At the interface of engineering and medicine, bioengineering is an inherently interdisciplinary field with societal impact. This student is viewing a microscope image of human airway smooth muscle cells stained with fluorescent calcium dye as part research to improve treatment for asthma.
Innovation is furthered with an interdisciplinary collaborative lab environment and state-of-the-art facilities such as the Microscope Hub in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex where this student is looking at cancer culture.
With a 3000 square foot makerspace including 18 tables and state-of-the-art equipment, undergraduate students have the space, capabilities, and environment to work and innovate together on capstone, research, and teaching projects.
Assistant Professor Mona Minkara sits works on cell configuration with her research assistant. Dr. Minkara is a blind faculty member and she uses these cells to feel and recognize cell types.
As part of the weekly lab for Bioengineering Measurement, Experimentation and Statistics course, students learn cell and tissue culture, biomechanics, computational, and other areas within bioengineering.
Spotlight Stories
ASME 2023 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award
BioE Assistant Professor Jessica Oakes was selected as the 2023 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award Medalist for outstanding work in respiratory mechanics that has significantly advanced the understanding of asthma, smoking, and inhalable drug delivery, and for strong advocacy in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
NSF CAREER Award for Examining sRNAs as Potential Disease Prevention
Jiahe Li, BioE assistant professor, has been awarded a $636,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, titled “Understanding and Harnessing Host-derived Small RNAs Against Opportunistic Pathogens,” to learn how to harness one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms to inhibit bad bacteria.
$7.5M DOD MURI Grant for Synthetic Biology
University Distinguished Professor Eduardo Sontag and collaborators received a $7.5M DOD MURI grant to impact synthetic biology by changing the way one describes, characterizes, and designs genetic modules, through tools that will enable the systematic and scalable design of increasingly complex biomolecular decision-making systems.
Engineering In Action
World-Renown Co-op Program
Ella Strzegowski (Bioengineering E’23) embarked on a co-op at Moderna in the fall of 2021, just as the company was applying for its biologics license and COVID-19’s Omicron variant was tearing through the population. Her experience placed her at the epicenter of covid-related research even as the virus—and the world’s response to it—changed by the day.
PhD Research for Impact
Lauren Cole (PhD in Bioengineering) has dedicated her Northeastern research to understanding the medicinal properties of certain plants, especially in the production of chemotherapy drugs. Shedding light on how plants can be engineered to produce these beneficial molecules, she’s shared her research in published journal articles and an award-winning conference presentation.
World-Renown Experiential Learning
Originally from Nigeria, OluwaFemi Koledoye (MS in Bioengineering) pursued a cell and tissue concentration at Northeastern—hoping to return home with the training to bring change to healthcare in West Africa. His hands-on experience of the biopharmaceutical industry, including a co-op, gave him the tools to realize his ambitions.
World-Renowned Cooperative Education
Kritika Singh, BS, Bioengineering, is on her first co-op at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Center for Systems Biology and she is also working on a malaria project to express a difficult to express protein. Her ambition is to be a physician scientist and says co-op will definitely help her achieve that.
World-Renowned Cooperative Education
Aanie Phillips, BS, Bioengineering, says co-op puts into perspective what you learn in the classroom providing an immersive learning experience. She did two co-ops, a clinical one at a doctor’s office, and the other as a mechanical and operations engineer at Virtudent, a teledentistry startup. Aaanie is off to medical school with a full scholarship from her top-choice school.
Recent News
Dai and Huang-Saad Inducted as AIMBE Fellows
BioE Associate Professors Guohao Dai and Aileen Huang-Saad were inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellows Class of 2023. Dai was elected “for contributions in vascular mechanobiology and 3D bioprinting vascular networks for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine applications” and Huang-Saad was elected “for outstanding contributions to the development of BME entrepreneurship education microenvironments and studying their impact on the engagement of diverse populations.”
Pursuing Bioengineering PhD to Affect Patient Outcomes through Research
Kevin Bardon, PhD’23, bioengineering, began his doctoral studies after a 20-year career of academic and industry research, with a goal to lead independent research. At Northeastern, he has jointly filed for a patent for a real-time immune biomarker detection system, is preparing to publish several papers on optimized photoacoustic contrast agents, and he presented his research at professional gatherings.
BioE Alumni Spotlight: Jessica Fitzgerald, University of Colorado Boulder
Jessica Fitzgerald, PhD, is a Teaching Faculty Member at the University of Colorado. She teaches Computer-Aided Design and Fabrication, Anatomy and Physiology for Engineers, Bioinstrumentation, and Biomaterials. She is also responsible for undergraduate and graduate course instruction, new course development, and cultivating a community of support, growth, and excellence in the new Biomedical Engineering program. […]
BioE Alumni Spotlight: Rachel Horenstein, University of Denver
Rachel Horenstein, PhD, is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Denver. She currently teaches courses in solid mechanics and engineering design. She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University in 2020 where, as a member of the Multiscale Mechanics and Musculoskeletal Mechanobiology Lab, […]