M.Eng. Graduates

2022-23 DESIGN PROJECTS

Team Projects

3D printable materials to emulate patellofemoral dysplasia in a mechanical model

Shuyan Dai, Yifan Hu, Sanmuga Priya 

An increasing population with patellofemoral dysplasia stresses the need for better management methods. Currently, contact force mappings using printed-part-modified cadaveric models are limited due to the inability of materials to mimic cartilage resulting in inaccurate measurements and potential damage to the sensors. To overcome these limitations, we developed a screening process to find the ideal material that resembles native cartilage mechanical properties. The materials were tested and compared with native cartilage using a specially designed material tester. In collaboration with engineers and surgeons, we identified methods to improve the disease simulation platform for biomechanical analysis to facilitate treatment development.

Addressing preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM)

Chloe Kuelbs, Jayanti Samaddar, Ryen Holda, Sarah Wilson, Farid Aboharb (clinical consultant)

Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) is a condition where the amniotic sac surrounding the baby ruptures early, before 37 weeks of gestation. It is responsible for 30-40 percent of preterm births and impacts 150,000 women in the U.S. Significant perinatal morbidities, such as fetal death, placental abruption, umbilical cord prolapses, neonatal sepsis, and respiratory distress syndrome can result from it. Currently, there is no system that can support a fetus to full term. Our team is working on a prototype that aims to deploy a silicone amniotic sac around a fetus, attach it to the placenta and carry it to term. 

Baby carrier harness with integrated sensor for hip dysplasia treatment compliance

Srinidhi Emkay

Hip dysplasia is a common condition in infants, characterized by an improperly formed hip socket. Upon ossification in infants, this causes the femoral neck to become anteverted, leading to osteoarthritis during adolescence. Baby carrier harnesses are effective in correcting hip dysplasia, but non-compliance with the bracing regimen results in poorer outcomes. We aim to embed a comfortable, safe and accurate sensor system. The data is used to assess parental adherence to the prescribed regimen, improving treatment outcomes for infants with hip dysplasia. Future work includes optimizing the system and conducting primary customer validation.

Deciphering & controlling lymphatic function using organ-on-a-chip model

Elizabeth Maeder, Nikhila Reddy, Ye Guo, Jazmin Lagier 

The drug discovery market is projected to reach $161.76 billion in 2030, though 90% of drug candidates fail in clinical trials, in part due to the need for a physiological relevance model. The FDA passed the Modernization Act 2.0 to remove animal testing as a requirement. Therefore, there is a current need for a psychologically suitable, inexpensive and accessible method to screen drug candidates. Our proposed solution is creating a biocompatible, physiologically relevant 3D printed microfluidic device, designed on Autodesk Fusion, that models the diffusion of a drug through the small intestines and lymphatic system.

Development of an internal, magnetically actuated distraction system for the treatment of craniosynostosis

Edward McGettigan, Connor Bittlingmaier, Joushva Kamble, Ziyang Zheng, Farid Aboharb

One in every 2,200 children in the U.S. suffers from craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures, which can result in restricted brain growth and increased intracranial pressure. A common treatment for this condition is distraction osteogenesis. However, all of the distraction devices currently on the market require the protrusion of a small rod through the skin. This protruding feature acts as a direct pathway for bacteria to enter the body and increases the risk of postoperative infection. Our device is the first to provide distraction through the use of magnets without external protrusions.

Development of a knee dynamometry device compatible with the hospital for specialized surgery’s knee health assessment device

Rotimi Adetunji, Nicholas Allen, Skylar Cho, Parker Dean, Kunal Deo, Alan Jesky, Jordan Johnson

Knee injuries are exceedingly common among adult and adolescent athletes, and devices capable of assessing knee stability assist physicians in developing treatment plans. Currently, no single device allows for assessment of both muscle strength and knee ligament strength (laxity). Instead, a dynamometer and knee laxity measurement device such as HSS’s Knee Tester are used independently. Unfortunately, these two devices are expensive and large, meaning physicians typically do not have the space or budget for both. Our group developed a dynamometer attachment for HSS’s Knee Tester to save physicians both space and money, and improve patient outcomes.

Development of a novel containment & administration solution for mRNA vaccine delivery

Roshni Banerjee, Harveen Bawa, Ricky Palacio 

Our project was centered around a meticulous examination of the current delivery solutions, market gaps in global vaccine containment, administration steps, usability, pain points, associated costs, and market/stakeholder analysis. Our research has culminated in a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. mRNA-based vaccine landscape—wherein we narrowed focus to current & pipeline mRNA vaccines, addressing a current market value of $76.1 billion in 2023. Motivated to develop a robust set of requirements for a novel container, our proposed solution—an adaptable volume delivery device—emphasizes reusability and sustainability, making it a cost-effective and efficient solution to the challenges associated with vaccine delivery.

Meniscus repair w/ RF tissue welding

Rahul Rachan, Sarah West, Meredith Brafman

Approximately one million meniscus tears occur annually and 750,000 of them require surgery to repair. There are currently two surgical options: the tissue is either resected, leaving a hole prone to inflammation, cartilage damage and osteoarthritis, or the tissue is sutured, leaving abrasive materials inside the joint. This project aims to use radiofrequency (RF) energy to repair partial tears via tissue fusion. The objective is to formulate and design a minimally invasive and effective treatment by assessing multiple RF parameters to maximize fusion capabilities while retaining tissue integrity on a laboratory set-up designed to mimic the tissue microenvironment.

Miniature device for oral delivery of biologics

Sami Kahloun, Yvette Sun, Haowei Zu 

In recent years, as the shift from inpatient to at-home care has occured, the need for oral biologics delivery has increased dramatically. For conditions such as diabetes, the development of oral insulin pills would promote greater treatment adherence. Our team’s solution incorporates microneedle, hydrogel and osmotic pump technologies to delivery large macromolecules in a targeted and controlled release manner. 

  
Pediatric and veterinary cardiovascular simulator

Tarikh Asyraf, Xinyan Li

In the U.S., congenital heart disease affects nearly 1% of all human births, while approximately 20% of dogs are also affected by the condition. However, there is a market gap in the availability of pediatric and veterinary cardiovascular simulators that can accurately replicate heart anatomy and function. Current simulators in the market are rigid and designed for adult sizes, making it challenging for surgeons to train the necessary skills. Our project aims to fill this gap by developing a pediatric-sized pumping heart model that can simulate realistic heart beating and provide a suitable training and research tool for both pediatric and veterinary surgeons.

Robotic sports activity simulator

Aishwarya Saxena, Anushka Roy, Raymond Crespo
 
Knee-related injuries are prevalent in sports, making it crucial to understand knee mechanics to further develop healthcare and industry standards for treatments, as well as to create innovative preventive technology and medicine. The goal of this project is to assess biomechanical knee sports injuries by quantifying joint stability and analyzing 3D kinematic flexion-extension motion in vitro through state-of-the-art robotic simulations: KUKA and Kawasaki, real-time data acquisition and feedback control, in addition to improving the efficiency of the robotic control system by developing solutions for feedback loops and setups.

Sensors for knee intraoperative measurements (SKIMs)

Haodong Liu, Marsha Maredia, Lillian Pratt, Kathryn Suter
 
Understanding the relationship between joint contact mechanics and the likelihood of joint tissue degeneration is vital to the long-term success of knee surgeries. Currently, no sensor exists that can be used in minimally invasive surgery (arthroscopically) to measure forces applied to the meniscus during surgery. Our data acquisition system includes hardware designed to read contact forces from a novel sensor in real-time, and an accessible graphical user interface that can record and display these measurements for intraoperative use by surgeons and researchers. 

System based on jugular vein dynamics for management of right ventricular insufficiency

Tooba Subhani, Neha Sreedharala, Yanni He, Zhuoyi Chen and Yuhe Tian
 
The American Heart Association affirms that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the U.S., and directly account for $407.3 billion in hospital expenses and disease management costs. Specifically, right-ventricular heart insufficiency can be an early indicator of advanced left-ventricular dysfunction and several pulmonary diseases. Clinically, measuring the jugular venous pressure serves as a direct indicator of right ventricular insufficiency, however, this is often a manually tedious and invasive procedure. We propose a real-time, non-invasive image processing-based method of investigating internal jugular vein dynamics for diagnosing right-ventricular insufficiency.

System for the maintenance and growth of ex vivo isolated embryonic chick hearts

Parth Thirumalai Ananthanpillai, Devanshi Jain, Kunaal Sarhaya, Tiffany Pang, Riya Jain
 
Every year, at least 1.5 million infants are born with congenital heart disease (CHD), posing a significant problem in pediatric global health. Chick embryos are widely used for cardiac research due to their defined stages of cardiac development, cost-effectiveness and high similarity to the human genome. Currently, there’s no system that can support the survival and development of ex vivo isolated embryonic chick hearts to directly test fetal heart senses and responses to specific mechanical loads. Our technology is designed to aid in the ex vivo growth and survival of chick embryo hearts and facilitate the development of new treatments.

Veterinary blood pressure

Qianyun Ding, Ishita Bhattacharya
 
Veterinary care has become more advanced in multiple fields. Blood pressure monitoring is essential both in regular checkups and at the ER. Animals, no matter their size, need to have their blood pressure read quickly and accurately. In our project, we were provided with an already developed prototype from an industry leader. Our main focus is to perform various tests on a variety of patients to generate feedback. For the sake of comparison and contrast, we also visited the ER to see how clinics are taking measurements.

Individual Research Projects

Prediction of psychedelics and non-psychedelics via whole-brain c-Fos maps

Farid Aboharb (advised by Alex Kwan)

Psychedelics and related compounds have shown great promise in treating a range of neuropsychiatric disorders in patients non-responsive to current standards of care. Classic psychedelics, as well as entactogens like MDMA and dissociatives like ketamine, have a wide range of pharmacodynamic properties. An improved understanding of the neuronal effects of these compounds and how they differ from commonly used psychiatric drugs can offer insight into how they drive their therapeutic influences through related but also distinct mechanisms. In this study, we employ whole-brain light sheet microscopy to examine expression of the immediate early gene, c-Fos, in groups of mice given psilocybin, subanesthetic ketamine, 5-MeO-DMT, 6-fluoro-DET, MDMA, and the SSRI fluoxetine following chronic administration (C-SSRI) and as a first time treatment (A-SSRI) (n = 8 per group). Aligned to standardized brain atlases, we find that the compounds drive distinct expression patterns. Moreover, the c-Fos expression patterns can be used to classify the drug type via logistic regression models at high accuracy (mean 70%, SD 12%). Overall, this data provides information about key brain regions that drive the differential impact of psychedelics and related psychoactive compounds.

Improving the clinical efficiency and patient safety of neuromuscular blockade procedures

Syed Reefat Aziz  (advised by Newton de Faria)

Neuromuscular blockades (nerve blocks) are ultrasound-guided peripheral anesthesiology procedures clinicians utilize to administer anesthestics to a patient to relieve post-operative pain. Because anesthesiologists need three hands to hold the ultrasound probe, situate the needle on a desired anatomical landmark, and push the piston of a syringe, this procedure typically requires two clinicians. Our device includes a microswitch subassembly affixed onto an ergonomic position on the syringe so that the delivery of anesthestics can be completed via an externally controlled syringe pump. This device seeks to improve the clinical efficiency and operator independence of the anesthesiologist by allowing one person to administer the nerve block. In the status quo, clinicians rely upon tactile feedback to actuate the nerve block syringe and as such may cause nerve damage when injection pressures reach unsafe levels, a condition known as peripheral neuropathy. Our device is designed to improve patient safety by displaying the real-time pressure profile of the anatomical substrate and instituting a fail-safe mechanism that automatically stops the syringe actuation system to prevent the occurrence of peripheral neuropathy.

Zwitterionic microgels for 3D-printed auricular reconstruction

Regina Casimiro-Núñez (advised by Lawrence Bonassar)

Current approaches for auricular reconstruction in response to trauma, oncological resection and congenital defects lack long-term stability, patient specificity and aesthetics. 3D printing with collagen has been studied as an alternative, but obstacles remain due to collagen’s slow gelation time and poor mechanical properties. Zwitterionic microgels are a biocompatible and viscoelastic material with both self-healing properties and better mechanics than collagen alone. I propose that a combination of microgels and collagen will yield a material with improved properties to use in 3D printing for auricular reconstruction.

Harnessing membrane vesicles from human microbiome

Jiucheng Ding (advised by Ilana Brito)

Membrane vesicles (MVs) are spherical buds spontaneously or non-spontaneously released during growth by many bacteria, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative species. This process allows bacteria to respond to the environment, enabling survival during stressful conditions. The vesiculation can be either detrimental or beneficial to the host. Currently, the exact mechanisms of vesicle formation and the pathophysiological roles of MVs have not been well-established. Our research goals are: (1) to isolate a sufficient amount of vesicle samples from all 12 selected bacterial species, (2) to characterize the contents of the vesicle samples, and (3) to understand the interactions between the vesicles and the host.

Development & documentation of BST (biochemical systems theory) model kit

Yaopeng Ding (advised by Jeffrey Varner)

The BST model kit is designed to model the concentration of metabolites in a metabolic network as a dynamic S-system, which is a major function of the kit. The key aspect of the model is the ability of non-linear rational functions to be represented as a straight-line in a log-log plot, allowing for the deduction of the rate of a process. This is achieved by using the Taylor series in a logarithmic space, which improves the efficiency of dynamic solutions and facilitates steady-state solutions. By using logarithmic transformation, the BST model kit can accurately model complex metabolic processes.

Lipid nanoparticles; process and target improvements for immunological approach

Cameron Godin (advised by Shaoyi Jiang)

Cameron’s research started from assisting and learning the entire process of LNP Formulation, from mRNA creation, to purification, and eventually to encapsulation for therapeutic delivery. Themes explored involved novel comparison of cellulose to FPLC purification, changing polymeric formulations for improved nanoparticle size distribution, and reviewing applicable uses for treatment of latent diseases. 

Extraction and characterization of Arc engineered exosomes outer membrane modification  

Ketaki Londhe (advised by Shaoyi Jiang)

Exosomes are highly heterogeneous vesicles released from cells that are of high interest in drug delivery research. However, how they target their destinations is poorly understood. Moreover, engineered exosomes are often used in applications despite this knowledge gap. My project involves engineered Arc exosomes that are used to package and specifically target different cell types for drug delivery, and elucidates the potential outer membrane modifications that are present in different subpopulations of exosomes, both wildtype and engineered Arc exosomes. Specifically, engineered Arc exosomes modifications will be compared to wild type populations and unique identified proteins will be used to immunoprecipitate pure Arc populations for drug delivery applications.

Development of diagnostics for assessment of iron status by quantification of human ferritin

Siddhant Mukherjee (advised by Saurabh Mehta, Balaji Srinivasan)

This project concerns the creation of diagnostics for assessing iron status in the blood to detect hemoglobin deficiency and its associated effects. Ferritin is a key protein that serves as an important indicator of iron status and an indicator of oxyhemoglobin levels in the blood. This report focuses on the development and implementation of diagnostics to analyze the iron status by quantifying human ferritin status. This report discusses utilization of gold conjugation kits to identify human ferritin and description of a set of tests that quantify the amount of ferritin and some related technologies that help in achieving the same. 

Solvent-free encapsulation of small molecule therapeutics in condensed droplet polymerization nanoparticles

Danielle Streever (advised by Rong Yang)

Current therapeutic encapsulation techniques for nanoparticles require solvents and lengthy incubation periods. Many therapeutics are sensitive to solvents and quickly degrade upon exposure, limiting drugs available for nanomedicine or shortening their shelf-life. I developed a solvent-free encapsulation method where therapeutics are deposited as a thin film, then polymer nanoparticles are condensed on top of the therapeutic, trapping it within the polymer matrix. The absence of solvents improves the purity of the nanoparticles and drastically shortens synthesis time. The polymer also protects therapeutics, extending their shelf life. This method is valid for many polymers and therapeutic chemistries, unlike solvent-based encapsulation.