Research

Three recent BME graduates are shaping the future of research and education

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:56:18 +0000

Three recent BME graduates are shaping the future of research and education Alexander Jame… Mon, 10/19/2026 - 13:56

Alexander Servantez

The Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) at �鶹��ý may be relatively young, but its graduates are already making their mark across the country.

And for some, that means helping shape the next generation of biomedical engineers.

Three recent PhD graduates have traded their roles as students for faculty positions at other universities, where they’re leading cutting-edge research and carving out academic careers of their own. Their success highlights the growth of the program and its expanding influence beyond campus.

Read more about these graduates, their work and their incredible journeys below.

Lukas Buecherl

Assistant Professor

Buecherl has always been a curious person who is constantly questioning how things work. That’s what led him to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering and a career in research.

But in middle school, he also realized he had another passion.

“I always enjoyed teaching and explaining things to others,” Buecherl said. “During high school I had opportunities to teach and tutor that made me realize how much I enjoyed helping people understand something new.”

Today, Buecherl is combining his education and his love for teaching as an assistant professor in the Biological and Chemical Engineering Department at Utah State University’s College of Engineering. His research focuses on making biology programmable by developing computational and experimental approaches to design, analyze and predict the behavior of engineered biological systems.

“Unlike conventional engineered systems, biological systems operate through molecular interactions that are stochastic, context-dependent, and inherently variable, making it difficult to predict whether a biological design will behave as intended,” said Buecherl. “My work addresses this challenge through reliable biological computation, where I study how stochasticity, molecular timing and cellular context affect genetic and RNA circuits, and biological design automation. From there, I develop computational tools, standards and workflows that make biological design more systematic, reproducible and scalable.”

During his time in Boulder, Buecherl studied under Professor Chris Myers in the Genetic Logic Lab. He says the mentorship and support he received from that group and the broader program is what propelled him into his role today.

“Dr. Chris Myers gave me the independence and support I needed to do strong research, while also helping me make fantastic connections across the synthetic biology and bioengineering communities,” Buecherl said. “Dr. Corey Neu took the time to meet with me and help me prepare for my faculty interviews, which was incredibly valuable when I was going through the job search.

“Now that I am here, I really enjoy that combination. I get to be curious for a living, work on problems that interest me, and help students develop into scientists and engineers themselves.”

Kaitlin McCreery

Assistant Professor

McCreery’s path through �鶹��ý was highly interdisciplinary.

She worked under Professor Corey Neu in the Neu Lab studying problems that sit at the intersection of engineering, cell biology, mechanics and chromatin biology.

“How do cells sense changes in their physical environment? How do they adapt to those changes and how do those experiences alter cell identity?” McCreery asked. “Answering questions like these requires more than applying tools from one field—it requires bringing different ways of thinking together and building new experimental approaches around the biology.”

McCreery currently serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Vermont’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Her work focuses on how mechanical forces and the extracellular matrix shape cell identity, particularly during fibrosis and regeneration.

“My lab studies how physical signals are transmitted from tissues to the nucleus, reshaping chromatin and gene regulation to ultimately influence cell fate. We are especially interested in how transient biophysical cues can have lasting effects: when they are “remembered” and lock cells into persistent pathological states, and how they can coordinate groups of cells to transition together into new cell states during regeneration,” said McCreery. “Our long-term goal is to understand how extracellular cues drive both disease progression and regeneration, and to find ways to redirect these processes toward repair in cardiac and musculoskeletal tissues.”

Now, McCreery says she values being a mentor to a group of trainees as they “develop their own scientific identities and learn to move confidently across disciplinary boundaries.” She traces that passion for interdisciplinary problem-solving back to her PhD training in Boulder.

However, she also credits the BME program’s growth during her time at �鶹��ý with shaping how she thinks about academic programs and her own role as a faculty member.

“Watching the program develop helped me appreciate that academic training programs are built by passionate faculty with a shared vision. This perspective has been especially valuable as a junior faculty member helping to shape biomedical engineering research and education at UVM,” McCreery said. “I came away from Boulder with the technical breadth to build an interdisciplinary research program, a sense of where science is headed, and the confidence to create something new.”

Emily Miller

Assistant Professor

Like McCreery, Miller also worked in the Neu Lab during her PhD time in Boulder. She’s currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah, and is slated to join UC Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in January 2027.

But unlike some of her fellow PhD graduates, Miller wasn’t always sure that a faculty career was the right path for her.

“While in the BME program, I was part of a large, supportive and well-established lab, so I didn’t really know what it looked like to start a lab from the ground up,” said Miller. “When I came to Utah, I joined a brand-new lab and getting to see that process from the very beginning gave me a much better sense of what it takes to build a research program.”

Miller’s research examines how mechanical forces shape joint health, from individual tissues to whole-body movement. By linking these scales, she aims to detect joint disease sooner and prevent injury and long-term degeneration.

“This work includes the first methods to measure cartilage stiffness in living people with MRI, which show how early changes in cartilage relate to pain and function after ACL reconstruction,” Miller said. “Across these scales, my goal is to build tools that detect meaningful changes before irreversible joint damage occurs and carry those measurements into clinical care to improve patient outcomes.”

Similar to McCreery, Miller has fallen in love with the interdisciplinary nature of her work over time. She credits �鶹��ý’s BME program for instilling that foundation and informing her future.

“My PhD work brought together engineering, imaging, biomechanics and musculoskeletal health. Instead of staying constrained to one specific area, I learned how to work across them all,” Miller said. “That training shapes how I approach research today and the cross-disciplinary questions my own lab will pursue.”

The Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) at �鶹��ý may be relatively young, but its graduates are already making their mark across the country. And for some, that means helping shape the next generation of biomedical engineers. Three recent PhD graduates have traded their roles as students for faculty positions at other universities, where they’re leading cutting-edge research and carving out academic careers of their own. Their success highlights the growth of the program and its expanding influence beyond campus.

Off

Traditional

White

BME undergraduate student helps build artificial blood vessels that can heal

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:46:15 +0000

BME undergraduate student helps build artificial blood vessels that can heal Alexander Jame… Tue, 09/15/2026 - 10:46

Alexander Servantez

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming nearly 20 million lives every year.

For many patients, tiny tubes called vascular grafts can be an effective, short-term solution. When arteries and veins are damaged or blocked, these artificial “blood vessels” can be used to create new pathways for blood to flow throughout the body.

Undergraduate student Anagha Varada in the lab during her time in the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR).

However, the synthetic implants also come with problems of their own that make them inadequate for long-term use.

Anagha Varada, an undergraduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) at �鶹��ý, spent her summer trying to change that by helping develop a new, multilayered vascular graft that mimics the structure of natural blood vessels, allowing them to regenerate.

She says the reinforced graft has shown strong results during testing on rats and could one day be used to improve implant longevity and patient safety over time.

The project, led by Associate Professor Wei Tan and graduate mentor Aurora Battistella in the Tan Research Group, is part of CU Engineering’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). The program pairs nearly 125 engineering students from across the college in research labs with faculty members and graduate mentors.

For 10 weeks, students foster unique, hands-on research experiences and develop crucial skills that serve them well beyond their undergraduate education. But for Varada, the project was just the latest installment of an exciting journey that has her eager for more research in the future.

“I started in Dr. Tan’s lab during my sophomore year as part of the Fundamentals of Undergraduate Research Program (FUTURE),” Varada said. “It’s been such an amazing experience and I will definitely be looking at research as a future career possibility.”

One layer at a time

The problem with vascular grafts revolves around an idea that Varada and Tan like to call “inertness.”

Current graft technology is made primarily out of synthetic polymer materials such as teflon or plastic. These materials are strong and can help replace a damaged blood vessel, but they can’t actually behave like one.

Associate Professor Wei Tan.

Natural blood vessels are living, multilayered networks of tissues and fibers that can interact with the body, respond to injuries and heal. Artificial grafts on the other hand are more static and lifeless.

Over time, this can cause blood clotting and tissue overgrowth, narrowing the vessel and significantly limiting the lifespan of the implant. In fact, Tan states that nearly 50% of synthetic grafts fail after just one year, and have been linked to other cardiovascular conditions such as thrombosis or hyperplasia.

She also says the issue gets even larger when treating patients undergoing hemodialysis, a treatment that uses a machine to filter waste and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys can no longer do so.

“Oftentimes, we see grafts in hemodialysis patients performing the worst because they need to be poked with a needle three or four times a week to extract blood,” said Tan, who is also affiliated with the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. “That’s three or four damages to the implant that can’t be healed, which is why the graft lifespan is so short.”

To combat this, Tan and her team are creating regenerative vascular grafts using an electrospinning procedure to weave two different types of polymers into tough nanofibers. The result is a multilayered graft designed to mimic the different layers of a natural blood vessel.

Varada presenting her research during the SPUR presentation.

The first layer is called the endothelial layer—a thin coating of cells that lines the inside of a graft and allows blood to flow smoothly without clotting.

The second layer sits outside of the artery and is made of mostly smooth muscle cells. Tan says this layer is crucial, providing an “active” scaffold where new tissue can grow without restricting blood flow.

“When a graft is damaged, there is scar tissue that will build up in and around the tubing that can narrow its diameter and cause blockages,” Tan said. “The extra layer prevents that from happening and supports healthy tissue regeneration.”

Over the summer, Varada helped fabricate the grafts and analyze how well they performed after being implanted in rats.

The results are preliminary, but Varada says early trends are very promising.

“I can confidently say that our graft design has certainly increased longevity compared to current grafts on the market,” Varaga said. “It’s a relatively small sample size and there’s still a long road of testing ahead. However, success rates have looked really good thus far.”

Varada plans to continue her work as an undergraduate researcher in Tan’s group this school year. She believes the experience has helped her learn valuable lessons that she can take with her well beyond college.

“Research has taught me that it’s okay to learn as you go,” said Varada. “You aren’t always going to know everything or have full confidence in what you’re doing. But you will figure it out and gain that confidence through practice.”

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming nearly 20 million lives every year. Undergraduate student Anagha Varada spent her summer trying to change that by helping Associate Professor Wei Tan develop a new, multilayered vascular graft that mimics the structure of natural blood vessels, allowing them to regenerate.

Off

Traditional

White

�鶹��ý biomedical engineering graduate program ranks top 20

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:50:54 +0000

�鶹��ý biomedical engineering graduate program ranks top 20 Alexander Jame… Tue, 04/07/2026 - 10:50

The Biomedical Engineering graduate program at �鶹��ý was ranked 19th amongst public institutions for 2026-27, according to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools rankings. Up two spots from last year, the program continues to build on its growing national reputation.

Off

Traditional

White

Why do we get a skip in our step when we're happy? Thank dopamine

Mallory Phillips — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:17:06 +0000

Why do we get a skip in our step when we're happy? Thank dopamine Mallory Phillips Tue, 03/24/2026 - 15:17

New research by engineers from the lab of Alaa Ahmed, BME faculty member at �鶹��ý aims to get to the bottom of why, as the saying goes, you get a “skip in your step” when you’re happy.

Off

Traditional

White

BME students design leg sleeve for Team USA para-athletes

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:19:43 +0000

BME students design leg sleeve for Team USA para-athletes Alexander Jame… Mon, 03/09/2026 - 12:19

A team of BME students created a leg sleeve device designed to help para-athletes on Team USA. They will be debuting the novel design at a national competition in April.

Off

Traditional

White

BME startup brings cancer care technology to LVC

Alexander James Servantez — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:59:38 +0000

BME startup brings cancer care technology to LVC Alexander Jame… Tue, 02/24/2026 - 14:59

Alexander Servantez

William Frantz didn’t walk away with the top prize at this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC), but his research may still be a winner for future cancer patients.

Frantz, a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) at �鶹��ý, is developing microscopic droplets designed to help doctors track radiation therapy in real time. His finalist pitch at the 2025 LVC competition highlighted how the technology could one day make cancer treatment more precise and less harmful, particularly for pediatric patients.

“In the lab, we believe we have a great idea,” said Frantz. “Our research and spin-out is still in its early stages, but this could be something that has the potential to help a lot of people in the future.”

The work centers on what Frantz calls vaporizable exoskeletal droplets—microscopic droplets that can be injected into the body and used as ultrasound contrast agents.

William Frantz (right) working in the Borden Research Lab.

The tiny droplets are a staple in the Borden Research Lab because of their ability to vaporize into microbubbles and reflect ultrasound, improving imaging and therapeutic outcomes. However, Frantz’s research shows the droplets are capable of much more.

During a collaborative project with CU Anschutz, Frantz began modifying the exoskeletal droplets to respond to radiation. From there, a new startup—Radiosensitive VEDs—created alongside Professor Mark Borden was born.

The team began their journey right away, participating in university entrepreneurship and startup accelerator initiatives such as Catalyze CU and the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program (I&E). But Frantz says their participation in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program was what really helped the group build their venture.

“The program really encouraged us to do customer discovery interviews to find out exactly where our technology fits inside of a large field like radiation therapy,” Frantz said. “We started talking to medical physicists and they really helped guide our company’s research and thinking.”

Their findings helped narrow their focus to proton therapy. Typical radiation therapy involves x-rays or photon beams to blast cancer cells with radiation. However, these x-ray beams have a tendency to travel through a patient entirely, which can expose healthy tissue to radiation and increase the risk of side effects.

Proton therapy on the other hand, uses positively charged particles that behave differently once inside the body. Instead of passing completely through tissue like x-rays, protons can be calibrated to travel a specific distance and then stop, depositing most of their energy directly into the tumor site.

But according to Frantz, the increased precision that proton therapy offers still isn’t perfect.

“Imagine you’re trying to hit a tumor mass with a proton beam, but the patient lost weight between treatments, the tumor shifted, or their breathing patterns are causing the protons to travel a little too far or short than what was originally planned for,” said Frantz. “Not only are you missing the tumor site and irradiating healthy tissue, but you are also decreasing the amount of radiation delivered to the cancer cells and the benefit of proton therapy.”

Frantz during his finals pitch at the Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) competition.

That’s where Frantz and Borden’s research fits in. The modified exoskeletal droplets they have created can vaporize under proton radiation and form a microbubble. The team can track that bubble using ultrasound, measuring where the protons are stopping in real-time and verify that the therapy is being delivered as intended.

If proton radiation is deviating from its intended target, physicists and oncologists can stop and use this information to make fine-tuned adjustments to the proton beam or the overall treatment plan.

Frantz said this added layer of clarity will not only help them ensure the proton therapy is as effective as possible, but it will also help minimize healthy tissue exposure—something that’s especially important for children.

Frantz working in the Borden Research Lab.

“Proton therapy is gaining a lot of traction for pediatric cancer patients because they are extremely sensitive to the ill effects of radiation. Radiating their healthy tissue can lead to chronic lung and heart diseases and musculoskeletal issues. They can even develop cancer later in life,” Frantz said. “If we can make it even just a little bit more accurate, we can help decrease these risks of chronic health conditions and they can live a long healthy life.”

The team’s impactful research earned their startup a spot as a finalist in this year’s LVC community showcase. The competition, hosted by Venture Partners, allows top innovators across Colorado to compete for a combined $750,000 in startup funding grants for projects that address a commercial need, have a clear path to a compelling market and have strong scientific support.

Despite a strong pitch and a lot of public support, Frantz and Borden were not selected as winners of the competition. But Frantz said they learned a lot that they can use moving forward.

“It’s all about focusing on the business model,” said Frantz. “We have confidence that this can be used in the clinic. Now it’s about doing more customer discovery and market research. It’s about answering these big supply chain distribution and even administrative healthcare questions to show that we have an economically-viable product.”

He even said the competition helped him develop a new passion for the entrepreneurial process that he never thought he would have.

“My long-term goal has always been to become a professor,” Frantz said. “I still want to do that, but I can definitely see myself being involved in entrepreneurship, as well.”

Regardless of what path he chooses, the LVC hasn’t seen the last of Frantz and his team.

“We’re really grateful to CU Venture Partners and the I&E Fellowship for all of these opportunities,” said Frantz. “We’re going to try and roll with the punches this year. Maybe next year we’ll come back to LVC with a vengeance and secure some funding to continue pushing this technology towards the market."

PhD student William Frantz is developing microscopic droplets designed to help doctors track radiation therapy in real time. His finalist pitch at the 2025 LVC competition highlighted how the technology could one day make cancer treatment more precise and less harmful, particularly for pediatric patients.

Off

Traditional

White

Researchers build ultra-efficient optical sensors shrinking light to a chip

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:42:22 +0000

Researchers build ultra-efficient optical sensors shrinking light to a chip Alexander Jame… Mon, 02/23/2026 - 11:42

BME professor Won Park is co-advising a research project building high performing optical microresonators to open the door for new sensor technologies. In the future, the microresonators could be used for compact microlasers, advanced chemical and biological sensors and even tools for quantum metrology and networking.

Off

Traditional

White

Researchers create shape-shifting, self-navigating microparticles

Mallory Phillips — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:34:13 +0000

Researchers create shape-shifting, self-navigating microparticles Mallory Phillips Thu, 01/22/2026 - 14:34

Researchers, including BME faculty member Wyatt Shields at �鶹��ý have created tiny, microorganism-inspired particles that can change their shape and self-propel, much like living things, in response to electrical fields in hopes these microrobots can deliver medications inside the human body, particularly in areas that are hard for drugs to reach on their own.

Off

Traditional

White

Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:33:08 +0000

Donated blood has a shelf life. A new test tracks how it's aging Alexander Jame… Wed, 01/21/2026 - 10:33

Roughly 6.8 million people donate blood in the United States, helping save millions of lives, according to the American Red Cross. But just like groceries sitting on store shelves, red blood cells age over time. That's why BME Associate Professor Xiaoyun Ding and medical collaborators at CU Anschutz have created a chip device to help give blood centers and hospitals a reliable way to monitor the quality of red blood cells after weeks in storage.

Off

Traditional

White

Biomedical engineering students present research at BMES Annual Meeting

Alexander James Servantez — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:09:02 +0000

Biomedical engineering students present research at BMES Annual Meeting Alexander Jame… Wed, 11/19/2025 - 10:09

Alexander Servantez

Engineering student research on joint damage, arthritis, heart problems, and tissue defects were the subject of presentations at a major national conference.

Six students and researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) presented their work at this year’s Biomedical Engineering Society 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

The conference, one of the premier gatherings of biomedical engineers and allied fields, brought together over 5,500 attendees worldwide in early October to focus on health and wellness through engineering innovation.

During the five-day event, each student was given the opportunity to present a poster or talk highlighting the primary outcomes of their research. Read below to learn more about these students and their incredible contributions to science and engineering.

Faith Olulana

Faith is a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at �鶹��ý. She is a member of the Neu Lab, led by Professor Corey Neu, and gave a talk at this year’s annual meeting titled “Granular Extracellular Matrix-Based Biomaterial for Engineering of Biological Tissues.”

Joint cartilage has a limited capacity for self-repair, thus there is a need to develop tissue engineering strategies capable of new tissue growth. Decellularized extracellular matrices (dECM) are a promising platform for tissue repair, as they retain biological cues that support cell invasion and integration.

However, dense cartilage ECM presents biophysical barriers that hinder cell infiltration. While hydrogels can provide higher porosity and migratory properties, they often fail to match the mechanical properties of dense connective tissues. Therefore, a key challenge is developing materials that provide both mechanical support and facilitate cellular migration, promoting tissue repair and function.

The Neu Lab addresses this challenge by developing granular extracellular matrix (gECM) biomaterials, comprising decellularized ECM microparticles densely packed within a hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel. The packing and architecture of gECM biomaterials balances mechanical integrity and porosity, facilitating structural support and cellular migration.

Faith’s research characterizes the mechanical and structural properties of gECM biomaterials using percolation theory. As tissue particle density increases, material properties shift from hydrogel-like to tissue-like. The percolation threshold is the point at which mechanics are dictated by tissue particles rather than the surrounding hydrogel.

Faith and her team aim to define where this threshold occurs in naturally derived gECM biomaterials and how particle size and shape influence this threshold. Understanding this transition shows how closely the biomaterial mimics native tissues, thus demonstrating the gECM’s ability to replicate characteristics of native tissues.

Izaiah Ramirez

Izaiah is a PhD student in the BME program and is also a member of the Neu Lab. He presented a poster titled “Increased Nuclear Reorganization Following Repetitive Stiffening in NIH-3T3 Fibroblasts.”

Fibroblasts in the heart regulate the tissue’s extracellular matrix by continuously sensing and transducing external mechanical forces. When mechanical signals become persistently imbalanced, such as after a heart attack, fibroblasts activate and quickly remodel the tissue environment in a process known as fibrosis.

Notable changes in fibroblasts occur within hours of an altered environment and persist for the cell’s lifespan. Although these changes are well characterized, the mechanisms at play prior to these visible changes remain poorly understood.

Izaiah’s research aims to understand how mechanical stresses can affect nuclear organization, before a fibroblast activates and loses its ability to recover. To study this, he and his lab group use customized, soft polymer materials to control the magnitude and time the cells are stimulated.

Using this system, Izaiah says his team can track how fibroblast nuclei reorganize after each cycle of stress. He believes this knowledge can one day help identify when certain diseases, like fibrosis, become irreversible and when treatments might be most effective.

Markkus Tong

Markkus is an undergraduate student in the BME program and a member of the Computer Vision/Imagine AI Lab, led by Associate Professor Tom Yeh. At this year’s BMES event, he presented a poster titled “T13 - Supporting Strategies to Address Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations in Fontan Patients.”

Markkus’ research focuses on treatments for children who are born with serious heart defects where only one pumping chamber develops properly. In these instances, doctors can perform a series of surgeries to help reroute blood flow to improve oxygen levels in the lungs, bypassing the heart entirely.

But while these treatments exist, they can cause complications and patients can develop other health issues; with no resistance in blood vessels from the heart pumping blood, malformations would develop as a result, leading to less flow traveling to organs.

Markkus says there isn’t a clear way yet for doctors to compare the various treatment’s effectiveness and decide which option is best for a given patient. The goal of his study is to develop a framework that helps clinicians evaluate and choose the most effective strategies for restoring blood flow in patients who require this attention virtually, without having to open up the patient.

Katie Gallagher

Katie is a PhD student in the BME program and also a member of the Neu lab. She gave a talk titled “Tissue-specific granular extracellular matrix biomaterials drive differential responses in human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells.”

Much like Faith, Katie’s research involves using gECM biomaterial to repair damaged cartilage. But she is looking to tackle the issue from a different perspective.

Over time, small areas of damaged cartilage can lead to the breakdown of nearby cartilage and bone, eventually causing osteoarthritis. This debilitating disease affects millions of people worldwide and currently has extremely limited treatment options.

In her talk, Katie demonstrated how human derived mesenchymal stromal cells behave within different tissue derived gECM hydrogels. Her findings showed tissue specific responses to the bone and cartilage gECM materials including cellular growth and gene expression.

Katie believes these results will help them move closer towards future treatments for osteoarthritis.

S. Ellyse Schneider

Ellyse is a Research Associate in Dr. Corey Neu’s lab, and holds a master’s degree and a PhD from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at �鶹��ý. At the annual meeting, Ellyse presented a poster titled “Senescent cardiac fibroblasts after cardiomyocyte nuclear mechanics.”

As a person ages, senescent fibroblasts within the heart can build up and may interfere with how the heart functions, but their mechanical impact on the behavior of neighboring cells, especially the contracting cardiomyocyte, is still not well understood.

In this study, Ellyse cultured cardiomyocytes on soft “healthy” and stiff “diseased” substrates to see how they respond when senescent fibroblasts are added. She found that these senescent cells immediately changed the contraction mechanics of the cardiomyocyte especially on the stiffer, disease-like substrates.

When conditioned media from senescent fibroblast cultures was used, smaller effects on the cardiomyocyte contraction mechanics were observed, suggesting that direct contact between cells plays an important role.

Overall, these findings show that senescent cells mechanically disrupt the microenvironment, helping to better delineate the factors that contribute to aging and heart disease.

Juliet Heye

Juliet is a PhD candidate in the BME program and Neu Lab. She presented a poster at the BMES event titled “Characterization of Extrudable Granular ECM (gECM) Biomaterials for Five Distinct Tissue-Specific Applications.”

Juliet’s research aims to develop granular ECM (gECM) biomaterials that recapitulate native tissue for realistic in vitro models and filling tissue defects in vivo. Her work characterizes gECM biomaterials for five tissue applications that cover a large percentage of disease applications—cartilage, bone, skin, liver, and kidney.

In her poster, Juliet characterizes the biophysical and mechanical behavior of these gECM biomaterials. She also demonstrates in a subset of gECM tissues (cartilage and skin) that these materials can support cell viability, proliferation, and tissue-specific gene expression.

Juliet says the work demonstrates that gECM biomaterials are practical, translational, and biomimetic, supporting their use in developing realistic tissue models and implantable fillers for a variety of disease types.

Six students and researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) presented their work on joint damage, arthritis, heart problems, and tissue defects at this year’s Biomedical Engineering Society 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Off

Traditional

White