herbert “Herbie” Wertheim, an extraordinary serial inventor, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. With an unwavering dedication to exceptional achievement and a passion for inspiring others, Wertheim recognized the visionary leadership of our college and wanted to be part of it. An accomplished ophthalmic physician and successful alumnus, he approached former Dean Cammy Abernathy and her team with a propitious question: “What could be accomplished if you had the resources to make this college one of the best in the country?”

Today, we proudly uphold our legacy of excellence, which would not have been possible without Dr. Herbert “Herbie” Wertheim.

2016

An informal groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the new 84,000 sq. ft. Herbert Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence, a state-of-the-art research and education facility.

2021

Dedication of the flagship building of the college, the Herbert Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence.

Study reveals bias in AI tools when diagnosing women’s health issue

By Karen Dooley

Dr. Herbert “Herbie” Wertheim visited UF BME in fall 2024, where he toured the labs of Drs. Stabler, Lewis, Allen, Phelps, and RinaldiRamos. His visit was an inspiring opportunity to showcase our cutting-edge research and highlight the innovative work happening in our department.

Machine learning algorithms designed to diagnose a common infection that affects women showed a diagnostic bias among ethnic groups, University of Florida researchers found.

While artificial intelligence tools offer great potential for improving health care delivery, practitioners and scientists warn of their risk for perpetuating racial inequities. Published in the Nature journal Digital Medicine, this is the first paper to evaluate fairness among these tools in connection to a women’s health issue.

“Machine learning can be a great tool in medical diagnostics, but we found it can show bias toward different ethnic groups,” said Ruogu Fang, an associate professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering and the study’s co-corresponding. “This is alarming for women’s health as there already are existing disparities that vary by ethnicity.”

The researchers evaluated the fairness of machine learning in diagnosing bacterial vaginosis, or BV, a common condition affecting women of reproductive age, which has clear diagnostic differences among ethnic groups.

Ivana Parker and co-corresponding author Ruogu Fang, both faculty members in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, analyzed data from 400 women, with 100 participants representing each ethnic group: white, Black, Asian, and Hispanic.

In investigating the ability of four machine learning models to predict BV in women with no symptoms, researchers say the accuracy varied among ethnicities. Hispanic women had the most false-positive diagnoses, and Asian women received the most false-negative.

“AI is a powerful tool that allows us to identify understudied microbial combinations that vary by race and ethnicity in BV prediction,” said Parker.

Parker said that while they were interested in understanding how AI tools predict disease for specific ethnicities, their study also helps medical scientists understand the factors associated with bacteria in women of varying ethnic backgrounds, which can lead to improved treatments.

BV, one of the most common vaginal infections, can cause discomfort and pain and happens when natural bacteria levels are out of balance. While there are symptoms associated with BV, many people have no symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose.

It doesn’t often cause complications, but in some cases, BV can increase the risk of sexually transmitted infections, miscarriage, and premature births.

The researchers said their findings demonstrate the need for improved methods for building the AI tools to mitigate health care bias.

IMMUNITY BY DESIGN: RE-ENGINEERING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

HARNESSING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TO TRANSFORM

IMMUNITY AND COMBAT DIVERSE DISEASES

By Melissa Lutz Blouin

UF biomedical engineers are developing innovative approaches to tackle a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, osteoarthritis, cancer, HIV, periodontal disease, bacterial vaginosis, and psoriasis. Despite the diversity in their methods, their research is united by a common goal: employing engineering principles to decode and harness the immune system’s potential in discovering new therapies.

The immune system plays a critical role in protecting the body by preventing pathogens from causing infection and repairing injuries. However, it sometimes needs assistance. When parts of the immune system don’t function correctly, chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and cancer can arise. While current therapies for these conditions exist, many cancer medications have concerning side effects, and treatments for autoimmune diseases often address symptoms without curing the disease.

MERGING MATHMATICS AND BIOTECH TO FIGHT CANCER

Meghan FerrallFairbanks, Ph.D., an assistant professor, studies the immune system environment, focusing on the interactions that occur in cancer.

“Part of your immune system is always surveilling for cancer,” FerrallFairbanks said.

“When you get cancer, your immune system has failed in some way.”

To develop a snapshot of the dynamics between cancer and the immune system, Ferrall-Fairbanks merges both experimental techniques and mathematical modeling in her research. For example, to better understand the ecology of the immune system microenvironment in kidney cancer, she worked with a kidney surgeon to procure primary kidney tissues and cells from biopsies. Merging advanced molecular biology techniques and mathematical tools, she then identifies trends that may provide insight into the behavior of the immune cells within the tumor and how this can play a role in not only progression but treatment.

“

With each specific cancer, we ask, ‘what are the most important factors?’ she said. You really have to start with scratch, because each form of cancer is different.

- Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks

“

“Cancer doesn’t play by the rules,” FerrallFairbanks said. “Sometimes, cancer can work with immune cells to get them to do its bidding.”

Ferrall-Fairbanks has expanded this approach to other kinds of cancer, including one called chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, or CMML, a cancer that affects the blood stem cells that create immune cells. Often found incidentally in older patients, it can currently only be treated with a bone marrow transplant, which is often not feasible. Thus, the standard of care is watchful waiting and symptom management.

Outcomes from this approach are unpredictable. In some patients, the disease gets worse, while others remain stable. Ferrall-Fairbanks and her colleagues seek to understand the factors that impact the immune system in both cases. She’s an investigator on a clinical trial for CMML

patients, who check in monthly with clinicians to report on their health and give blood samples. Ferrall-Fairbanks examines the blood samples, seeking markers or signals in the cells that might correlate to disease progression.

“We’re looking to predict who might need to be monitored more aggressively,” she said. By analyzing the data from protein expression in cells and looking at RNA sequence signals, she has found a marker, but it doesn’t reproduce easily in clinical settings, so she continues to look for more robust markers suitable for the doctor’s office.

Ferrall-Fairbanks also applies these tools more broadly to other cancers, including ovarian and pancreatic cancer, using mathematical modeling of tumor ecology, to determine which cancer cells are resistant to immunotherapy and which ones are not.

“With each specific cancer, we ask, ‘what are the most important factors?’” she said. “You really have to start with scratch, because each form of cancer is different.”

MEGHAN FERRALLFAIRBANKS

UF biomedical engineers are looking within the immune system itself for solutions. Their approach involves first understanding the dynamics between the immune system and the disease, and then engineering therapies that bolster the immune system’s ability to fight these conditions.

SMART BIOMATERIALS TO TREAT INFLAMMATION

Greg Hudalla, Ph.D., an associate professor and Integra Life Sciences Term Professor, researches ways to deliver medicines exactly where they need to be in the body.

“When a patient has a damaged joint, like a knee or hip, we don’t have them swallow the implant,” he said. “We know that, to be effective, those devices need to be placed in the right position.” The same goes for swallowing pills to treat diseases related to inflammation.

Today, people generally take drugs to treat inflammation in pill form or by injection. While these drugs have therapeutic value, many have side effects that can be almost as problematic as the diseases they treat. Hudalla and his collaborators seek to modify drugs so they deliver the medication only where it’s needed.

“Our goal is to place the drug at the right location in the body for the right duration of time,” he said.

Hudalla’s lab explores ways to modify drugs so they stay in affected tissue once injected. To do this, they’ve combined certain drugs with a molecule that binds with sugars present in body tissue, helping to anchor the drug at the injection site.

Because the molecules used in their modified drugs bind to tissue, they can be applied with different drugs to treat various diseases. Hudalla worked with UF professor Benjamin Keselowsky, Ph.D., and colleagues at other universities to create a sugar-binding antiinflammatory drug that successfully reduced inflammation from various diseases in two preclinical models.

“Now we’re working toward clinical translation,” he said.

Another approach involves modifying the drug so copies of it stick to one another, forming a gel. This gel can pass through a needle and then solidify, almost like an internal bandage, slowing the rate at which the drug disperses from the injection site, allowing it to deliver its therapeutic effect more effectively.

“Our engineering approach is design-focused and disease-promiscuous,” Hudalla said. “The beauty of our approach is that we don’t have to re-engineer the drug to use it for a different indication.”

Our engineering approach is design-focused and disease promiscuous, Hudalla said.

The beauty of our design is we don’t have to re-design the drug to use it for a different indication.

- Greg Hudalla

“ “

GREG HUDALLA

ENGINEERING IMMUNOMODULATORY MATERIALS

Benjamin Keselowsky, Ph.D., professor, researches ways to “re-educate” the immune system to stop it from attacking itself.

The body’s immune system works to identify foreign threats in the form of pathogenassociated molecular patterns and antigens and acts to eliminate the threat. However, sometimes the immune system overreacts, damaging body tissues and destroying healthy cells, which can cause autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and gum disease. Current treatments include systemic drugs, many of which have side effects or toxicity at effective levels.

Keselowsky seeks to deliver drugs directly to the site of inflammation. He targeted an enzyme called indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, or IDO, that reduces inflammation, one of the body’s immune responses.

To keep IDO at the desired site, Keselowsky worked with biomedical engineering professor Greg Hudalla and colleagues at other institutions to test this approach in various diseases using preclinical models. They created a new protein, a fusion of IDO and a protein called galectin-3 (IDO-Gal3), that anchors itself to inflamed tissue when injected. Findings from their paper, published last year in Nature Biomedical Engineering, showed marked improvement in diseases including psoriasis, osteoarthritis, and periodontal disease when the animals were injected with IDO-Gal3 at the site of inflammation, where it can be most effective.

“This approach has a lot of potential as a therapeutic,” Keselowsky said. He and his colleagues are currently seeking partners to advance this approach for clinical use. “We’ve shown the promise of it for multiple diseases.”

Keselowsky is also exploring another direction, working with a surgeon to study the use of this protein to prevent ischemic reperfusion injury, which occurs during organ transplantation. When the donor organ is removed, it loses blood flow, and when circulation is re-established in the recipient, tissue damage and inflammation occur. They have now shown in preclinical models that systemic treatment with circulating IDO reduced tissue damage.

“That helped us push this approach into new therapeutic treatments,” he said.

BENJAMIN KESELOWSKY

LEARNING FROM THE BUGS

Jamal Lewis, Ph.D., an associate professor, references the HBO series The Last of Us when discussing his research. The show opens with a conversation between a virologist and a mycologist, debating the next existential threat to humanity.

While the virologist argues that a viral pandemic would be the worst, the mycologist claims disease-causing fungi will prove to be the greatest threat because we don’t have established ways to fight them.

In his laboratory, Lewis views fungi more optimistically. He is exploring how to exploit the way fungi infect the body to deliver therapeutic drugs to targeted areas.

Lewis’s research focuses on a fungus called Cryptococcus neoformans, which infects people who are immunosuppressed, including those with HIV. The fungus invades the immune system through the lungs, where many immune cells, called macrophages, typically work to clear pathogens. However, these fungi hijack macrophages, causing them to transport the fungi to the brain, where they trigger cryptococcal meningitis, a life-threatening swelling of the brain.

Once in the brain, the fungal cells escape from within the macrophages. “It’s called vomocytosis — the fungi get the macrophages to ‘vomit’ them out,” Lewis said.

The fungi have overcome a challenge that biomedical researchers still face — how to get drugs into the brain.

“We want to know what the fungi are doing that enables them to travel from the lungs to the brain,” Lewis said. He works to develop particles and particle systems that mimic what cryptococcal cells do, allowing doctors to deliver drugs to the brain without negative side effects.

To achieve this, Lewis has developed tools to examine fungal cell behavior. He uses fluorescence microscopy combined with an algorithm to understand how long the cells remain in the macrophage, when they are spit out, and how many macrophage cells do this. They also isolate the fungal cells after vomocytosis occurs.

“Macrophages eat the cells, then 12 to 14 hours later, they spit them back out. How? Why?” Lewis said.

Next, Lewis and his colleagues turned their attention to dendritic cells. As the link between innate and adaptive immunity, dendritic cells play a different role than macrophages. They travel from the site of fungal infection to the lymph nodes, the “command center” of the immune response, alerting T and B cells to the issue.

“They do a different job and end up in a different place,” Lewis said. “We have shown that these cells also exhibit vomocytosis.”

Lewis uses a preclinical model to study the distribution of fungal cells and observe where they end up. His team examines the changes to macrophages and dendritic cells to understand the environmental factors that turn them into

delivery vehicles instead of immune system defenders. They hope to modify biomaterials in the lab, such as poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), to create drug delivery vehicles based on lessons learned from the fungus.

We

want to know what the bugs are doing that enable them to travel from the lungs to the brain.

-Jamal Lewis “

“

JAMAL LEWIS

APPLYING AI TO UNDERSTAND HOW BACTERIA REPROGRAM IMMUNE CELLS

Ivana Parker, Ph.D., an assistant professor, seeks to answer key research questions to reduce the global burden of HIV. She studies diseases such as HIV and bacterial vaginosis from an epigenetic perspective, focusing on the processes that determine and can alter the structure and function of DNA. Recent research shows that some bacteria and viruses can reprogram innate immune cells at the epigenetic level, making them inflammatory.

“Our ultimate goal is to understand the mechanisms of this reprogramming so we can learn how these factors influence disease,” she said.

Parker focuses on histones, proteins that bind to DNA and shape its structure. Her lab uses a mycobacterium called BCG to stimulate cells and initiate reprogramming, then employs proteomics to study how histones change within immune cells after stimulation.

“We generate data in the lab and also use preexisting data sets for targets of interest,” she said. They map out changes in the proteins being produced and changes in phosphorylation, which signal alterations in cell function.

Her team applies this work to the vaginal microbiome, a subset of the human microbiome consisting of bacteria that live in the vaginal environment. Women have unique microbiota that vary based on race, ethnicity, diet, stress, and other environmental factors. Differences in the vaginal microbiome can lead to increased or decreased susceptibility to HIV infection, with some bacteria correlated with heightened inflammation.

“We want to understand how histone posttranslational modifications work to promote disease so we can control them and restore a healthy state,” Parker said.

The line between healthy and pathological can blur in immune cells, Parker explained. Innate immune cells destroy invaders while causing inflammation — like the itch of a bug bite or swelling around a scrape. The issue arises when the infection remains but the immune response leads to ongoing inflammation.

Parker and her colleagues use artificial intelligence to analyze how bacteria interact to promote health or disease. This allows them to identify trends and microbes of interest within the vaginal microbiome. By analyzing large data sets, they can explore disease outcomes based on ethnicity and accurately predict outcomes for populations disproportionately affected by diseases such as HIV.

“By looking at these factors, we can improve, we can improve the accuracy of prediction of the populations most vulnerable to infection,” Parker said.

Our ultimate goal is to understand the mechanisms of the reprogramming so we can understand how these factors influence disease. -Ivana Parker “ “

IVANA PARKER

Dr. Ivana Parker addresses health disparities in vulnerable populations through her research, with a focus on HIV prevention for disproportionately affected women. Mentoring and outreach are central to her work. In collaboration with Baleka Wellness, she led a reproductive health forum in South Africa to empower young women through education and mentorship.

LOCAL CONTROL OF AUTOIMMUNITY

Currently, there is no cure for people with Type 1 diabetes. Their immune systems seek out and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, requiring them to manage blood sugar through insulin injections.

Edward A. Phelps, Ph.D., an associate professor, aims to design biomaterials that interact with the immune system to prevent the destruction of beta cells and allow the immune response to function properly.

“In Type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing beta cells of the islet are destroyed by an autoimmune attack,” Phelps said. “Our research interests lie at the interface of biomaterials engineering and the biology and treatment of pancreatic islet diseases such as Type 1 diabetes.”

Phelps is working to create hydrogels composed of small, spherical particles of polymer material — “Think of a ball pit, except the balls are microscopic,” he said — that can turn off the immune cells attacking beta cells. The hydrogel also surrounds and supports transplanted replacement beta cells.

Using cell graft models in preclinical studies, Phelps has developed a hydrogel that targets autoreactive T cells, the rogue immune cells responsible for killing beta cells. The hydrogel alters the behavior of these T cells, making them non-cytotoxic.

Phelps is also investigating specific locations for implanting the beta cell-hydrogel mixture. Promising sites include beneath the skin or under the kidney capsule. The mixture of spherical microgels and beta cells is injected, re-forming into a cohesive implant. Since the beta cells are encased in the hydrogel, the goal is for T cells to interact with the gel and be deactivated, allowing the beta cells to survive and function properly.

“Our first series of papers focused on generating the material,” he said. Afterward, the focus was on adding a type of molecular ‘Velcro’ to the ball pit so the hydrogel wouldn’t fall apart easily,” he said. The gel particles can separate and stick back together, making it a versatile therapeutic that can be delivered by injection without damaging the gel.

VISUALIZING DIABETES IN A DISH

“In Type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing beta cells of the islet are destroyed by an auto-immune attack,” Phelps said.

“Our research interests lie at the interface of biomaterials engineering and the biology and treatment of diseases of the pancreatic islets such as Type 1 diabetes.”

Understanding and developing therapeutic approaches to stop the immune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in Type 1 diabetes has been hindered by the difficulty of studying these interactions in humans. To address this challenge, a team of trainees in Cherie Stabler’s lab is creating a benchtop system composed of human cells within an extracellular matrix. This 3D platform offers unique insights into how immune cells are recruited and selectively kill beta cells.

Beyond understanding autoimmune destruction, this human-centric benchtop system could also be used to screen therapeutic agents. “Over 95% of therapeutic approaches seeking to alter Type 1 diabetes progression have failed in the clinic,” Stabler said. “We hope this new platform helps identify promising clinical targets more accurately and earlier.”

-Edward Phelps “ “

Her team and their collaborators integrate immunology, materials science, and microfluidics concepts in a collaborative approach to create this system, showcasing the versatility of biomedical engineers in addressing complex problems.

EDWARD PHELPS

CHERIE STABLER

Cherie

MODULATING IMMUNE RESPONSES AFTER TISSUE INJURY AND TUMOR DEVELOPMENT

Blanka Sharma, Ph.D., an associate professor and J. Crayton Pruitt Family Term Fellow, seeks to understand the immune system at its most basic level to determine why it sometimes overfunctions and, at other times, underfunctions.

“There’s a need to understand how the immune system is working with you and against you,” she said.

Sharma studies osteoarthritis and cancer, which seem worlds apart. However, each may hold clues to treating the other — tumors suppress the immune system, while osteoarthritis involves chronic inflammation, keeping the immune system overactive. The mechanisms driving one disease may help diminish the other.

Her research focuses on modulating the immune system in both directions.

In one project, she develops nanomaterials that protect tissues from inflammationinduced oxidative stress. These materials have antioxidant properties that suppress the inflammatory process causing pain and joint deterioration in osteoarthritis.

These antioxidant nanomaterials could also help treat tumors, as scavenging oxidative stress helps keep natural killer cells, which target tumors, active.

Another project involves delivering a recombinant synthetic protein to a joint to promote healing using biodegradable polymers. The protein can shut down macrophages, the “first responders” that initiate the cycle of inflammation and tissue destruction, to minimize inflammation. Tumors use a similar strategy to shut down the immune system, and Sharma aims to manipulate the same pathways to turn off chronic inflammation in tissues.

To identify the correct material properties and dosages for these approaches, Sharma is exploring more efficient ways to screen agents.

“We’re modeling cancer in a dish, using human cells within a 3D environment,” she said. This approach uses unique biomaterials to model the immunosuppressive features of the tumor environment. Current tumor models exist in 2D form, but Sharma’s group is creating a 3D model. They use synthetic hydrogels to introduce and examine the behavior of various molecules in the tumor microenvironment. These techniques allow the team to grow cancer cells and study the immunosuppressive environment they create. They can then manipulate the biochemistry and biophysics of the system to see how they can activate the immune system’s natural killer cells to target cancer cells.

“You really have to think about the whole environment,” she said.

The immune cells involved in the tumor environment also play a role in processes like placenta formation and organ rejection, among others.

“We can apply this knowledge in a number of different contexts,” she said.

There’s a need to understand how the immune system is working with you and against you.

- Blanka Sharma “ “

Whether their research focuses on cancer, meningitis, AIDS, osteoarthritis, diabetes, or any other debilitating or life-threatening disease, UF biomedical engineers seek understanding of what these diseases have in common: Their interaction with the immune system. Through understanding the dynamics of this interaction, they seek potential ways to harness the power of the immune system through engineering to fight diseases.

BLANKA SHARMA

BME Professor Takes on New Roles to Accelerate Translational Biomedical Research

With new roles at the college and department levels, Integra LifeSciences Term Professor Greg Hudalla, Ph.D., hopes to advance the translation of biomedical research at the University of Florida campus through new partnerships, facilities, and graduate programs.

As the new strategic advisor for biomedical research translation in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (HWCOE), Hudalla supports the HWCOE associate dean for research and facilities in coordinating biomedical research facilities and investments, and serves as a link to the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and other campus units dedicated to translational research.

“The University of Florida is poised to further expand its translational impact by creating infrastructure and training programs invested in improving human health,” he said. This strategic vision leverages UF’s unique co-localization of engineering, medicine, and life sciences colleges. Areas of interest include expanding biomanufacturing resources and training programs, which would not only elevate the university’s ability to make and test agents, such as drugs, proteins, and biologics, for clinical translation but also provide transdisciplinary educational experiences for students.

Hudalla’s role also involves identifying areas for investment in biomedical research and removing obstacles to collaboration. He also seeks to connect researchers, clinicians, and administrators across campus to leverage current infrastructure and foster new collaborations.

“We want to build teams that allow our technologies to become reality,” he said. While the six health-related colleges comprising UF Health are obvious partners, Hudalla has experience working with colleagues from unexpected backgrounds, including a collaboration

The University of Florida is poised to further expand its translational impact by creating infrastructure and training programs invested in improving human health.

- Greg Hudalla

“ “

with a professor from the Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences who created a way to stabilize biological drugs using a molecule from sweet corn.

“We’re finding pathways through most units on campus,” he said.

From chemists working on basic research to physicians seeking clinical trial options for patients, Hudalla seeks to help connect them with the college’s engineering expertise to take their biomedical research to the next level.

In addition to his translational role, Hudalla now oversees the master’s program for the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, a role that will also lead to transformation.

“We’re currently identifying new ways to train the next generation of BME graduate students,” he said. Many people seeking master’s degrees either already have industry experience or want to obtain their degree and find work in industry. With this focus in mind, Hudalla and his graduate committee are exploring new avenues to provide more industry-centric opportunities to master’s students. Leveraging existing clinical partnerships and the design program is an easy first step.

“Design curriculum usually starts in the junior year for undergraduates, with a capstone project that leads to some kind of prototype. Expanding our design program to master’s students can not only elevate their design training but also help them gain project management and leadership experience by having candidates work up to leading an undergraduate design team,” Hudalla said.

Alongside these new initiatives, Hudalla received the Integra LifeSciences Term Professorship in October 2023. This five-year appointment, given to preeminent faculty in the biomedical engineering department, aims to attract and retain researchers devoted to cutting-edge work in regenerative medicine.

Greg Hudalla, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Integra LifeSciences Term Professor & Graduate Coordinator

Brain Trust

Mapping the brain—and a path back from her own injury.

By:Michelle Jaffee

Even after years of studying deep brain stimulation, what fascinates Aysegul Gunduz the most is the brain’s ability to adapt — to allow artificial electrical current to alter cell activity and quell tremors or tics, seizures or involuntary muscle contractions.

“People say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but you really can,” says Gunduz, a biomedical engineer and director of UF’s Brain Mapping Laboratory.

Three and a half years ago, her longstanding appreciation of the brain’s plasticity was put to the test: She herself was wheeled in under the bright lights, her brain the one to be operated on.

She had been training for a triathlon on a new bicycle when she suddenly hit a rough patch of pavement, lost control and fell. Although she was wearing a helmet, the impact caused a traumatic brain injury and a need for emergency surgery to relieve pressure in her head and stop seizures.

Dr. Brian Hoh, chair of UF neurosurgery, performed the operation. The days before and after were a blur to her, but one thing she knew in her heart, she says: “I owe him my life.”

Every day in intensive care, she was visited by her longtime collaborators Dr. Michael Okun, a neurologist, and Dr. Kelly Foote, a neurosurgeon. A decade earlier, Okun and Foote, now co-directors of the Fixel Institute, had been searching for an expert who could analyze brain signals in their pursuit of continuing to improve deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and other conditions. They’d been working as a team ever since.

“She is creative, she is innovative, and she is brilliant,” Okun says. “She’s an expert at taking the language of the brain and converting it into units that we can use to decode certain symptoms and develop therapies.”

Gunduz sensed quickly it was the right fit. “Sometimes clinicians think engineers are like technicians who magically put together the things they want,” she says with a chuckle. “But Mike and Kelly gave me an equal seat at the table. They lift up people around them.”

Years later, as she healed from the accident, support and encouragement from many — her fiancé (now husband), colleagues and family back in Turkey — helped her get back on track. Care by UF neuropsychologist Russell Bauer, an expert in traumatic brain injury, and the UF Health rehab team helped her get back to work and fueled her determination.

Over time, her perspective on the accident has evolved. “As ironic as it is for this to happen to a brain researcher, I knew my brain could regain the functions that were impaired,” says Gunduz, whose many awards over the years include the Gator Nation Leadership Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists and engineers beginning independent careers.

Support and encouragement from her family and colleagues helped Dr. Gunduz get back on her bike — and back to her research —  after a traumatic brain injury.

“Having worked with a lot of neurosurgical patients, I knew that if you keep at it, your brain can heal itself,” she says. “So that kept me going, as well as the promise I had to my Ph.D. students. And my father is a physical medicine rehabilitation doctor back in Turkey, so that kept me going, too.”

All along, she held onto a deep belief in her capacity to grow, a belief that stretched back to her school days, when a teacher once told her, “I don’t see you becoming an engineer.” After initial tears, she didn’t give up, and in summer 2023 she shared the teacher’s words on social media on the day she was promoted to full professor of biomedical engineering.

Her determination to recover from the accident and get back to her research was no surprise to longtime colleagues such as Peter Brunner, who worked with Gunduz during her postdoctoral fellowship at Albany Medical College in 2011.

“She not only made a remarkable recovery, but she also has gained extremely valuable insight for herself on how the human brain is plastic and how it can recover,” says Brunner, an associate professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. “This is really a compliment to all the physicians involved in her recovery but also to her perseverance and strong push to move forward.”

Not only did she make it through, he says, but “she came back out on the other side even stronger.”

Brunner saw the same spark in her at the start of her career, when she chose to pursue a line of technological research considered risky at the time: detecting debilitating tics, which then was seen as the cutting edge of what scientists thought could be done.

“She picked something that’s really difficult and literally bet the farm on it,” Brunner says. “She picked something nobody really saw taking off and was extremely successful and developed herself into one of the world experts in deep brain stimulation.”

In the operating room, Dr. Gunduz collects neurophysiological data to decode brain signals and refine aspects of deep brain stimulation.

Today, Gunduz, the inaugural Fixel Brain Mapping Professor, is back in the operating room at the UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital. With MRI images on a monitor beside her, she watches as innovative software she developed is used in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery to ease symptoms in conditions including Tourette syndrome and essential tremor.

Her current focus is to make DBS more like a cardiac pacemaker, in a way — to make the mild pulses of electricity responsive to changing signals in the brain rather than continuous, to limit side effects and the draining of the implant’s battery.

Some days in the operating room, the team uses software she developed to map the brain of a patient to guide implantation of an electrode. Other days, she is collecting neurophysiological data, for later decoding of brain signals to refine aspects of DBS and develop the next generation of software.

“She is guiding the future,” says Okun, “of how the brain is going to be targeted and how we’re going to intervene.”

Aysegul Gunduz, Ph.D. Professor & Fixel Brain Mapping Professor

Changing the Landscape of Radiation Oncology Treatment

Transforming radiotherapy: One professor’s global impact on cancer care.

Dr. Wesley Bolch, Distinguished Professor in the J Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, is changing the landscape in cancer radiotherapy treatment on an international scale.

Wesley

Bolch,

Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor & UF Term Professor

Bolch has been a member of the US delegation to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) since 2015, in addition to serving on several other professional societies in the areas of medical physics and radiological protection. In 2019, Bolch was appointed Lead Technical Writer and asked to chair an UNSCEAR expert group tasked with writing a definitive report on the risks of secondary primary cancer following radiation therapy.

A secondary primary cancer (SPC) is a new cancer that originates within a patient who had been previously treated for a first primary cancer (FPC). The SPC is thus not a recurrence nor a metastatic spread of the original FPC. It is totally new cancer that might have been caused by unavoidable scatter radiation generated in the original radiotherapy cancer treatment. It could also have been caused by chemotherapy which is typically given in combination with radiotherapy. Finally, the SPC could be a new cancer that originated in manner totally unrelated to either prior treatment. Determining the risks of radiationinduced SPC, separate from the risk of other causes, becomes critically important in the optimized planning of the radiotherapy for cancer patients.

Radiation is a cancer patient lifesaver. It is estimated that nearly 40% of cancer survivors had received some form of radiotherapy as part of their treatment. As such, the benefits of radiation therapy are known to greatly outweigh their risks. Specifically, with

advancements in radiotherapy technologies radiation oncologists can provide targeted treatments to the cancerous region while also minimizing the radiation impact to surrounding healthy tissues.

With support from Amy Buhler, a UF research librarian who works with the BME department, Bolch and an international multi-disciplinary team conducted an in-depth meta-analysis of radiotherapy studies to understand the risks of secondary primary cancer in patients who received radiotherapy for their first primary cancer. Their findings were presented to UNSCEAR in Vienna at its annual congress and more recently in Orlando to the International Radiation Protection Association and in Tucson, Arizona to the Radiation Research Society.

“We didn’t know what the results were going to be when we started this study,” Bolch said. “But ultimately, the magnitude of the second primary cancer risks we quantified clearly shows that cancer patients should by no means avoid radiotherapy as part of their treatment out of fear of developing a second primary cancer.”

The team found that the risk of secondary cancer in patients who had radiation treatment for a primary cancer were relatively small and in fact were statistically significantly lower than radiation-related cancer risks demonstrated in the study of the 1945 Atomic Bomb survivors. Bolch and his students have also worked with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan to better improve our computerized anatomic models of the Japanese A-bomb survivors as used to reconstruct organ doses received during the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb exposures.

Bolch, who directs the Advanced Laboratory for Radiation Dosimetry Studies (ALRADS) laboratory in UF BME, hopes that this

The magnitude of the second primary cancer risks we quantified clearly show that cancer patients should by no means avoid radiotherapy as part of the cancer treatment for fear of later developing a second primary cancer.

-

Wesley Bolch

report will reduce patient concern related to radiotherapy. Currently, students in his research group are working with this data to advance the development of ‘digital twins’ for cancer patients that can be used to report all organ and tissues doses received during radiotherapy to be stored in their electronic medical records, and later used to project any secondar primary cancer risks of concern. For pediatric patients, these organ doses and SPC risks can inform post-therapy cancer surveillance programs, thus further prolonging their cancer survival.

Bolch continues to be a leader in the field of radiotherapy research and is shaping public outlook and perspectives on radiotherapy on a global stage.

University of Florida to strengthen its sports program through AI-Powered Athletics

A groundbreaking AI-Powered Athletics project is underway at the University of Florida, thanks to $2.5 million in support from the President’s Strategic Funding Initiative.

By Shawn Jenkins

A groundbreaking AI-Powered Athletics project is underway at the University of Florida, thanks to $2.5 million in support from the President’s Strategic Funding Initiative.

The undertaking is one of five components of the newly funded UF & Sport Collaborative, announced in December – a multi-faceted initiative to propel UF to the global stage in sports performance, healthcare, and communication, while illuminating its world-class sports facilities and partnerships.

The AI-Powered Athletics piece of the initiative is a partnership between the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the University Athletic Association (UAA). The project will help build an infrastructure to enable AI-powered athletics based on the wearable sensor and health data of student-athletes. Funded projects may generate pilot data and initial publications that lead to large-scale research proposals for federal agencies.

As a whole, the UF & Sport Collaborative also involves projects from the Warrington College of Business, the College of Health and Human Performance, the College of Journalism and Communications, and the College of Medicine.

“With the largescale hiring across campus in AI-related fields, UF is unique in the capabilities and resources it can dedicate to this type of research,” said Dan Ferris, Ph.D., the Robert W. Adenbaum Professor of Engineering Innovation in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering

at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. “The UAA collects a large amount of data from UF studentathletes on health, nutrition, and sports performance, including wearable sensors at practices and games. Most of the data is under-analyzed and under-utilized, and our proposed treatment of the data could greatly benefit team performance and student-athlete health and wellbeing.”

To address this gap, Ferris and his team will perform three project strands: organizing, distributing, and analyzing the rich UF student-athlete data; fully leveraging wearable sensors by building human-facing interfaces, which distill information in a way that improves performance and well-being; and providing pilot awards to faculty members across campus who propose scientific and/or educational research projects in collaboration with the research team.

Jennifer Nichols, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, will be collaborating with Spencer Thomas, performance analytics and testing coordinator for the UAA, to spearhead the task of strand one – parsing and analyzing the valuable, uncontextualized data collected through wearables, performative assessments, medical examinations, and other means.

“My pedigree bridges experimental work and computational work. Some of my research involves building personalized human models using artificial intelligence methods of the hand to mimic any motion,” Nichols said.

“I am a biomechanist by training, so my expertise is really in the data analysis of human movement. But I also bring a strong background in orthopedic injury, so I’m very interested in using the data to address sports injury prevention, creating a predictive analysis to stop the injury from ever happening.”

Forrest Masters, Ph.D., interim dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, recognizes the tremendous potential of AI-powered athletics.

“Uniting engineering, computer science, and the UF Athletic Association to harness AI, wearable sensor technology, and advanced data analytics will help our student-athletes live their best lives on and off the field,” Masters said.

Kristy Boyer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, and co-PI of the AI-Powered Athletics thrust of the UF & Sport Collaborative

The pilot project data and initial publications may further incubate largerscale research proposals to federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

“There are at least two ways this research impacts the state of Florida. Because of the way we intend to use this athletics data in classrooms, it will directly strengthen the educational experience of UF students by bringing them a very compelling, engaging, hands-on way to learn about and use AI,” said Kristy Boyer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, and co-principal investigator of the AI-Powered Athletics thrust of the UF & Sport Collaborative. “Secondly, we have a team that is passionate about building analytics and user-facing apps that will – in the future – serve all people, not just athletes. For

DAN FERRIS

JENNIFER NICHOLS

instance, we know the challenges that result from a sedentary lifestyle in terms of our healthcare and the related public policy; it’s a crisis. There’s a lot of data that indicates that if we can get people active, get them moving, and teach them about their bodies holistically using these tools, it will reap benefits for disease prevention.”

In addition to AI-Powered Athletics, the other four parts of the UF & Sport Collaborative are as follows:

Sport and Health Leaders: A new certificate program through the College of Health and Human Performance will increase students’ understanding of

recruitment, player evaluation, scouting, and game strategy through AI tools. The project will also develop a master’s degree program in AI and Sports Analytics, and provide students with a real-world laboratory for working directly with teams and athletes.

Transforming Sport Science Research for Every Body: The College of Medicine will help advance the analytic capacity of the UF Health Sports Performance Center, making it a centerpiece of research and testing for able-bodied and para-athletes of all ages and fitness levels. The Center will advance precision treatment, performance training, and research inclusivity for athletes.

Gator Nation Gameday Live: The College of Journalism and Communications will offer students an opportunity to produce a live, one-hour sports preview

athletes and the factors that influence their well-being. Available courses will include Personal and Family Health, Athlete Health and Well-being, Athlete Career Management, and Worksite and Health Promotion.

Gator AccelerAItor for Sport Analytics: The College of Health and Human Performance and the Warrington College of Business will partner with the UF’s men’s basketball team to improve

show, modeled after ESPN’s “College GameDay” program. Students will gain experience in anchoring, reporting, producing, and directing. The program will air live on various platforms on the Saturday mornings of Gator football home games. Students will provide a preview of that day’s game, insightful breakdowns and analytics, profiles of UF athletes and coaches, and highlights of the game-day experience.

Support for the UF & Sport Collaborative comes from $130 million in funding that UF received from the Florida Legislature last year. The UF president established that, for the first time, more than half of the funds would be directed to units for special strategic projects. A total of $24 million was delivered to deans to report back on their uses of the funds, and another $50 million was made available across all colleges and administrative units. UF received more than 250 submissions, and 40 proposals were selected—each aimed at enhancing the student experience and advancing interdisciplinary scholarship.

UNITING ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE, AND THE UF ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION TO HARNESS AI, WEARABLE SENSOR TECHNOLOGY, AND ADVANCED DATA ANALYTICS WILL HELP OUR

KRISTY BOYER

The UAA’s Performance Analytics & Testing Center.

Q&A WITH OUTGOING CHAIR OF OUR ALUMNI ADVISORY BOARD

Ph.D., 2008

Olajompo Moloye-Olabisi, Ph.D.

Site lead at Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Supply Chain), J&J Company

Can you discuss any challenges you faced in your career and how your student experiences helped you overcome them?

At the start of my career, transitioning from an academic setting as a postdoctoral researcher to the private sector presented several challenges. One of the most significant was shifting my mindset from focusing solely on my advisor’s projects to aligning with the broader scope and vision of the private sector. Additionally, I had to quickly adapt to working outside my comfort zone. In my first few weeks, the vice president of my department asked me to facilitate cross-functional meetings. This required me to learn how to collaborate effectively with team members from various functions, each with different perspectives. My experience as a chemistry instructor in the UF STEP UP program during my studies was invaluable here. It taught me how to engage with students who had diverse ways of thinking, which in turn prepared me for leading a team and navigating uncomfortable situations in my graduate lab.

As the Chair of the Alumni Advisory Board, what motivates you to serve in this role?

What motivates me to serve as the chair of the Alumni Advisory Board is the opportunity to give back. From a young age, my parents instilled in me the importance of giving back to the community. I’m grateful for the chance to share my experiences and learnings as I advance in my career. Mentoring and motivating both graduate and undergraduate students as they embark on their new journeys outside of academia brings me great joy. I believe that by sharing my insights, I can help the next generation navigate some of the challenges they might face.

“

My advice to current BME students is to have fun and remember that your contributions are vital to society today.

As you delve into the theory and application of medical technology and pharmaceuticals, it is crucial to gain experience in private, governmental, or academic settings through internships, co-ops, or career shadowing.

The diverse skill set that BME students acquire uniquely positions them to adapt to various challenges. Additionally, I encourage you to connect with BME alumni, who can offer valuable guidance from their experiences in academia, government, or the private sector as you prepare for the next chapter of your life.

“

TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT

Elevating the Student Experience: The Alumni Advisory Board’s Transformative Role

The Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) plays a vital role in enhancing the student experience within our department. Comprising accomplished graduates who have excelled in their fields, the AAB is dedicated to giving back to the institution that shaped their professional journeys. Their mission is to cultivate deeper connections between students, alumni, and faculty, fostering a vibrant community where knowledge, resources, and support flow freely. This collective effort aligns with the department’s strategic goals and ensures sustainable growth and success for all.

A key aspect of the AAB’s impact is facilitating meaningful engagement between students and alumni. The board actively organizes career panels, networking events, and mentorship programs, giving students direct access to seasoned professionals who provide guidance and real-world insights. These interactions serve as crucial bridges, helping students transition from academic life to their chosen career paths.

Alumni offer advice, share personal experiences, and help students navigate the challenges they may face early in their careers. This mentorship is invaluable, allowing students to learn from those who have successfully traversed similar paths while expanding their professional networks.

Through these initiatives, the AAB creates a supportive environment where students can thrive, equipping them with the tools and confidence needed for career success. By fostering these connections, the AAB promotes a cycle of giving back, where alumni continue to invest in the growth and success of future generations.

Your incredible generosity has made a profound impact on our department. Thanks to donors like you, we’ve been able to offer critical scholarships, groundbreaking research opportunities, and vital resources that elevate our students’ experiences. Your contributions empower students to engage in life-changing research, attend conferences, and receive essential financial support. Additionally, your support strengthens our faculty, enabling them to continue their world-class work while mentoring future leaders.

If you would like more information on how to give to BME or become an industry partner, please contact Jeff Clarke at 352-294-7947 or jclarke@eng.ufl.edu

Back from L to R: Jeff Clarke, Aysegul Gunduz, Lee Murfee, Albina Mikhaylova, Bryan Conrad, Michael Pizzato, Cherie Stabler, Olajompo Moloye-Olabisi, Markia Bowe, Leslie Sorrentino, and Sarah Furtney.

FACULTY AWARDS

Celebrating our success

Dan Ferris Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science & Fellow of the American Society of Biomechanics

Ruogu Fang Inaugural AI Course Award

Benjamin Keselowsky Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering

Dan Ferris Named UF Research Foundation Professor

Ivana Parker Inducted into UF Graduate Honor Society

Ana Maria Porras NSF Faculty Early CAREER Award & AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science

Aysegul Gunduz UF Faculty Doctoral Mentoring Award

Christine Schmidt Elected National Academy of Engineering

May Mansy HWCOE Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award

Lakiesha Williams Appointed Standing Member of BTEN Study Section

A Snapshot of New Awards

Lee Murfee

Promoted to Professor

Parisa Rashidi Promoted to Professor

Jennifer Nichols Promoted to Associate Professor

Edward Phelps Promoted to Associate Professor

Kevin Otto New Head of Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Jennifer Nichols Pramod P. Khargonekar Junior Faculty Award

Peter McFetridge UF BME Professor

Pioneering Research HiPerGator Award & ‘Rising Stars (Engineering)’ from the Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine of Florida

Ruogu Fang Parisa Rashidi $14M New Research Awards (FY2023)

Kyle Allen, NIH NIAMS T90 & R90, “University of Florida Partnerships Across Interdisciplinary Networks: Training through Engineering, Epidemiology & Addiction Medicine,” $3.5 million

Daniel Ferris, NIH NINDS, “Intermittent Visual Perturbations to Enhance Balance Training,” $2.8 million

20% Increase

Kuang Gong, NIH NIA, “Optimization of Tau PET Imaging for Alzheimer’s Disease through Deep Learning-Based Image Reconstruction,” $1.7 million and NIH, “Deep Learning Methods for Improving Gallium 68-Based PET Imaging,” $1.7 million

Greg Hudalla, NIH NIAID, “Synthetic Multivalent Galectin Assemblies as Anti-Inflammatory,” $3.5 million

Jamal Lewis, NIH NIGMS, “Leveraging Engineering Approaches to Understand Cryptococcal Vomocytosis from Immune Cells,” $2 million

Jennifer Nichols, NIH NIAMS, “Biomechanics Contributions to Symptoms and Joint Health in Individuals with Rotator Cuff Tears,” $1.5 million

Kyle D. Allen

Professor

Ph.D., Rice University

Novel strategies to diagnose and treat degenerative joint diseases

Wesley E. Bolch

Distinguished Professor & UF Term Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida

Dosimetry, computational medical physics and radiation dose assessment

Markia Bowe

Instructional Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida

Biomechanics of bone, 3D imaging, inclusive design and engineering education research

Mingzhou Ding

Distinguished Professor & J. Crayton Pruitt Family Professor

Ph.D., University of Maryland

Cognitive neuroscience, signal processing and neural imaging

Xiao Fan

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Alberta

Computational approaches to study genetic architecture of rare diseases and interpretation of genetic variants

Ruogu Fang

Associate Professor & J. Crayton

Pruitt Family Term Fellow

Ph.D., Cornell University

Artificial intelligence (AI), brain dynamics and medical image analysis

Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology

Quantitative systems biology, mathematical modeling, cancer heterogeneity and evolutionary dynamics

Daniel Ferris

Robert W. Adenbaum Professor

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Biomechanics, neuromechanical control, locomotion, mobile brain imaging, robotic exoskeletons and bionic prostheses

Sarah Furtney

Instructional Associate Professor,

Undergraduate Coordinator & J. Crayton Pruitt Family Term Fellow

Ph.D., Clemson University

BME cellular engineering laboratory and engineering education research

Chris Geiger

Instructional Associate Professor

Ph.D., Northwestern University

Senior

Kuang Gong

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of California at Davis

Deep learning, medical imaging, and data science

Aysegul Gunduz

Professor & Fixel Brain Mapping

Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida

Human brain mapping, neuromodulation and neural interfacing

Gregory A. Hudalla

Associate Professor, Integra LifeSciences Term Professor & Graduate Coordinator

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

Molecular engineering for immunotherapies and immune modulation

Benjamin G. Keselowsky

Professor

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology

Biomaterials and Immune Engineering

Jamal Lewis

Associate Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida

Biomaterials, drug delivery and immunoengineering

May Mansy

Instructional Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida

Bio-signals & systems, bio-instrumentation lab and engineering education

Walter Lee Murfee

Professor & Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies

Ph.D., University of Virginia

Cell dynamics, microcirculation, angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis and neurogenesis

Jennifer A. Nichols

Associate Professor & J. Crayton

Pruitt Family Term Fellow

Ph.D., Northwestern University

Biomechanics, musculoskeletal modeling, predictive simulation, medical imaging and machine learning

Ivana Parker

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology

Trained immunity, systems biology, HIV/TB, host-pathogen interactions and applied proteomics

Edward A. Phelps

Associate Professor

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology

Biomaterials, islet biology, diabetes, and immune engineering

Ana Maria Porras

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

Biomaterials and tissue engineering to study host-microbe interactions and inclusive science communication

Parisa Rashidi

Professor, UF Research Foundation

Professor & IC3 Co-Director

Ph.D., Washington State University

Medical artificial intelligence (AI) and pervasive health

Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos

Dean’s Leadership Professor & Chemical Engineering

Department Chair

Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technology

Nanomedicine and magnetic nanoparticles

Christine E. Schmidt

Distinguished Professor & J. Crayton Pruitt Family

Endowed Chair

Ph.D., University of Illinois

Biomaterials for neural tissue regeneration and neural interfacing

Blanka Sharma

Associate Professor

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Nanomedicine, biomaterials, targeted drug/gene delivery and immunoengineering

Cherie Stabler

Professor & Department Chair, J. Crayton Pruitt Family & UF Foundation Preeminence Professor

Biomaterials, controlled release, regenerative medicine and diabetes

Brittany Taylor

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Rutgers University

Nanomedicine, regenerative rehabilitation, biomaterials, and tendon injury and disease

Lakiesha N. Williams

Professor & Associate Chair for Graduate Studies

Ph.D., Mississippi State University

Traumatic brain injury, soft tissue mechanics, bio-inspired design and materials characterization

A NEW DATA BIOREPOSITORY AT UF MAY HELP MOVE THE NEEDLE ON PAIN

ONE OF THE MOST DATA-DENSE BIOSPECIMEN REPOSITORIES IN THE WORLD IS CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, WHICH COULD TRANSFORM THE WAY CHRONIC PAIN IS STUDIED AND TREATED.

By Dave Schlenker

One of the most data-dense biospecimen repositories in the world is currently being developed at the University of Florida, which could transform the way chronic pain is studied and treated.

UF scientists are asking the question: Why do people experience pain differently? The answer may be found in a surprising place: valuable human tissue that would otherwise be thrown away after surgery.

With $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers from UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the College of Dentistry are storing post-surgical human tissue in a repository, collecting data points from the samples, and mapping and analyzing the tissue via artificial intelligence tools. The goal is to explore pain pathways and create custom pain treatments.

“Pain is often viewed as something simple – a lot of pain, a little pain,” said Kyle Allen, Ph.D., a professor in UF’s J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. “How do I know you experience pain the way I experience pain? We don’t experience it the same way, and we know this through a lot of research.”

Allen is working alongside Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Ph.D., the associate director of the Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence in UF’s College of Dentistry, to conduct clinical research with patients before their knee and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) replacement procedures.

“How do I know you experience pain the way I experience pain? We don’t experience it the same way, and we know this through a lot of research.”

During the procedures, surgeons remove small amounts of tissue, which Cruz-Almeida and Allen then analyze. The researchers input thousands of data points gleaned from the tissue and pre-surgical interviews, map them with AI, and analyze them for patterns that could predict response to pain treatments.

“These patients come into orthopedics looking for a knee replacement or come into dentistry looking for a TMJ replacement,” Allen said. “If the patient enrolls in our study, they spend almost a full day in Yenisel’s lab giving information on everything about their pain experience.”

So far, a total of 2,400 samples have been collected from 24 patients, most of whom have undergone knee replacement surgeries.“These individuals are having surgery, so we are going in and collecting their tissue that is normally thrown away. That is how this got started,” CruzAlmeida said, adding that the idea for the project arose in 2020. “I always asked, ‘Can we study that tissue? Can we do some of the basic science stuff that Kyle does to his animals?’”

How do I know you experience pain the way I experience pain? We don’t experience it the same way, and we know this through a lot of research.

-Kyle

Allen

Allen’s research on rats has been instrumental in this interdisciplinary project. Using the collected human tissue samples, Allen and Cruz-Almeida have translated pain data to map the same points in rats and then translated that back to pain patterns in humans. That translational perspective starts in the human to see what is happening in the physiology.

“Everybody thinks it’s rodent-to-human, but it’s not,” Allen said. “If we’re not seeing that signal in the human, then you’re just curing rodents.”

Cruz-Almeida added, “Kyle is modeling this in the animals but really trying to compare it with getting tissue from the humans and their phenotypes, which is what I do in my lab. What is their behavior and how do they report pain?”

Allen and Cruz-Almeida are exploring how the neurons – the nerve cells – actually sense pain.

“We must comprehensively figure out if they are pain nerves,” Cruz-Almeida said. “Are they tactile? It’s complex, but they’ve been

Professors Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Ph.D., and Kyle Allen, Ph.D.

doing it forever in basic science. Basically, our goal now is working together and let’s do something in humans.”

In the clinical screenings, the researchers collect about 2,000 data points from the patients. Then the researchers generate thousands, often even millions, of data points from the biological samples.

“One sample can be used to analyze multiple things. What we’re looking at are the nerve maps and how the nerves are specifically changing,” Allen said. “Since we are going through the process of collecting all this tissue, we’re saving all of it, so if anybody wants to come back and say, ‘Oh, you have that nerve signature, does that relate to some genetic marker? Does that relate to some other factor?,’ they can.”

Professors Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Ph.D., and Kyle Allen, Ph.D., work with Ph.D. student assistants Folly Patterson and Michael Strinden in their pain research with human tissue and AI datasets.

Additionally, the researchers photo-document the dissection procedure to know exactly where the samples originated.

While the patients may be able to describe their pain, Cruz-Almeida said, “that is not the complete picture. It’s their behavior. The way they move differently will provide insights into what may be causing or driving the pain.”

For the success of the project, Allen and Cruz-Almeida also credit Roger Fillingim, Ph.D., professor and director of the Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence; Robert Caudle, Ph.D.; UF Health orthopedic surgeons Simon Mears and Hernan Prieto of UF’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute; and UF Dentistry surgeon Frank Dolwick, D.M.D., Ph.D.

“This team is bringing together quantitative pain data with the most advanced biological assays in human and preclinical samples. One of the most data-dense pain repositories in the world is being created here at UF, combining biological, neurological, psychological, and societal determinants of a person’s pain state,” said Cherie Stabler, Ph.D., chair of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Importantly, this data will be minable using emerging artificial intelligence techniques.”

And, “since the revolution of AI is coming,” Allen said, “the goal here is to generate data, data, data.”

UF AWARDED $3.4 MILLION GRANT TO TRAIN NEW CLINICAL PAIN RESEARCHERS

INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM WILL STRENGTHEN THE CLINICAL PAIN RESEARCH WORKFORCE

By Michelle Jaffee

To address the need for new non-addictive methods to treat pain, a University of Florida team has been awarded a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to train postdoctoral fellows seeking to become independent clinical pain researchers.

Under the NIH HEAL Initiative® PAIN Cohort Program, the UF team will train 10 to 15 fellows from various academic disciplines over the next five years in a broad effort to strengthen the clinical pain research workforce and develop new non-opioid treatments for pain management.

“We want to train the new generation of clinical pain researchers who can think out of the box and work in an interdisciplinary fashion,” said neuroscientist Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, M.S.P.H, Ph.D., director of the program, called UF Partnerships Across Interdisciplinary Networks: Training through Engineering, Epidemiology & Addiction Medicine, known as the UF PAIN TEAM.

“It’s going to take a team. This program is focused on research to develop novel treatments and therapies by leveraging expertise from multiple fields and valuing the contributions of scientists who may not be pain researchers but can incorporate their backgrounds into pain research and treatment,” said Cruz-Almeida, an associate professor in the UF College of Dentistry and McKnight Brain Institute researcher.

With mentors from fields across UF and UF Health including dentistry, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, pharmacy, engineering, epidemiology, and health education and behavior, the training program will be co-led by Kyle Allen, Ph.D., associate director; Wayne McCormack, Ph.D., evaluation team lead; and Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D., mentor academy lead.

The NIH HEAL Initiative, or Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, aims to establish safe and effective pain management therapies by expanding existing programs and funding new clinical trials. The T90/R90 training grant to UF will support five trainees at a time for two years each, with program mentors from laboratory scientists to clinical researchers from both traditional and non-traditional fields represented in the pain workforce, such as engineering, biostatistics and anthropology.

“More than anything, this particular training program is an evolution of who the new pain scientist is moving forward,” said Allen, a UF professor of biomedical engineering and McKnight Brain Institute researcher. “It is a pain scientist who can really think across traditional academic disciplines and boundaries and integrate knowledge across neuroscience and engineering, psychology and nursing or physical therapy and movement science. No one is going to be able to integrate it all, but some well-developed teams can start to put the whole picture together.”

Professors Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Ph.D., and Kyle Allen, Ph.D., work with Ph.D. student assistants Folly Patterson and Michael Strinden in their pain research with human tissue and AI datasets

Rob Chen Vaillancourt Lab

Awarded NIH T32 NINDS Fellowship

ROBERT Dawson bolch Lab

Awarded NIH F31 NRSA Fellowship

Grace Lowor

Joseph Cox FANG Lab

Awarded NIH T32 NIAAA Fellowship

Taylor Lansberry STABLER Lab

Awarded NIH F31 NRSA Fellowship

Damea Pham STABLER Lab

Awarded NIH T32 NIDDK Fellowship

Chris LudTka J. Allen Lab

Awarded NIH F31 NRSA Fellowship

Rising BME Scholar at the 2024 Rising Scholars Conference

Grace Lowor is a doctoral student working with Dr. Aysegul Gunduz in the field of neuromodulation and brain mapping. Her research focuses on uncovering the precursors to behavior and exploring the aftereffects of neural stimulation on brain networks.

Jessica Aldrich: Ph.D. Student 2023-2024 Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Professional Excellence and UF Association of Academic Women Honorable Mention Award

John McCauley: UG Student 2023-2024 Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Creativity

Madeleine McCreary: UG Student 2023-2024 Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Commencement Award, Outstanding Gator Engineering 4-Year Scholar

An Nguyen: UG Student 2023-2024 Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Community and Inclusion, 2023-2024 Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Commencement Award, Outstanding Gator Engineering 2-Year Scholar

Skylar Stolte: Ph.D. Student 2023-2024 Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Creativity, Cliff Aging Research Award, and Pioneering Research HiPerGator Award

Daniel Rodriguez Fang Lab

Awarded NIH T32 NIDDK Fellowship

Skylar Stolte Fang Lab

Awarded NIH F31 NRSA Fellowship

Kiara Xhindi: UG Student Outstanding Undergraduate International Student Award, UF International Center, 2023

Nominated by the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, she is recognized for her dedication and contributions to the UF community. Kiara’s research focuses on graph theory-based parcellation, analyzing algorithms that divide brain networks into regions, offering insights into neurodegenerative disease mechanisms.

Bryce SHirk STOPPEL Lab

Awarded NIH USDA NIFA Fellowship

David Johnson Gunduz Lab

Awarded McKnight Dissertation Fellowship

PH.D. CANDIDATE PUBLISHES FIRST-AUTHORED PAPER IN

Clinton Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in the Immuno-Modulatory Biomaterials Laboratory under the guidance of Dr. Jamal Lewis, has published a first-author paper titled “Engineering Antigen-Presenting Cells for Immunotherapy of Autoimmunity” in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. The paper addresses significant challenges posed by autoimmune diseases, which occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues. Smith’s work provides a comprehensive review of the current clinical landscape and highlights the potential of immunomodulatory therapies targeting antigen-presenting cells to offer more precise and effective treatments for these burdensome conditions.

Autoimmune diseases, which affect millions worldwide, are typically managed with immunosuppressants—drugs that weaken the immune system to reduce inflammation. However, these treatments often come with serious side effects, such as increased susceptibility to infections and an impaired ability to mount a strong immune response. Smith’s review emphasizes the growing focus on engineering antigen-presenting cells to modulate immune responses more precisely, offering hope for safer and more targeted therapies. This innovative approach could transform how autoimmune diseases are treated, improving outcomes for patients while minimizing the risks associated with traditional immunosuppressive therapies.

PH.D. STUDENT PUBLISHES FIRST-AUTHORED PAPER IN FRONTIERS GENETICS

Ph.D. student Adriana Del Pino Herrera and Dr. Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks recently published their article, “A War on Many Fronts: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches for Novel Cancer Treatment Strategies,” in Frontiers in Genetics

The article highlights how cancer, particularly adenocarcinomas, often resists treatment by interacting with its microenvironment. Herrera and Ferrall-Fairbanks emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, including mathematical modeling from fields such as ecology, economics, and engineering, to develop more effective and personalized cancer treatments, ultimately improving patient outcomes. Their review calls for a deeper exploration of these cross-disciplinary strategies to address the challenges of treatment resistance and recurrence, aiming to reduce the need for high-dose therapies. The insights they provide could pave the way for more sustainable and less toxic cancer therapies.

PH.D. CANDIDATE, WHOSE RECENT REVIEW ARTICLE ON NK CELL MECHANOSENSING WAS HIGHLIGHTED AS AN “EDITOR’S CHOICE” PAPER

The Editor’s Choice paper, titled “Natural Killer Cell Mechanosensing in Solid Tumors,” is authored by Suzanne Lightsey, a Ph.D. candidate, and Dr. Blanka Sharma. This research explores how natural killer (NK) cells, a promising alternative for cancer immunotherapies, must sense and respond to their physical environment to effectively target and eliminate cancer cells. By uncovering the mechanisms behind how NK cells interpret their surroundings, the study reveals potential strategies to enhance NK cell-based therapies for treating solid tumors.

NEW TECHNOLOGY: BIOFUNCTIONAL HYDROGEL TO TREAT CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASES

Globally, chronic inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes account for three out of five deaths.

To address these critical issues, former UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering researcher Dr. Erika Moore, Ph.D., and BME alum Dr. Aakanksha Jha, Ph.D. (2023), developed a novel hydrogel composition. This hydrogel is designed to inhibit the activation of pro-inflammatory macrophages, aiming to treat diseases associated with chronic inflammation. During the wound-healing process, macrophages release cytokines to initiate inflammation. However, excessive cytokine production can lead to an overabundance of activated pro-inflammatory (M1) macrophages.

The hydrogel, which includes DGEA, not only has potential for enhancing wound healing but also offers a wide range of therapeutic applications for managing inflammatory diseases.

PH.D. CANDIDATES SPOTLIGHT: HIGHLIGHTING TWO OF OUR INCOMING STUDENTS

Jai Raccioppi

Ph.D. Student

Lab: Tissue Mechanics, Microstructure, and Modeling Laboratory/ Dr. Lakiesha Williams

McKnight Doctoral Fellow, 2024 & Board of Education Fellow, 2024

In May 2024, I became the first African American male to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Stevenson University. My journey began with an internship at AstraZeneca, where I streamlined team workflows by writing standard operating procedures. I later conducted biomechanics research under Dr. James Borrelli, studying fall-injury risk, which led to my acceptance into the University of Southern California’s 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, sponsored by Amazon. There, I explored the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation on learning and memory under Drs. Dong Song and Wenxuan Jiang.

I have presented research at national conferences, including the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students and the Biomedical Engineering Society. I also organized a STEM panel for underrepresented high school students in Baltimore county and presented my findings at Stevenson University’s Spring 2024 Scholars Symposium.

Currently, I am researching traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease in Dr. Lakiesha Williams’ lab at the University of Florida. I collaborate with peers to uncover tau pathology mechanisms. UF BME’s inclusive environment has been pivotal in my decision to attend. I aspire to become a neuroscientist and lead my own research lab, mentoring future engineers.

Miguel A. Martinez Ph.D. Candidate

Lab: BEAT Cancer Lab/ Dr. Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks

McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, 2024 & Fischell Depart. of Bioengineering Outstanding Service Award, 2024

My journey to the University of Florida has been anything but traditional. After serving 20 years in the Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, I initially pursued my passion for culinary arts by enrolling in culinary school. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, I reevaluated my path and returned to academia. I chose to study biocomputational engineering at the University of Maryland, where I could merge my engineering background with the opportunity to solve biological problems. Cancer research became particularly meaningful to me after the loss of my mother.

During my final year at UMD, I began considering graduate school— a possibility that once seemed financially out of reach. Learning about assistantships and fellowships changed that perspective, opening doors to programs that combined data science and bioengineering. That’s when I discovered the University of Florida, whose focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning within engineering aligned perfectly with my interests.

Now, as a McKnight Doctoral Fellow at UF, I am researching chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare blood cancer. My work centers on understanding how inflammation drives its progression, with the ultimate aim of developing targeted therapies. I am grateful to be part of UF’s vibrant community, where the exceptional faculty, students, and resources empower me to bring my research goals to life.

Aakanksha Jha, Ph.D., Invent Fellow, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Suzanne Lightsey and Bennett

Adriana Del Pino Herrera

STRONGER internship program provides students with valuable exposure to cancer research

A new immersive summer internship at UF Health Cancer Center is offering science students nationwide the chance to delve into cancer research.

The Summer Training in Research and Oncology for the Next Generation of Researchers (STRONGER) program, which began in May, provides seven inaugural interns—current undergraduates and recent graduates—with the opportunity to work alongside UF’s leading cancer researchers.

The program stands out by having graduate students lead the research projects and mentor the interns. Participants work in labs, design experiments, analyze data, and present their findings, receiving training in both basic and translational cancer research. Workshops by UF faculty, staff, and graduate student ambassadors cover lab essentials and professional development.

Graduate students kick-started their projects with one-page grant proposals and three-minute presentations. They also engaged in a speed-networking session with interns to discuss research in depth. The program culminated with a research poster showcase on Aug. 7, where interns and graduate students presented their work and discussed future directions with the UF Health Cancer Center community.

All of these are valuable skills for distilling the key points of research questions into short and impactful modalities, providing our graduate students with excellent experience as they advance in their Ph.D. programs and move on to the next steps in their career paths,” said Meghan. “The STRONGER internship program has helped my graduate students grow in their mentoring capacity, and I’ve enjoyed the new perspectives the interns have brought to our research group.

Mentored Two Teams

Graduate student mentors from her lab:

Adriana Del Pino Herrera and Camara Casson Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering

Justine Smith UG Student

During her internship at Texas Instruments, Justine Smith focused on managing pricing strategies for various devices and developed automated tools to streamline pricing operations. She supported competitive analysis using warboards, which track project details and customer interactions. Additionally, she updated the internal sales website and created marketing materials, including an instructional video for an evaluation module. This role enhanced her technical and business skills and connected her biomedical engineering background to marketing, particularly sparking an interest in TI’s medical imaging and systems sectors.

Ashni Zaverchand UG Student

Ashni Zaverchand recently completed an incredible journey as a product management intern with Arthrex’s Shoulder Arthroplasty team. This summer was filled with growth, learning, and unforgettable experiences. She worked on impactful projects for the Virtual Implant Positioning (VIP) software, collaborated with engineers, sales representatives, and surgeons, and observed surgeries. Special thanks to her mentors, Jessica Foss and Kevin Gallen, for their support. Ashni is grateful for the engaging intern program organized by Alyssa McCoy and Maylis Broderick. She is excited to apply these skills in her senior year at UF and beyond!

Ada Yumiceva’s internship at Arthrex involved revising more than 50 technical reports and creating detailed SolidWorks drawings for test fixtures. She played a key role in supporting product testing, including specimen preparation and tensile tests. Leading a global biomechanical journal club on elbow repair expanded her understanding of orthopedic biomechanics. Ada thanks her manager, Oliver Hauck, and his team for their support. Her previous experience at Axogen and the University of Florida’s Human Neuromechanics Laboratory, where she co-authored a manuscript, further developed her research capabilities and technical writing skills.

Mai-Ly Thompson completed an 11week project management internship at Medtronic this summer as part of a new product development project team in the Surgical OU. During her time there, she learned what it means to be a project manager: developing plans, communicating with stakeholders, managing risks, and adapting to changes. Mai-Ly appreciated witnessing the hard work behind creating surgical devices that save lives in the operating room. She enjoyed participating in events like Project 6, which showcased Medtronic’s incredible culture. Mai-Ly thanks her manager, Marc Wennogle, and the rest of the project team for their support during her summer project.

Summer Internship: Arthrex

Summer Internship: Texas Instruments

Mai-Ly Thompson

UG Student

Summer Internship: Medtronic

Summer Internship: Arthrex

Ada Yumiceva UG Student

BRIDGING THE GAP: EMPOWERING STUDENTS THROUGH HANDS-ON CELL CULTURE WORKSHOPS

By Jessica Aldrich

UF biomedical engineering graduate students Madison Temples and Taylor Yeater, who both hold doctorates, identified a unique gap in the hands-on skills necessary for research. Recognizing that many of their peers lacked practical training in cell culture, they collaborated with Sarah Furtney, Ph.D., instructional associate professor and undergraduate coordinator, to transform the undergraduate cell culture course into an innovative two-week, five-session workshop designed for current master’s and Ph.D. students.

Madison and Taylor noted that many graduate students were at a disadvantage, especially those from non-BME backgrounds or programs without practical lab courses. This workshop filled that need, enabling students to gain essential skills and share their knowledge with peers. “I’m the first person in my lab to do cell culture, and I get to establish the cell culture practices for our group. I’m getting experience from my peers who made it more comfortable than just learning in a class from a postdoc or your PI,” shared Ta-Tyonna Buck, a third-year Ph.D. student in Dr. Lakeisha Williams’ lab.

Since its launch, the workshop has been held five times, benefiting more than 85 students across biomedical, chemical, and mechanical and aerospace engineering labs.

It also serves as a steppingstone for students aspiring to join research groups within the department, enhancing their career prospects. Suzanne Lightsey, a lead instructor, emphasized the significance of this support: “Having a department that supports a student-led initiative showcases the department’s investment in and support for us and what we believe we need.”

The workshop’s success hinges on the dedication of graduate students who volunteer as teaching assistants, adopting a near-peer mentorship strategy. “Our whole teaching team is volunteering; everyone is passionate about being here and wants to help the students learn,” noted Michele Dill, a lead instructor. After experiencing the undergraduate course with Furtney, Michele was inspired to give back to the BME community, earning the Graduate Excellence Award for teaching in 2023.

Suzanne and Michele have led the workshop, held every fall, for the past two years. Upon examining other graduate programs, they discovered fewer than 10 offered similar lab courses. Collaborating with the workshop founders and Furtney, Suzanne and Michele published a Teaching Tips article in the Biomedical Engineering Education journal to inspire other institutions. “We wanted to showcase an easy way for other schools to implement this program,” Lightsey explained.

Pre- and post-workshop surveys revealed a significant increase in students’ understanding and confidence in basic cell culture and wet-lab techniques. These surveys also allowed the teaching team to tailor sessions to the specific interests and needs of the students. More importantly, the workshop fostered a sense of community among graduate students, which continued to benefit them even after the workshop.

Graduate student leaders have built a pipeline encouraging former workshop participants to become teaching assistants and lead instructors, reinforcing knowledge and community. The graduate cell culture workshop has boosted student confidence and strengthened the BME department’s sense of community. As the team gathers data and seeks improvements, they are eager to explore new ways to enhance the program and empower students.

CELL CULTURE WORKSHOP

Bridging the Gap: Many graduate students, particularly those from non-BME backgrounds or programs lacking hands-on lab courses, were at a disadvantage in research skills.

Workshop Format: A two-week, five-session intensive workshop tailored for current master’s and Ph.D. students.

Skills Development: Provides essential training in basic cell culture and wet-lab techniques, building a foundation for success in research.

Impact: Pre- and post-workshop surveys show significant growth in students’ confidence and understanding of key lab skills.

Madison Temples, Senior Scientist, Cell Therapy

Taylor Yeater, Research Analyst, Early Medical

2024 Cell Culture Workshop lead, Michele Dill and Suzanne Lightsey, and students.

BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES BUILDING JG56

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DEVELOPING LEADERS IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING