We are pleased to announce the 2021-2022 cohort of Abrams Scholars: this year 45 excellent BME undergraduates were selected from a very strong applicant pool to receive a mentored research fellowship funded by the NC State College of Engineering Research Experience for Undergraduates program.
The BME Abrams Scholars Program provides outstanding BME undergraduate students at both UNC and NC State with the opportunity to conduct hands-on, mentored research projects throughout the academic year (September through April). The Scholars are highly motivated students who are generally very productive in the lab, often presenting their work at local, regional, and even national conferences (such as BMES and IEEE meetings) and co-authoring journal articles.
Below is the list of the 2021-2022 Abrams Scholars, alongside their faculty mentors and project titles. Congratulations to all the BME undergraduate students awarded!
Scholar PI Project
| Keith Abbey | Dr. Alon Greenbaum (BME) | Enhancing drug delivery to the inner ear using exosomes |
| Nicole Baugh | Dr. Michael Sano (BME) | Development of Optimal Protocols for In Vivo Genetic Engineering Using CRISPR / CAS9 and Pulsed Electric Fields |
| Andre Bautista (Spring 2022) | Dr. Matt Fisher (BME) | Meniscal morphological and compositional changes following anterior cruciate ligament injury |
| Kathryn Benedict | Dr. Jacque Cole (BME) | Development of a bone-on-chip platform to examine effects of post- stroke inflammation on bone-vascular interactions |
| Vineet Bhardwaj | Dr. Sam Lai (Pharmacy, UNC) | Immunotherapy for cancer |
| April Brown | Yevgeny Brudno (BME) | Refillable Drug Delivery Devices |
| Michael Clark | Dr. Derek Kamper (BME) | Serious Computer Games for Rehabilitation |
| Caitlyn Davis | Dr. Yong Zhu (MAE, NC State) | Wearable strain sensors for heart rate monitoring |
| Joshua DeGennaro | Ashley Brown (BME) | Dual-loaded nanogels for treatment of thrombotic conditions |
| Amber Detwiler | Dr. Donald O. Freytes (BME) & Dr. Jorge Piedrahita (Comparative Medicine Institute, NC State) | Seeding LGR5 organoids in the follicle pore structure of a skin hydrogel to measure cell movement and dermal papilla, dermal fibroblast recruitment |
| Madeline Dudley | Dr. Helen Huang & Dr. Ming Liu (BME) | Upper-Limb Prosthesis Functional Performance Between Differing Control Schemes |
| Jordan Feldman | Dr. Jason Franz (BME) | The development of joint moment signatures underlying the selection of limb force and walking speed |
| Elena Fernandez | Dr. Xiaogang Hu (BME) | Design of a wearable electrical stimulus generator |
| Christian Fitzgerald | Dr. Imran Rizvi (BME) | Photochemical Modulation of Hydrogel Mechanical Properties |
| Manuella Harb | Dr. Ashley Brown (BME) | Synthetic Platelets for Wound Healing |
| Andrew Hoang | Dr. Virginie Papadopoulou (BME) | Synthetic Doppler audio recordings for automatic venous gas emboli detection |
| Mason Hon | Dr. Ashley Brown (BME) | Wound responsive nanogels for hemostasis and wound healing |
| Aasim Hussain | Dr. Matt Fisher (BME) | Development of a gelatin-ECM hybrid solution for improved bioactivity within a direct-written fiber system |
| Alexa Jimenez Escribano | Dr. Donald O. Freytes (BME) | Bioreactor for Dynamic Vocal Fold Tissue Engineering |
| Kamellia Karimpour | Dr. Virginie Papadopoulou (BME) | Improving antibiotic killing of MRSA biofilms with ultrasound-stimulated phase-change contrast agents |
| Robert Kobrin | Dr. David Zaharoff (BME) | Development of an Injectable Hydrogel for Localized Immunotherapy Delivery |
| Manasi Krishnakumar | Dr. Ashley Brown (BME) | Characterization of fibrin-binding nanogels |
| Rohan Krishnan | Dr. Xiaogang Hu (BME) | Design of a wearable electrical stimulus generator |
| Aaron Lee | Dr. Sam Lai (Pharmacy, UNC) | Antibody engineering for treating acute respiratory infections |
| Andrew Marshall | Dr. David Lalush (BME) | Development of Deep Learning System for Analysis of Quantitative MRI of the Knee |
| Ellora McTaggart | Dr. Jason Franz (BME) | Locomotor reaction time as a neuromechanical determinant of maneuverability and stability control during human walking |
| Deeqa Musa | Dr. Jacque Cole (BME) | Analyzing the effect of heterogeneity on trabecular bone tissue microdamage in finite element models of varying resolution |
| Bevin Neill | Dr. Yevgeny Brudno (BME) | Mathematical Modeling of Drug Delivery Systems |
| Abina Nimalashanthan | Dr. Alon Greenbaum (BME) | Characterization of a vaping chamber to study the detrimental effects of electronic cigarettes |
| Kirti Rambabu Nimmala | Dr. Brian Diekman (BME) | Age-related DNA damage as a driver of cellular senescence during osteoarthritis |
| Avanti Panajkar | Dr. Wubin Bai (Applied Physical Sciences, UNC) | Development of an Implantable Soft Cardiac Temperature Sensor Soft Biosensors for Medical Diagnoses |
| Jennifer Potts | Dr. Jacque Cole (BME) | Effect of Brachial Plexus Birth Injury on Limb Use and Muscle Strength |
| Nita Prabhu | Dr. Xiaogang Hu (BME) | Evaluation of habituation in artificial sensory stimulation |
| Nidhi Rane | Dr. Chang S. Nam (ISE, NC State) | Brain-to-Brain Interfacing: Transmission of Neural Information through Non-Invasive Neurostimulation |
| Lauren Reynolds | Dr. David Zaharoff (BME) | Development of Dissolvable Microneedle Patch-based Vaccines |
| Vincent Roche | Dr. Jacque Cole (BME) | Optimizing nonlinear finite element analyses of vertebral trabecular bone |
| Gauri Sathish | Dr. Chang S. Nam (ISE, NC State) | Brain-Controlled Robotic Wheelchair Development for and with Wheelchair-Bound Patients |
| Jake Schulman | Dr. David Zaharoff (BME) | Development of a Vaccine to Prevent Fentanyl Overdose |
| Abby Sweitzer | Dr. Ola Harrysson (ISE, NC State) | Medical Applications of Additive Manufacturing |
| Jed Tan | Dr. David Lalush (BME) | Development of Deep Learning System for Analysis of Quantitative MRI of the Knee |
| Leslie Uy | Dr. Michael Daniele (BME) | Microneedle Testing for Point-of-Care Diagnostic |
| Abhinav Vaduri | Dr. Helen Huang & Dr. Ming Liu (BME) | Expedite the Impedance Tuning of a Robotic Knee Prosthesis |
| Rohan Vora | Dr. Wubin Bai (Applied Physical Sciences, UNC) | Development and Analysis of Spectroscopic Wearable Oximeter Device |
| Leilani Walker (Fall 2021) | Dr. Ming Liu (BME) | Monitor the development of pressure ulcers using sweat biomarkers |
| Hailey Wrona | Dr. Michael Lewek (Allied Health Sciences, UNC) | Residual effects of metronome cues on a self-paced treadmill in people with Parkinson’s disease |