Biomedical Engineering

“The very best undergraduate student with whom I have worked.” “The most excellent student I have encountered in my six years of teaching at UT.” This is just some of the high praise for Aidan Weitzner, this year’s Outstanding Scholar-Leader for the Cockrell School of Engineering. Recognized for her hard work and dedication inside and outside the classroom, Weitzner, a biomedical engineering honors student, graduates with a 4.0 GPA and an MCAT score in the 99th percentile. Her impeccable academic record is complemented by her research activities and leadership experience with the UT Austin Global Health Alliance, Alaska Black Caucus Allies for Change and multiple biomedical engineering lab courses.

Women’s History Month is a time to highlight and celebrate the extraordinary women whose legacies empower women today in the pursuit of their dreams. “It wasn’t always this easy for women to learn STEM and be respected in this field, so I am eternally grateful to the women that paved the way for me to have a career at NASA,” said fourth-year biomedical engineering student Sofia Williams.

Hyun Jung Kim has been developing his "gut-on-a-chip" technology for more than a decade. These miniature systems represent accurate models of the patient's own gut, as well as the disease simulation. The aim is to use the patients’ own cells to test drugs and understand disease processes to determine the right treatment for the patient.

Ashley James (A.J.) Welch, a leading biophotonics researcher and one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT, died at the age of 88 on January 1, 2022. Welch leaves a legacy of fundamental research and influence that carry on in the students he mentored and colleagues with whom he worked. Known for his patience, kindness, and ability to teach, the UT community mourns his loss.

A public/private collaboration led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has resulted in a new mathematical modeling technique that can accurately predict the response of tumors in breast cancer patients to treatments such as chemotherapy soon after treatment initiation. This is a major improvement on current methods that can determine the efficacy of first-line therapies only after the patient has already received several treatment cycles.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) has recognized Nicholas Peppas with their 2021 Global Leader Award. The AAPS Global Leader Award recognizes a leader working in pharmaceutical science, technology, engineering, or education whose contributions to the field have resulted in outstanding positive impact on education and public health.

Medical sensing technology has taken great strides in recent years, with the development of wearable devices that can track pulse, brain function, biomarkers in sweat and more. However, there is one big problem with existing wearable pressure sensors: even the slightest amount of pressure, something as light as a tight long sleeve shirt over a sensor, can throw them off track.

Despite tremendous advances in medicine, tumors are challenging to cure because they are made up of heterogeneous cells. Like human families, the individual cells of a tumor share some common traits and characteristics, but as the tumor expands, the cells also develop their own identities. And, as a result, some cells are more resistant to therapy than others and quicker to adapt and change.

Nicholas Peppas has been elected president of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, an international society for science and engineering. His three-year term began on July 1, 2021, and Peppas will help lead the organization’s continued focused on core goals of enhancing the health of the research enterprise, fostering integrity in science and engineering, and promoting the public's understanding of science.

Viruses attack the body by sending their genetic code — DNA and RNA — into cells and multiplying. A promising class of therapeutics that uses synthetic nucleic acids to target and shut down specific, harmful genes and prevent viruses from spreading is gaining steam. However, only a handful of siRNA, or other RNA interference-based therapeutics have been approved. One of the main problems is getting the siRNA into the body and guiding it to the target.

Three researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering have earned the National Science Foundation's prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards — research associate Audrey Boklage, assistant professor Filippo Mangolini and assistant professor Manuel Rausch. The awards provide up to five years of funding to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of their organizations’ missions.

A national network of women deans, chairs and distinguished faculty in biomedical engineering, including from the Cockrell School of Engineering, called upon the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other major funding agencies to address disparities in allocating support for Black researchers.

Organoids are stem cell-based tissue surrogates that can mimic the structure and function of organs, and they have become a key component of numerous types of medical research in recent years. But researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have uncovered problems with the conventional method for growing organoids for common experiments that may cause misleading results.

Blood clots have emerged as one of an increasing number of deadly side effects of the novel coronavirus in some patients. Cockrell School of Engineering researchers are embarking on a project to learn more about the onset of thromboembolism, the obstruction of a blood vessel by a clot that can cause everything from strokes to heart attacks to pulmonary embolisms, as a result of COVID-19.

Students, faculty, staff and leadership from academic institutions across the U.S., including The University of Texas at Austin, came together this month in a virtual event to share experiences and barriers facing Black scholars in STEM fields. Hosted by the University of Washington, “Experiences of Black STEM in the Ivory: A Call to Disruptive Action” inspired and challenged participants to take action to address racial inequalities in STEM.

Researchers worldwide are racing to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus as it spreads rapidly, with hundreds of COVID-19 therapies and vaccine projects in progress. A crucial part of that process is understanding how the virus interacts with the human immune system.

Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin aim to answer two major questions about the novel coronavirus by examining how it operates in changing environments. Sapun Parekh, an assistant professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, is setting up a pair of coronavirus experiments. One tests how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, will behave at different temperatures to know if the summer heat may slow the virus; and another looks at the physiological changes in lungs as people age to try and explain the increased vulnerability among elderly populations.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are building a new type of ventilator made of cheap, widely available materials to help fill the demand created by the spread of COVID-19 for these critical devices that help patients breathe.

Nicholas Peppas, professor of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, pediatrics, surgery and pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin and an expert in biomaterials and drug delivery systems, has been awarded the Sigma Xi Monie A. Ferst Award sponsored by the Georgia Institute of Technology Sigma Xi Chapter.

An emphasis on the psychosocial elements of living with diseases such as breast cancer may seem uncommon in engineering. But Mia K. Markey, biomedical engineering professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering, is dedicated to designing decision-support systems for patients, aiming to help enhance their quality of life post-treatment.