2022 BME Brochure

Washington University in St. Louis McKelvey School of Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

No. 11

No.

10

Students

Degree programs

McKelvey School of Engineering,

PhD student research support

BME Research

Research areas

& Biological

Engineering

& Cellular

Engineering

Engineering

Engineering

Engineering in Medicine

Health Engineering

120+

affiliate faculty members from across the university

Top departments for BME student research:

Biomedical Engineering

Cell Biology & Physiology

Computer Science & Engineering

Electrical & Systems

Genetics

Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Neuroscience

Undergraduate research opportunities at WashU:

» Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology Fellowship

McKelvey Undergraduate Research Scholars

St. Louis Summer Internship

Summer Undergraduate Research Award (SURA)

WashU Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (BioSURF)

WashU Summer Engineering Fellowship (WUSEF)

Cardiovascular Research Summer Program (WashU CardS)

& Visual Sciences

Surgery

Pathology & Immunology

Radiation Oncology

WashU research centers for biomedical research collaboration

Cardiac Bioelectricity & Arrhythmia Center (CBAC)

Center for Biomolecular Condensates (CBC)

Center for Cellular Imaging

Center for Cyborg and Biorobotics Research

Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB)

Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC)

Center for Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Programs (CHiiPS)

Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology (CINT)

Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases (CIMED)

Center for Regenerative Medicine (CRM)

Center for Women’s Health Engineering

Children’s Discovery Institute

Genome Engineering & iPSC Center (GEiC)

Hope Center for Neurological Disorders

Imaging Sciences Pathway

Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS)

Institute for Materials Science and Engineering (IMSE)

McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience

McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI)

Musculoskeletal Research Center (MRC)

Siteman Cancer Center

Research news

Wearable ultrasound sensors for human brain in development

A submarine can inadvertently reveal its location because of cavitation, a condition that creates bubbles underwater that burst, then emit sound waves that can be detected by sonar. A team of biomedical engineers plans to use the same concept to detect cavitation in human brains that may contribute to blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI).

Hong Chen, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, plans to develop wearable passive sonar for the brain to detect cavitation with a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research. These wearable sensors could provide direct evidence of shock wave-induced cavitation in the human brain during exposure to blasts. The data gathered could provide insight into the risk of brain injury caused by cavitation and assist with diagnosis and treatment of blast-induced traumatic brain injury, which has become an all-too-common injury among U.S. military members.

New structure found in cells

Every cell contains millions of protein molecules. Some of them have the ability to phaseseparate to form non-membranebound compartments, called biomolecular condensates, inside a cell. It has long been assumed that there was no further structure underlying these condensates, only solution-soluble proteins.

A research group led by Rohit Pappu, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, and Anthony Hyman, director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, uncovered that there is, in fact, relevant structure underlying condensates.

The finding, a collaboration with scientists at the University of Cambridge, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Technische Universität Dresden, was published July 5, 2022, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Research news

Restoring movement after spinal cord injury focus of new research

People with spinal cord injuries often experience life-long movement impairment or paralysis, for which there is no cure. When coupled with rehabilitative exercise, electrical spinal cord stimulation can help restore some movement, though the mechanisms of how the nerves in the spinal cord recover are unknown.

Ismael Seáñez, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, will lead an interdisciplinary team of Washington University researchers and physicians to understand the changes in the neural circuits that may result in motor function improvements through using spinal cord stimulation with a five-year, $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Seáñez, also an assistant professor of neurological surgery at the School of Medicine, plans to begin a clinical trial with patients with spinal cord injuries as well as those without spinal cord injuries as controls.

A one-two punch for photoacoustic imaging

Scientists use photoacoustic microscopy to measure various biomarkers in the body, but some of these measurements can be inaccurate due to limitations of the light-focusing beam that produces out-of-focus images. Engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering have designed a new technique that combines hardware and software innovations as a one-two punch that overcomes this obstacle with excellent accuracy.

Song Hu, associate professor of biomedical engineering, along with Yifeng Zhou and Naidi Sun, members of his lab, combined a Bessel beam that propagates in the tissue in a diffraction-free manner with a conditional generative adversarial network-based deep learning model to obtain highresolution photoacoustic images of hemoglobin concentration, blood oxygenation, and blood flow in the mouse brain with an extended depth of focus of about 600 microns. Compared with the conventional Gaussian-beam excitation based photoacoustic microscopy system, the combined method showed significantly higher quantitative accuracy.

Shape of virus may determine RSV infection outcomes

Respiratory syncytial virus, more commonly known as RSV, is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can be very serious and even fatal for young children and the elderly. In summer of 2021, health care providers saw an unseasonable spike in the virus, which typically causes illness from October through March. While the virus has been recognized since the 1950s, there is still no vaccine available.

Michael D. Vahey, a biomedical engineer in the McKelvey School of Engineering, along with Jessica Kuppan and Margaret Mitrovich, both doctoral students in his lab and co-first authors of the paper, has developed a fluorescent system allowing him and members of his lab to monitor the interactions between the virus particles and the proteins in the immune system that help to defend against infections, known as complement proteins. Through this system, they found that the viruses produced during RSV infection change shape makes a difference in whether the complement proteins are activated or not. Results of the work are published online in eLife.

Outside the classroom

Select student groups

» Association of Graduate Students (AGES)

» The Association for Women in Science (AWIS)

» Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)

» Biotechnology and Life Science Advising Group (BALSA)

» Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Student Council (BMEDC)

» Future Educators

Graduate Association of Latin American Students (GALAS)

Graduate Student Senate (GSS)

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)

» Out in STEM (oSTEM)

» Promoting Science Policy, Education, and Research (ProSPER)

» Sling Health

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)

» Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

» Spectra (SPIE and OSA)

st. louis is the

No. 1 city for for new grads to start a career (Insurify, 2022)

WashU and St. Louis resources and accelerators:

» Arch Grants

Cambridge Innovation Center St. Louis

Cortex Innovation Community

Office of Technology Management

Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Sling Health Network

T-Rex Technology Incubator

Venture Cafe

Select startups with ties to WashU BME:

Acera Surgical Inc.

datadog health

Encodia Inc.

Epharmix

Geneoscopy

Mindset

NeuroLutions

SentiAR Inc.

Sparo Labs

Caeli Vascular

Osteovantage

Faculty awards

Guilak elected into National Academy of Engineering

Farshid Guilak, the Mildred B. Simon Research Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and co-director of the Washington University Center for Regenerative Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering and of mechanical engineering & materials science, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Election to the NAE, considered one of the highest honors in engineering, rec ognizes those who have made outstand ing contributions to the field. Guilak was honored for his research involving the treatment of arthritic joints.

Silva receives Established Investigator Award from American Heart Association

Jonathan Silva, associate professor of biomedical engineering and of computer science & engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, has received the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association.

The Established Investigator Award supports researchers with established records of accomplishments who have shown a commitment to research that supports the American Heart Association’s mission. The five-year, $400,000 award will support his work into precision medicine for patients with irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia.

Setton receives 2022 BMES Christopher Jacobs Award

Lori Setton, the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been named the

2022 BMES Christopher Jacobs Award for Excellence in Leadership awardee.

The BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Christopher Jacobs Award recognizes leadership excellence that makes an impact in the cell and molecular bioengineering community.

The award is named in memory and honor of Jacobs, a highly-recognized researcher in bone cell mechanics and dynamic leader in the cellular and molecular bioengineering community.

O’Brien and team earn NIH honorable mention

A multidisciplinary team led by Christine O’Brien, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, was recognized as an Honorable Mention Awardee in the National Institutes of Health Technology Accelerator Challenge (NTAC) for Maternal Health.

The team was recognized for its efforts to develop a low-cost wearable device that will improve detection of the leading causes of maternal mortality. The device is designed for use in low-resource settings where maternal health needs are greatest. The project will be reviewed by the Gates Foundation for consideration of grant funding and in-kind support to further the development and launch of the device.

NIH grant awarded to create neurotech training program

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Daniel Moran, professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, more than $1 million over five years to create the Translational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Training Program.

This interdisciplinary program will train students to use engineering tools to develop technology that address neurological issues such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, depression and addiction and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia. The grant supports five students in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering or computer science doctoral programs per year.

The 29 faculty mentors in the training program represent a broad range of those advancing neurotechnology and translational neuroscience research from the McKelvey School of Engineering, Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine.

“Students will be able to come out of this program with the knowhow to turn ideas into devices or company startups,” Moran said. “There’s so much good neuroscience going on here. By embedding students into these labs, they will be able to translate neural engineering principles to the clinic.”

Student news

BME hosts first Rising BME Scholars Conference

To recruit, strengthen and diversify the next generation of academic researchers in biomedical engineering, 14 scholars from institutions nationwide came to Washington University in St. Louis for the first Rising BME Scholars Conference.

Hosted by faculty and staff in the McKelvey School of Engineering, the three-day event gave participants the opportunity to learn from faculty and peers about pathways to professional success in academic careers.

“We see that BME trainees have some unique obstacles to preparing for research careers because of their duality as life scientists and engineers,” said Lori Setton, the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “We find that engineering schools, and even institutions more broadly, don’t prepare BME students to understand that next step after graduation. We partnered with seven other universities in this region to provide mid-stage doctoral students with multiple perspectives to best inform their decisions about next steps in their career.”

The conference was co-sponsored by University of Arkansas, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Students gain engineering skills, grow connections in cardiovascular research experience

During the summer of 2022, the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering held its first cardiovascular-focused undergraduate research experience, the Washington University Cardiovascular Research Summer Program (WashU CardS).

The 10-week program offered undergraduate students an opportunity to participate in cardiovascular research and to gain hands-on experience. Students also participated in a course on cardiac physiology and developing research skills, weekly Lunch & Learns and social activities.

Chao Zhou, associate professor of biomedical engineering, began this program with support from an Institutional Award for Undergraduate Student Training from the American Heart Association.

The eight CardS students were matched with faculty mentors and gained experience in labs on both the Danforth Campus and at the School of Medicine. Students worked on projects that connected with their research interests.

Lessons learned in Uganda

Members of LFR International spent five weeks in Mukono, Uganda, partnering with Vision for Trauma Care in Africa (VTCA) to improve access to emergency services in the city. Haleigh Pine, a rising junior majoring in biomedical engineering, shares the group’s experiences in Uganda.

The first week of our trip to Mukono included adjusting to our new surroundings and preparing the logistics for our training. During this time, we administered a survey to hospitals and clinics to assess the baseline level of prehospital care in the area and worked to find the materials we needed for our first-aid kits.

In week two, we began training VTCA members in our Level 1 basic first-responder curriculum. We have developed a “trainer of trainers” (TOT) model, in which we train local trainers to expand the sustainability of future programs. Weeks three and four were spent training motorcycle taxi drivers in this Level 1 curriculum.

During week five, we piloted our new Level 2 advanced responder curriculum. This course reflects progress toward creating more advanced prehospital care systems in low- and middle-income countries. The last week involved wrapping up our partnerships, having follow-up meetings with government officials to discuss funding and sustainability, and spending time with all our new friends.

I could try to describe how rewarding it was to be able to help this community and know how our impact will spread, but a better representation is from how many times our VTCA colleagues would tell us, “Thank you for choosing Mukono out of all places you could have gone.” It makes you feel small but simultaneously significant in the world; it’s a reminder of how many people live similarly to our friends and could benefit from our work.

Biomedical Engineering Faculty

Dennis Barbour Associate Professor and Director of Master’s Studies dbarbour@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Auditory processing, cognitive neuroscience, machine learning and medical diagnostics

Hong Chen Associate Professor hongchen@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Ultrasound imaging; ultrasound therapy; image-guided ultrasound drug delivery (IGUDD)

Jianmin Cui Professor jcui@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Molecular basis of bioelec tricity and related diseases in nervous and cardiovascular systems; ion channel function and modulation; discovery of drugs that target ion channels; electrophysiology; fluorescence measurements, molecular biol ogy, biophysics

Song Hu Associate Professor songhu@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Photoacoustic technologies for high resolution, structural, functional, metabolic and molecular imaging in vivo and their applications in research of a variety of diseases, such as neurovascular disorders, cancer, wound healing and cardiovascular diseases

Nathaniel Huebsch Assistant Professor nhuebsch@wustl.edu

Research interests: Basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology, with specific focus on hydrogels to control cell-mediated tissue repair, and 3-D heart-on-a-chip models derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Abhinav Jha Assistant Professor a.jha@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Medical imaging systems and algorithms for optimized performance in clinical tasks using quantitative measures of task performance

Daniel Moran Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies dmoran@wustl.edu

Research interests: Motor control; brain-computer interfaces

Christine M. O’Brien Assistant Professor c.obrien@wustl.edu

Research interests: Wearable multimodal optical sensor for early detection of postpartum hemorrhage

Michelle Oyen Associate Professor oyen@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Materials and biomechanics; tissue mechanics and biomimetic materials; women’s health research

Rohit Pappu Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor pappu@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Protein aggregation and its effects on neurodegeneration; biophysics of intrinsically disordered proteins; protein-nucleic acid interactions; phase transitions in cell biology

Barani Raman Professor barani@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Computational and systems neuroscience; neuromorphic engineering; pattern recognition; sensorbased machine olfaction, and biorobotics

Jai Rudra Assistant Professor srudra22@wustl.edu

Research interests: Design and synthesis of amyloid-inspired supramolecular biomaterials for applications in vaccine development and immunotherapy.

Yoram Rudy Fred Saigh Distinguished Professor of Engineering rudy@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias; molecular dynam ics of ion channels; computa tional biology and mathematical modeling

Alexandra Rutz Assistant Professor rutzalexandral@wustl.edu

Research interests: Engineering of electronic tissues using materials design and fabrication-based approaches. Our goal is to achieve robust biointerfaces and long-lived function in bioelectronics and other medical devices

Research interests: Use of body-machine interfaces (BoMIs) to provide a higher level of control for existing assistive devices and neuroprosthetics, and to improve motor function through rehabilitation

Ismael Seáñez Assistant Professor ismaelseanez@wustl.edu

Lori Setton Department Chair and Lucy & Stanley Lopata

Distinguished Professor of Bio medical Engineering setton@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Mechanobiology of osteoar thritis and intervertebral disc disorders, tissue regeneration and drug delivery in musculo skeletal disease

Jin-Yu Shao Associate Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies shao@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Cellular and molecular biomechanics; protein-protein interactions, mathematical modeling of biological processes

Jingyi Shi Research Assistant Professor jshi22@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Ion channel channel function, disease-associated ion channel mutations and drugs that target ion channels

Jonathan Silva Associate Professor and Director of Diversity for BME jonsilva@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Virtual and augmented reality; electrophysiology; molecular spectroscopy; mathematical modeling; cardiac arrhythmia

Kurt Thoroughman Associate Professor thoroughman@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Science and engineering education; human motor control and learning; computational neuroscience

Michael Vahey Assistant Professor mvahey@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Developing imaging methods and microfluidic technologies to understand infectious diseases, with an emphasis on studying how viruses such as influenza A navigate and shape their hosts in order to replicate

teaching faculty

Chao Zhou Associate Professor chaozhou@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Optical coherence tomography, a growing technology used to perform high-resolution crosssectional imaging using light

Quing Zhu Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering zhu.q@wustl.edu

Research interests:

Cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment assessment and pre diction utilizing diffused optical tomography, photoacoustic tomography, optical coherence tomography and ultrasound

of Practice

Ziping Liu

Pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering

What played into your decision to get a graduate engineering degree?

As a student who had been trained in the field of biomedical engineering since my undergraduate studies, I have deeply recognized the significance of integrating engineering principles with medicine and biology to facilitate the advance in health care. Getting a PhD degree in biomedical engineering would be incredibly important for me to build on the expertise in the field.

Why did you pick WashU?

I was greatly attracted by the distinctively high diversity of the research areas in the BME department and the close collaborations between the department and the hospital.

Joseph Klaesner

Katie Schreiber

Patricia Widder

WashU BME outcomes

starting salary

$73,000

engineering majors

Neha Damaraju

Pursuing a BS in biomedical engineering

Why did you pick WashU?

Coming out of high school, I knew that I was interested in both engineering and medicine but I couldn’t decide which one I felt more inclined to pursue. I came to WashU because the university offers strong academic programs and research opportunities in both of these fields.

What are your plans for the future?

After graduation, I hope to pursue a joint MD/PhD degree with graduate study in biomedical engineering.

Leadership

Lori Setton

Department Chair and Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering setton@wustl.edu

do recent

go?

top companies: Abbott

Accenture

Bain & Co. Inc.

CGI

ClearView Healthcare Partners

Dermatologic Surgery Center of Washington Epic

Facebook, Inc.

HSpeQ

Jefferson City Medical Group

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Neuroinformatics Research Group/ Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology

XpressDx Inc.

the workforce

Zimmer Biomet

top graduate schools:

Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College

education

Case Western Reserve University

Columbia University

Cornell University

Emory University

co-op, volunteer, other

Georgia Institute of Technology

Johns Hopkins University

New York University School of Medicine

Northwestern University

University of California, San Diego University of Iowa University of Michigan

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Washington University in St. Louis