Annual Report
2024-2025
Annual Reports
This past year, the Department of Bioengineering has expanded its role as a leader in health innovation and translational research. From faculty pioneering discoveries in tissue engineering and biomedical imaging, to students excelling in research fellowships and startup competitions, our community continues to push the boundaries of human health.
I invite you to explore our digital annual report, where you’ll find more stories of discovery, collaboration, and innovation — along with key statistics that capture the breadth of our accomplishments in 2024–2025.
Thank you for your continued support of the College of Engineering and the incredible work happening here at Northeastern.
Abraham Joy
Chair, Department of Bioengineering
Top Stories
Eduardo Sontag, university distinguished professor of ECE/BioE, was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong and BioE Associate Professor Ambika Bajpayee were awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the federal government to outstanding early career scientists.
Stats
Total Enrollment (Fall 2025)
185 MS (70% increase vs. 2024), 158 PhD, and 564 BS students
External Research Awards (2024)
FY2022-2024 = $34M
Co-op Employers in the Boston area
Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty
Teaching Faculty
Early Career Awards
Professional Society Fellowships
New Faculty
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Beth A. Winkelstein joined Northeastern University in August 2025 as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and as a professor in bioengineering. |
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Victoria D’Agostino joined the bioengineering department in August 2025 as an assistant teaching professor. |
Faculty Highlights
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Abraham Joy, BioE professor and chair, has been inducted into the 2025 Class of the AIMBE College of Fellows “for seminal innovations in the design, fabrication and translation of synthetic biomimetic biomaterials into novel therapeutic and diagnostic medical products.” |
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BioE Professor Guohao Dai was selected as a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) for contributions in vascular mechanobiology, 3D bioprinting vascular networks for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine applications, and transcriptional regulation of arterial venous vascular differentiation in health and diseases. |
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Physics/BioE University Distinguished Professor Herbert Levine and BioE/MIE Affiliated Faculty Alain Karma were awarded an NSF grant for “Building Quantitative Models of Eukaryotic Cell Motility.” They will work with Ecole Normale in Paris as part of a special NSF program with the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche. |
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BioE Associate Professor Jessica Oakes received the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) 2025 Young Investigator Award. This award recognizes a scientist under 40 who has made significant contributions to the field of aerosols in medicine. |
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BioE/COS Professor Lee Makowski established a Bioinnovation Center in Ghana at the Academic City University College. He is developing and distributing affordable, locally designed medical technologies, including ventilator technology that was originally developed by the late Craig Smallwood, PhD’18, bioengineering. |
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Northeastern’s inaugural Global Summit on Mechanobiology and Mechanomedicine Conference, organized by Ning Wang, professor of bioengineering and director of the Institute for Mechanobiology at Northeastern, brought together leading experts in mechanobiology from around the globe to share research and advance efforts to address pressing health issues. |
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BioE Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard’s lab has developed InCu-Click, a breakthrough reagent that makes the powerful click chemistry technique safe for live-cell applications, opening up new possibilities in drug discovery, diagnostics, and biological research. |
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COS/BioE Professor Jing-Ke Wen applied a new method called molecular gene resurrection to repair a defunct gene found in the coyote tobacco plant that encodes cyclic peptide nanamin. This peptide could be used in new cancer treatments, antibiotics development, and insect protection for crops. |
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BioE Assistant Professor Sara Rouhanifard, Bouve/MIE Assistant Professor Max Shepherd, and MIE Assistant Professor Jeffrey Lipton are recipients of the Fall 2024 Spark Fund Awards from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation. |
Student Highlights
| Bioengineering students Amanda Angelina Dee, E’23, Tobias O. Jonson, E’24, Kaitlyn Ramesh, E’25, and Victoria Williams, PhD’28, were recipients of a 2025 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Awards honorable mention. This prestigious program recognizes outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers early in their careers. | |
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Aleksei Krotov, PhD’25, bioengineering, advised by COS/ECE University Distinguished Professor Dagmar Sternad, received first place in the 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting Student E-Poster Competition in the Brain and Behavior category. |
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Gabrielle Rose Bailey, E’25, bioengineering and biochemistry, is a recipient of the 2025 Compass Award, which recognize exemplary students from the senior class who have demonstrated a true dedication to the core values of leadership, volunteerism, academic integrity, and a commitment to Northeastern. |
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A team of Northeastern graduate students and alumni, led by Harry Akligoh, PhD ’28, bioengineering, participated in the 2024 Vivli Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance Data Challenge and were awarded the Student Innovation Prize for their Microbiological Information Management System (microBIS) project. |
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Bioengineering student Catherine “Katya” Karpova, PhD’27, who works in Professor Guohao Dai’s lab, was selected for the Judges Award at the 7th Annual College of Engineering PhD Research Expo last week, for her poster presentation on “Development of Cardiac Specific Endothelial Cells to Support Vascularized Cardiac Organoids.” |
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As part of their capstone project, bioengineering students developed Flextab, a circular silicon-based tab that replaces stickers on an electrocardiogram (EKG), after learning about healthcare professionals’ needs in rural Maine working with the Roux Institute at Northeastern. |
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Deng Li, PhD’25, bioengineering, received the Outstanding PhD Student Award in Leadership, which recognizes graduate students who have demonstrated significant leadership and a deep commitment to giving back to members of Northeastern’s community or surrounding neighborhoods. |
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Charbel Yazbeck, PhD’28, bioengineering, advised by BioE Associate Professor Jessica Oakes, was awarded the best student poster presentation at the Fourth Aerosol Dosimetry Meeting, for his poster titled “Modeling and Evaluating the Pulmonary Impacts of a Wildland Firefighting Career Through Equivalent Murine Exposure.” |
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Ana I. Vargas, PhD’25, bioengineering, BioE Associate Professor Chiara Bellini, and MIE Associate Professor Rouzbeh Amini received an Honorable Mention for the 2025 Skalak Award for their paper on “Vascular Remodeling During Late-Gestation Pregnancy: An In-Vitro Assessment of the Murine Ascending Thoracic Aorta.” |
PhD Spotlights
Narges Yazdani, PhD’24, bioengineering, focused her research on integrin-mediated mechanotransduction and its effects on neural stem cell behavior. Her work contributed to peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences and had a co-op at AbbVie Bioresearch Center.
Poulami Mondal, MS’23, PhD’28, bioengineering, focused her research on ultrasound and drug delivery, including creating focused ultrasound activated nanoparticles that can be used as drug carriers. Her work aims to lead to safer and more effective use of drugs to combat cancers and had a co-op at Jounce Therapeutics.
