Congratulations to undergraduate student Nane Manukyan, who has been selected to receive the MTech ASPIRE Award! This award will provide funds to support her research in the lab this semester. Great job, Nane!

Huge congratulations to Nane Manukyan, who was selected to participate in UMD"s BS-MD Program! This program "prepares highly motivated undergraduate students majoring in engineering or data science fields to excel in medical school. BS-MD students participate in structured service and clinical activities, along with medically related research with their cohort, which will cultivate a sense of service, community, and innovation in the students." Congrats, Nane!

You can learn more about the program here: ​https://eng.umd.edu/degree-programs/bs-md-program

Congratulations to first author Ian Smith and the rest of the team!

Congratulations to undergraduate student Nate Manukyan, who was selected to receive the MTech ASPIRE Award! This award will provide funding for her summer 2025 research in our lab. Congrats, Nane!!

Huge congratulations to Esha Chopra, who has been selected to receive the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!! This highly selective fellowship will fund Esha's first 3 years of graduate school. Congratulations, Esha!!!

Huge congratulations to PhD student Ian Smith, who successfully defended his dissertation today! Ian's dissertation was titled, "Functional roles of Aquaporin 5 in breast cancer metastatic initiation modeled in vitro." 

Ian’s dissertation focused on engineering in vitro systems to study the initiation of metastatic phenotypes in cells and the role that aquaporins play in that process. From his PhD work, we are expecting at least 15 publications (7 already published, 4 submitted, 4 in preparation), 7 of which he is first author on. Ian received a provisional patent for the Spheroid-Associated Angiogenesis Vascularization System that he developed and has presented his work at 3 national conferences (BMES and AACR annual meetings). Ian has received several graduate fellowships to support his research, including the Clark Doctoral Fellowship, the International Foundation for Ethical Research Graduate Fellowship, and the Fischell Fellowship. He was selected as one of 25 students from across the nation to attend the NIH Biophysics Fellows Research Conference, and he also received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the UMD Graduate School. Ian has also been a wonderful mentor for many undergraduate students in the lab, and his undergraduate mentees have had many accomplishments including co-authored papers, an Honors thesis, UMD department awards, and entrances into graduate school. Ian also completed the Future Faculty Program in preparation for a career in academia and has been an active member in the Bioengineering Graduate Student Society, serving as President and in other leadership positions. Congratulations, Ian! 

Congratulations to senior undergraduate student, Esha Chopra, who has been selected to receive the Outstanding Research Award from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering! Esha has been working with Shohini Banerjee on a project investigating the mechanobiology of endometriotic cell migration. After graduation, Esha plans to pursue a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Congratulations, Esha!

Congratulations to PhD student Ian Smith who has been selected to receive the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the UMD Grad School! 

A huge congratulations goes to PhD student Ken Brandon, who has been awarded the NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship! This fellowship will provide the majority of his stipend for the remainder of his PhD work over the next  ~1.5 years. Receiving this fellowship is a huge accomplishment, and we are thankful for this new support! Congrats, Ken!