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Summer Research Spotlight: Penn Bioengineering Fellows at Work

Each year, the the Department of Bioengineering seeks exceptional candidates to conduct summer research in bioengineering with the support of scholarships. This summer students participated in the Abraham Noordergraaf Student Summer Bioengineering Research Fellowship, the Blair Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the Department of Bioengineering, and the IGEM Fellowship. These scholarships provide a living stipend for students to conduct research on campus in a Penn research lab under the mentorship of a faculty member.

Meet Our Summer Fellows

Abraham Noordergraaf Research Fellow

Name: Patricia Chen

Current Year and Major Program: Second year master’s student in Bioengineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kevin Johnson

Project Title: PCP-Bot: Leveraging Large Language Models for Multilingual AI-Assisted Pre-Visit Planning in Primary Care

Abstract: With the rise of electronic health records (EHRs), physicians now devote a substantial portion of patient encounters to clinical documentation, reducing the time available for direct patient interaction. Pre-visit planning is an important strategy for reviewing essential information in advance to improve efficiency, outcomes, and satisfaction. Increasingly, AI-powered chatbots are being deployed in healthcare settings. These systems offer a promising way to streamline this process. However, despite its growing adoption, chatbot performance disparities persist between English and non-English users. Recent cross-lingual LLM evaluations highlight up to an 18% drop in response correctness and a 29% decline in consistency for non-English queries, raising equity and safety concerns. To address these disparities, we developed PCP-Bot, an AI-powered chatbot for pre-visit planning that gathers patient history and concerns before the clinical encounter, then creates a concise, 300-word summary for clinical use. We evaluated its performance across English and non-English interactions using standardized simulated patient scenarios, assessing correctness, consistency, and completeness. Results will guide improvements in multilingual functionality of PCP-Bot to enhance equity, safety, and effectiveness in diverse patient populations.

Blair Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the Department of Bioengineering

Name: Alex Schnurman

Current Year and Major Program: Class of 2028, Biochemistry

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Noor Momin

Project Title: Using APEX2-based proximity labeling to identify lysosome-associated proteins

Abstract: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an inherited heart disease that affects 1 in 500 people a year. RNA interference therapies, such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), could address causal gene expression, but effective delivery to cardiomyocytes remains a substantial barrier for siRNA delivery. We aim to nominate cell-surface entry points for delivering siRNA therapies to the lysosomal compartment of cardiomyocytes to maximize siRNA escape from the endolysosomal compartment. As a first step, we are developing a proximity labeling-based platform to identify lysosome-associated proteins as the first step towards nominating ideal targets for siRNA therapy. We expressed a proximity labeling enzyme tethered to the lysosomal protein to biotinylate lysosome-specific proteins. Flow cytometry demonstrated successful expression of the enzyme construct and microscopy verified expression of the construct in puncta, suggesting localization to endolysosomal compartments. We then optimized procedures to initiate proximity labeling to biotinylate nearby proteins and microscopy showed biotinylation of proteins in puncta. These results are the first step towards a lysosome-specific module that can pair with complementary techniques to identify cardiomyocyte-specific target proteins for siRNA delivery.

IGEM Fellow

Name: Yifan Zhai

Current Year and Major Program: Class of 2028, Bioengineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lukasz Bugaj

Project Title: Screening Synthetic Binders for EML4-ALK

Abstract: Our overall goal is to develop synthetic protein circuits that sense a cell’s oncogenic state and eliminate the cell in response. There is currently an urgent need for therapies that can: (1) sensitively distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells, (2) directly initiate cancer cell death, and (3) efficiently clear the tumor. Our approach works by first recognizing specific oncogenic proteins and subsequently executing a desired pathway of programmed cell death in response. To realize this vision, our goal for the summer was to engineer and identify protein binders that specifically localized to these target oncogenes, a critical missing link that would allow our engineered therapies to respond to the appropriate molecules. We designed and assembled multiple test constructs, introduced them into cells expressing fluorescently labeled targets, and then assessed their function using live-cell imaging and biochemical assays to evaluate binding efficiency. Through this project, I developed skills in molecular cloning, mammalian cell culture, live-cell imaging, and image analysis.

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A Year of Momentum: Penn Bioengineering Looks Back and Ahead

As the fall semester begins and students return to campus, it’s the perfect moment to pause and reflect on the progress of the past year—and to look ahead to the opportunities before us. In Penn Bioengineering, we’ve seen extraordinary growth, momentum, and accomplishment across every part of our mission. From new faculty appointments and landmark research breakthroughs to student achievements and the opening of transformative new spaces, this has been a year defined by innovation and community.

I’m pleased to share another year of growth, momentum, and accomplishment in Penn Bioengineering. Our community continues to expand in size, energy, and ambition, and I am constantly inspired by the excellence of our students, faculty, and alumni. With 265 undergraduates, 217 master’s students, 404 doctoral students, and 60 faculty, the department is thriving across every dimension of our mission. This year marked a particularly exciting milestone as our community began fully utilizing Amy Gutmann Hall and One uCity Square—two transformative spaces that now house state-of-the-art laboratories, collaborative hubs, and flexible teaching environments that will sustain our growth for years to come.

I’m thrilled to share several exciting faculty updates that reflect the continued growth and excellence of Penn Bioengineering. We welcomed Eva Dyer, Ph.D., as the Rachleff Family Associate Professor, with a tenured appointment in both Bioengineering and Computer and Information Science. Eva is a nationally recognized leader in NeuroAI, whose work combines neuroscience and machine learning to deepen our understanding of brain function and drive innovation in neural technologies. We also welcomed Brian Halak, Ph.D. (Penn BE ’93), as a Practice Professor, bringing decades of experience as a biotech entrepreneur and investor. In addition, we’ve appointed Pranam Chatterjee, Ph.D., as Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and CIS, where his work in AI-driven protein design is helping to build bridges across engineering and precision health. Claudia Loebel, M.D., Ph.D.—a former Penn Bioengineering postdoc and now a Packard Fellow—has joined us as the Reliance Industries Term Assistant Professor. And I’m especially pleased to share that Alex Hughes, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, a recognition of his innovative work in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Our faculty were honored with a wide range of prestigious awards this year, reflecting the breadth and excellence of our community. Claudia Loebel received four significant recognitions: the Rising Star Award from BMES-CMBE, the CMBE Young Innovators Award, a MIRA Award from the NIH, and was named Junior Researcher of the Year by Wiley’s Macromolecular Rapid Communications. Cesar de la Fuente received the Michael S. Brown New Investigator Research Award from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship. Jina Ko was recognized with the NSF CAREER Award and received the Restore Prize from CiPD. Michael Mitchell received the Kabiller Rising Star Award in Nanomedicine from the International Institute for Nanotechnology and was elected to the Controlled Release Society College of Fellows. Noor Momin was honored with a PhRMA Foundation Award, a Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award, the AHA Transformational Project Award, and the PhRMA Foundation Faculty Starter Grant in Drug Delivery. Yihui Shen received a winning award from the inaugural Perelman School of Medicine Frontier Core Initiative, supporting the launch of a transformative research platform. David Cormode was elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows, an honor reserved for the top two percent of medical and biological engineers, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of nanoparticle contrast agents and multi-energy x-ray imaging. Dennis Discher was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honors in U.S. scholarship. These achievements speak to the extraordinary talent, innovation, and leadership within our department, and to the collaborative spirit that defines Penn Bioengineering.

Top row left to right: Claudia Loebel, Cesar de la Fuente, Jina Ko, and Michael Mitchell
Botton row left to right: Noor Momin, Yihui Shen, David Cormode, and Dennis Discher

Our students, too, continue to shine. Ph.D. student Serena Omo-Lamai was selected as a 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow, one of the most prestigious postdoctoral honors worldwide. Nova Meng and Theresa Haupt received Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants, and four of our Ph.D. students were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, with several more earning honorable mention. Ajay Thatte received the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students—an especially meaningful recognition of his dedication to mentorship. Several of our Ph.D. students earned recognition from the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) for outstanding abstracts and poster presentations at IMMUNOLOGY2025. These accolades speak to the curiosity, creativity, and drive of our student community.

Photo credit: Todd Mason

This year also marked the first full year of the Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H), now flourishing in its new home at One uCity Square. Currently hosting 12 Bioengineering labs, CPE4H has already proven instrumental in supporting early-stage research and helping faculty leverage preliminary results into major external funding, a clear example of how Penn Bioengineering is accelerating discoveries into real-world impact.

As the new academic year begins, we celebrate the many achievements of our students, faculty, and alumni, and we look ahead with energy and optimism. The growth of our community, the recognition of our faculty and students, and the expansion of our research footprint all signal a bright future for Penn Bioengineering. With new challenges to tackle and new opportunities to seize, our department is poised to continue shaping the future of health, technology, and society.

Sincerely,
Ravi Radhakrishnan, PhD
Professor and Herman P. Schwan Chair of Bioengineering
Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

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Engineering a Healthier Heart: Noor Momin Receives AHA Transformational Project Award

When someone survives a heart attack, the battle isn’t always over. In fact, nearly one-third of survivors go on to develop heart failure—a progressive weakening of the heart muscle that affects millions and contributes to roughly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

Dr. Noor Momin, the Stephenson Foundation Term Assistant Professor of Innovation in Bioengineering at Penn, is working to change that. Her lab’s innovative approach to immune modulation after heart attacks has just been recognized with the prestigious American Heart Association (AHA) Transformational Project Award for 2025. This award supports groundbreaking ideas that hold the potential to significantlya dvance cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research. (See award criteria.)

(Photo Credit: Mark Griffey, Penn Engineering)

A Targeted Strategy to Prevent Heart Failure

Following a heart attack, the immune system springs into action to repair damaged tissue. But when that response lingers or becomes excessive, it can cause additional harm—like a repair crew overstaying its welcome and inadvertently worsening the damage.

Momin’s lab is developing a targeted strategy using cytokines to control this immune response. Cytokines are used by immune cells to communicate with each other and other cells. Instead of delivering just a cytokine, which can lead to harmful side effects in healthy tissues, they’ve re-engineered it to home to damaged heart tissue. Early preclinical tests have shown that this approach can prevent heart failure with minimal side effects. 

The lab is now focused on conducting further dose and treatment schedule optimization, safety and mechanistic studies to move the technology towards clinical translation.

This line of research could lead to a fundamentally new way to prevent heart failure in heart attack survivors, directly supporting the American Heart Association’s mission to help people live longer, healthier lives.

From Seed to Solution: The Role of CPE4H

This transformative research began with a spark: seed funding from the Penn Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H).

“The seed grant was crucial for getting our project off the ground right after we moved to One uCity in the summer of 2024,” Momin explains. “Having those funds immediately available allowed us to start research without delay and maintain momentum in gathering preliminary data. This work directly led to securing AHA funding in under a year – which is exceptionally fast for translational research. The seed grant essentially jump started everything. We’re really grateful for that support.”

That rapid trajectory is exactly what the CPE4H aims to support.

“Noor’s success with the American Heart Association proposal is very exciting to me and the center,” says Daniel A. Hammer, Inaugural Director of CPE4H and the Alfred G. and Meta A. Ennis Professor for Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “Noor’s work embodies the principles of the CPE4H – using engineering principles to develop therapies that have real consequences for human health, in this case cardiovascular disease. In addition, it’s particularly gratifying that we can support and initiate funding for an Assistant Professor who is at the early stages of her career.”

Engineering Innovation, Saving Lives

As Dr. Momin’s project progresses, it offers a glimpse into a future where heart attack survivors have better tools to prevent the onset of heart failure—tools born from innovative thinking and catalyzed by early support.

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Engineering a Healthier Future: Kelsey Swingle’s Journey from Penn to Rice

Precision medicine. Women’s health. RNA therapeutics. Kelsey Swingle’s next chapter advances science that can’t wait.

On July 1, Kelsey Swingle, Ph.D., officially joined Rice University as an Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, a remarkable leap directly from doctoral training to a tenure track faculty position. She’s not just launching a lab, she’s continuing a mission shaped at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H).

The new paper’s lead author Kelsey Swingle (GrEng’27) at work in the lab. (Credit: Kevin Monko)

At CPE4H Swingle’s research pioneered new ways to deliver mRNA therapeutics using lipid nanoparticles, with applications that go as far as treating deadly pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia.

“Kelsey’s unique application is to use these technologies to treat specific diseases, such as to target the placenta during pregnancy,” said Daniel A. Hammer, Inaugural Director of CPE4H. “Her work is a wonderful combination of precise molecular delivery applied to a real problem in human health.”

In a world where reproductive health remains chronically underfunded and underserved, Swingle’s research targets a profound gap. Her innovations hold promise for early intervention in pregnancy disorders, pushing the boundaries of what medicine can treat and when.

Kelsey was trained in Michael Mitchell’s lab at Penn Bioengineering.

“Mike has continuously guided and supported me, and gave me the unique opportunity to launch a new research area in the Mitchell Lab focused on women’s health,” Swingle said.

But her impact extended far beyond science. Swingle played a pivotal role in Penn’s translational research community, through platforms like the CPE4H Focus Friday seminars and cross-lab collaboration in the UCity space, environments designed to accelerate innovation at the intersection of engineering and medicine.

“I’ve found that one of the biggest challenges during graduate school is the opportunity to wear multiple hats—as a student, researcher, scientist, mentee, mentor, friend, and role model—which can feel really overwhelming and daunting, especially in the beginning. I clearly remember sharing these feelings with Mike during the second year of my Ph.D., and he encouraged me to focus on executing good science and being a team player, and to have confidence everything else would work itself out,” Swigle shared. “Now that I’ve accepted a faculty position, everything has worked out even better than I could have anticipated.”

“Kelsey is the complete scholar. She is extremely hard working and creative in her research, and is always looking for new areas to grow and challenge herself. But she is also an incredible teacher and mentor of the next generation. It is rare to start an independent faculty position right after completing a PhD, but Kelsey is absolutely ready for it and will hit the ground running,” observed Michael Mitchell, Associate Professor for Penn Bioengineering.

Research team from left to right includes Kelsey Swingle, Hannah Safford, Alex Hamilton, Ajay Thatte, Hannah Geisler, and Mike Mitchell. (Credit: Penn Engineering)

Now, at Rice, Swingle will launch the Swingle Lab, carrying forward a research agenda that sits at the interface of biomaterials, immune engineering, and reproductive biology. The stakes? Future therapies for complex and under-treated conditions — with global impact.

“I’m a big believer that cutting-edge research takes a team of great people that are eager to work together,” Swingle said. “I’m excited to explore opportunities to collaborate and learn from everyone in Rice Bioengineering and the broader scientific community at the Texas Medical Center in Houston.”

For Penn, Swingle’s story reaffirms its mission to train the next generation of engineers not only to innovate, but to lead.

“Because Kelsey will, in turn, train students and postdoctoral associates in her own laboratory, her career has an important, multiplicative effect on the influence of the center broadly across the scientific community,” Hammer emphasized.

“Kelsey has done an incredible job here at Penn Bioengineering, CPE4H, and the Mitchell Lab. I’m very hopeful that her faculty position at top-10 ranked Rice Bioengineering will enable her to make important contributions to the fields of drug delivery and women’s health, ” shared Mitchell.

Kelsey Swingle is more than a rising star. She’s a catalyst, proving what happens when the right minds are given the creative freedom, mentorship, and mission to engineer a more equitable and personalized future for healthcare.

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Penn Engineers Turn Toxic Fungus into Anti-Cancer Drug

by Ian Scheffler

First author Qiuyue Nie and coauthor Maria Zotova, from left, purify samples of the fungus. (Credit: Bella Ciervo)

Penn-led researchers have turned a deadly fungus into a potent cancer-fighting compound. After isolating a new class of molecules from Aspergillus flavus, a toxic crop fungus linked to deaths in the excavations of ancient tombs, the researchers modified the chemicals and tested them against leukemia cells. The result? A promising cancer-killing compound that rivals FDA-approved drugs and opens up new frontiers in the discovery of more fungal medicines.

“Fungi gave us penicillin,” says Sherry Gao, Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) and in Bioengineering (BE) and senior author of a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology on the findings. “These results show that many more medicines derived from natural products remain to be found.”

From Curse to Cure

A. flavus, named for its yellow spores, has long been a microbial villain. After archaeologists opened King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the 1920s, a series of untimely deaths among the excavation team fueled rumors of a pharaoh’s curse. Decades later, doctors theorized that fungal spores, dormant for millennia, could have played a role.

A sample of Aspergillus flavus cultured in the Gao Lab. (Credit: Bella Ciervo)

In the 1970s, a dozen scientists entered the tomb of Casimir IV in Poland. Within weeks, 10 of them died. Later investigations revealed the tomb contained A. flavus, whose toxins can lead to lung infections, especially in people with compromised immune systems.

Now, that same fungus is the unlikely source of a promising new cancer therapy.

Read the full story in Penn Engineering Today.

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Researchers crack the code of body’s ancient immune defense

by Nathi Magubane & Ian Scheffler

(Left) Pre-ignition (below the activation threshold) Only a handful of immune “tags” (C3b proteins) cover the nanoparticle, so it barely sticks to the white membrane—too few contact points means the immune cell simply can’t grab on. (Right) Post-ignition (above the activation threshold). The nanoparticle is now densely coated with C3b tags, and the immune-cell membrane reaches out with many matching receptors. Dozens of little “hooks” latch on at once, creating a strong, multivalent grip that pulls the particle in for engulfment.(Image: Ravi Radhakrishnan)

How does your body distinguish friendly visitors, like medications and medical devices, from dangerous invaders such as viruses and other infectious agents? The answer lies in a protein network dating back half a billion years—before humans diverged from sea urchins, notes Jake Brenner, a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The complement system is perhaps the oldest-known part of our extracellular immune system,” says Brenner. “It plays a crucial role in identifying foreign materials like microbes, medical devices, or new drugs—particularly the larger ones like in the COVID vaccine.”

The complement system can, however, simultaneously play friend and foe, offering protection with one hand while backhanding the body with the other. In some cases, this ancient network can significantly exacerbate conditions like stroke by targeting the body’s own tissues. As Brenner explains, leaking blood vessels allow complement proteins to target brain tissue, causing the immune system to mistakenly launch an attack on the body’s own cells and worsen patient outcomes.

Now, using a combination of wet-lab experimentation, coupled differential equations, and computational-based modeling and simulations, an interdisciplinary team from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Perelman School of Medicine has decrypted the mathematical language behind the complement network’s “decision” to attack.

Reporting their findings in Cell, the team identifies a molecular tipping point known as the critical percolation threshold, which is based on how densely complement-binding sites are spaced on the surfaces of the model invader they engineered. If spacing between binding sites is too wide—landing above a threshold—complement activation fizzles out; below it, complement network ignites, a chain reaction of immune agent recruitment which spreads like wildfire.

Read the full story in Penn Today.

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Celebrating the 2025 Solomon R. Pollack Award Winners in Graduate Bioengineering Research

Each year, the Department of Bioengineering at Penn Engineering proudly recognizes outstanding doctoral students whose research exemplifies innovation, impact, and academic excellence. The Solomon R. Pollack Award for Excellence in Graduate Bioengineering Research celebrates the achievements of students who have advanced our understanding of biological systems through engineering.

In 2025, four exceptional Ph.D. students—Nikolas Di Caprio, Harshini Chandrashekar, David Gonzalez-Martinez, and Kelsey Swingle—have been honored with this prestigious award. Their work spans neuroscience, oncology, maternal health, and tissue engineering, reflecting the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Nikolas Di Caprio: Engineering Injectable Platforms for Cartilage Repair

Dissertation Title: “Engineering Dynamic Granular Composites for the Repair of Cartilage Tissue”

Nikolas Di Caprio earned his B.S. in Bioengineering with a minor in Chemistry from Temple University in 2019, where he conducted undergraduate research on 3D in-vitro models of adipose tissue. 

Building on this foundation, his doctoral work in Dr. Jason Burdick’s lab focused on developing an injectable system using stem cell aggregates and hydrogel microparticles to repair cartilage. His work addressed both the biological and mechanical aspects of tissue regeneration, incorporating automated testing tools he designed to probe particle mechanics. The research offers new strategies for minimally invasive musculoskeletal treatments.

“I would like to thank Jason Burdick for the nomination, the committee for selecting me for the generous award, and my family, friends, and previous advisors for all the support during my Ph.D.“

Nikolas’s research embodies the intersection of material science and regenerative medicine, pushing the boundaries of bioengineering innovation.

Harshini Chandrashekar: Mapping the Genome’s Architecture in Alzheimer’s

Dissertation Title: “Addressing the Genome’s Structure-Function Relationship in Neural Activation and Neurological Disorders”

Harshini Chandrashekar completed her B.Tech. in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology, India, before moving to the U.S. in 2017 to pursue a master’s degree in Bioinformatics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2019, she joined Dr. Jennifer Cremins lab as a Computational Scientist and began her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at Penn in 2020. In the Cremins lab, she investigated how the three-dimensional genome architecture—particularly chromatin loops—regulates gene expression in the context of familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD). Her innovative combination of experimental and computational approaches uncovered early-stage disruptions in genome folding that may precede classical disease hallmarks.

Her findings are available on bioRxiv and have already garnered accolades, including the Young Talented and Developing (TAD) Scientist Award from Genome Organization Australia and the Best Research Presentation Award at the 2024 Penn Bioengineering Graduate Research Symposium.

“I’m grateful to my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Jennifer Cremins, for nominating me for this award and for her support — especially during the challenging moments that are part and parcel of everyday research.. I would also like to thank Dr. Yale Cohen, my thesis committee chair, for his support and encouragement over the years, and Dr. Erin Berlew, whom I had the pleasure of TAing for, for being a generous mentor and role model in teaching. Their support played a meaningful role in both my academic and professional growth at Penn.”

Harshini now works as a Bioinformatics Scientist at the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle.

David Gonzalez-Martinez: Revealing Drug Tolerance Pathways in Cancer

Dissertation Title: “Dissecting Mechanisms and Consequences of Oncogenic RTK Fusion Signaling”

David Gonzalez-Martinez began his academic journey at Florida State University, where he studied biochemistry. He went on to earn a master’s degree in Microbiology and Cell Science from the University of Florida before joining the Bioengineering Ph.D. program at Penn

Under the mentorship of Dr. Lukasz Bugaj, he used synthetic biology, optogenetics, and live-cell imaging to explore how oncogenic RTK fusions drive aberrant signaling and evade cancer treatment. His research pinpointed key mechanisms underlying drug resistance and identified drug combinations that improve therapeutic response. His recent publication in Nature Communications highlights these findings.

“I would really like to thank the department for the recognition and Dr. Lukasz Bugaj, who has been a fantastic mentor throughout my Ph.D. as well as all of my lab mates who have been great friends and collaborators.”

David’s contributions provide crucial insights into the dynamic nature of cancer signaling and potential avenues for more effective treatments.

Kelsey Swingle: Targeting the Placenta to Treat Pre-eclampsia

Dissertation Title: “Engineering Placenta-Tropic VEGF mRNA Lipid Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Pre-eclampsia”

Kelsey Swingle earned her B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2020. As a Ph.D. student in the lab of Dr. Mike Mitchell, her research focused on developing new biomaterial strategies for targeted drug delivery to the placenta. Her dissertation work involved engineering VEGF mRNA lipid nanoparticles designed to home specifically to placental tissue, with the goal of treating pre-eclampsia—a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity for which no clinical treatments currently exist.

“I’m incredibly grateful to my advisor Dr. Mike Mitchell, everyone in the Mitchell Lab, my mentors, friends, and family for their support throughout my PhD. While my PhD was both a rewarding and challenging personal experience, I leaned on and learned from my support system every step of the way.”

Her studies demonstrated the therapeutic potential of this targeted approach in mouse models, offering promising insight into a long-standing challenge in maternal health. In July 2025, Kelsey will begin a faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University.

Looking Ahead

The 2025 Pollack Award recipients exemplify the best of Penn Bioengineering: rigor, creativity, and a drive to improve human health. Through their diverse research, each has made significant contributions to science and society. We congratulate Nikolas, Harshini, David, and Kelsey on their achievements and look forward to seeing how they will continue to shape the future of bioengineering.

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Senior Design Awards Spotlight Part 3

2025 Team PRIME – Engineering a Smarter Response to Sepsis

From left to right: Sophie Gu; Shriya Boyapati; Sophie Klessel; McKenzie Davis; Majd Ayyad.

The final feature in the 2025 Senior Design Awards Spotlight highlights Team PRIME, who earned Second Place at the Minnesota Design of Medical Devices Competition. 

Team Members: Majd Ayyad, Shriya Boyapati, McKenzie Davis, Sophie Gu, Sophie Klessel

Senior design in Penn Bioengineering is a yearlong capstone experience in which bioengineering seniors identify an unmet bioengineering need, design a solution to address the need, and create a high quality prototype that demonstrates their design. The course consists of BE4950 and BE4960, and was most recently taught by Dr. Erin Berlew, Dr. David Meaney, and Dr. Michael Siedlik.

For Team PRIME, the mission was clear: create a tool that could help detect sepsis earlier—when timing can mean the difference between life and death. Their project centers around a device that automatically measures capillary refill time, a simple but powerful indicator of blood perfusion and circulation quality. By providing continuous, automated monitoring, PRIME aims to improve clinical decision-making in intensive care units and emergency settings.

PRIME as an idea; the first prototype of PRIME with all the wires.

The team’s inspiration came from their clinical mentor, Dr. John Greenwood, whose passion for improving sepsis detection was contagious.

Sophie Klessel shared, “We had a great clinical mentor (Dr. John Greenwood) who was really passionate about creating a device for earlier detection of sepsis, and we knew we wanted to work with him. Additionally, sepsis was an issue that resonated with our group and an issue that we were excited about.”

Team PRIME approached the work with a strong sense of collaboration, blending individual strengths across software, hardware, and systems integration. One member led the development of the user interface and application logic, while another focused on designing and assembling the physical and electrical components.

Working on PRIME revealed to the team just how demanding and rewarding bioengineering can be.

“Bioengineers need to understand it all from interviewing clinicians for needs findings, to studying the physiology of the human body, to designing all the technical components including hardware and software and finally towards producing a medical device. It is such a difficult job to be all the engineers at once but the final results are rewarding!” Majd Ayyad explained. 

As the project concluded, their work was already gaining traction. Dr.  Michael Siedlik, one of the bioengineering senior design instructors, shares, “This technology could greatly surpass the current standard of care, as it provides much needed automation, reproducibility, and clinician-free measurements in hectic medical environments where quick and reliable measurements are critical for preventing the negative outcomes of sepsis.”

PRIME device.

PRIME earned Second Place at the Minnesota Design of Medical Devices Competition, a national recognition of the team’s thoughtful engineering and strong clinical relevance. Development of the device will continue in partnership with their clinical mentor—bringing them one step closer to impacting real patient care.

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Senior Design Awards Spotlight Part 2

2025 Team Prism Optics – Bringing Vision Care Within Reach

Photo Credit: Penn Engineering
From left to right: Lyle Brunhofer, Senior Design Project Competition Chairman; Dr. Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell University Professor; Daniel Botros; Fady Fahmy; Daniel Serebrinic Jacobsohn; Danish Mahmood; and Aarush Sahni.

In Part 2 of the 2025 Senior Design Awards Spotlight, we turn to Team Prism Optics, winners of the Leadership Prize at Penn Engineering’s Senior Design Competition.

Team Members: Daniel Botros, Fady Fahmy, Daniel Jacobsohn Serebrinic, Danish Mahmood, Aarush Sahni

Senior design in Penn Bioengineering is a yearlong capstone experience in which bioengineering seniors identify an unmet bioengineering need, design a solution to address the need, and create a high quality prototype that demonstrates their design. The course consists of BE4950 and BE4960, and was most recently taught by Dr. Erin Berlew, Dr. David Meaney, and Dr. Michael Siedlik.

Across the globe, more than a billion people lack access to basic vision care, often simply because there aren’t enough optometrists to perform eye exams (Staff, One billion have preventable vision impairment 2019). Team Prism Optics took on this challenge by building a device that automates the process of determining an eyeglass prescription, offering a low-cost, portable solution that can be used without the need for a trained clinician.

The result is a self-administered vision screening platform that mimics the clinical process of subjective refraction. A user looks through a lens system and responds to a tumbling E eye chart using a joystick, indicating the direction of the letter. This interface, designed to be intuitive for users regardless of literacy, language, or age, was a major innovation in the team’s design. As Danish Mahmood explained, “Realizing the joystick input to indicate the direction of the tumbling E’s is functional for illiterate, non native English speaking, young and old people was our biggest logistical challenge.”

Danish Mahmood is using Prismatic to find his eye prescription by looking through the viewport of the device at a tumbling E’s eye chart located 20 ft away. He uses a joystick to input the direction of the E on the eye chart in response to audio feedback from the device.

The device was designed and built through a deeply collaborative process. Mahmood developed the control software and mechanical precision of the lens adjustment system, while Fady Fahmy handled the acrylic housing and gears. Aarush Sahni envisioned the LCD interface and helped lead algorithm development alongside Daniel Jacobsohn Serebrinic and Daniel Botros, working closely with clinical mentors at Penn Medicine. The system is already being tested with classmates and is set to begin clinical trials with patients this summer.

Throughout the process, the team remained focused on their goal: to make vision care accessible in underserved communities. Their mentor noted that clinical trials beginning just months after graduation are almost unheard of for senior design teams—underscoring just how effectively Prism Optics aligned their design to a global need.

Dr. Michael Siedlik,  one of the bioengineering senior design instructors,  highlighted just how exceptional this trajectory is for a student team:

“Not many senior design teams are able to start clinical trials a few months after graduation… This is a testament to their ability to identify a bioengineering need that is very well suited to their expertise and to the resources available to them, as well as their ability to execute at a high level as a team.”

“We have prototyped a working self-administered eye exam that mimics the process of subjective refraction with an automated device… Our next step is to ensure many patients can use it successfully and achieve accurate results,” Mahmood shared. 

Team Prism Optics earned the Leadership Prize at Penn Engineering’s 2025 Senior Design Competition, a recognition of both their technical achievement and their clear path to real-world deployment.

References:
Staff, RO. (2019, October 8). One billion have preventable vision impairment. Review of Optometry. https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/one-billion-have-preventable-vision-impairment 

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Senior Design Awards Spotlight Part 1 

2025 Team ReFlex – Rewiring Stroke Rehabilitation

From left to right: Christopher Wun, William Qi,  Ryann Joseph, Aditya Gowd, and Udit Garg

This series profiles three Penn Bioengineering senior design teams whose work received recognition at major competitions in 2025. In Part 1, we feature Team ReFlex, recipients of the Judge’s Choice Award at Penn Engineering’s Senior Design Competition. 

Team Members: William Qi, Ryann Joseph, Christopher Wun, Udit Garg, Aditya Gowd

Senior design in Penn Bioengineering is a yearlong capstone experience in which bioengineering seniors identify an unmet bioengineering need, design a solution to address the need, and create a high quality prototype that demonstrates their design. The course consists of BE4950 and BE4960, and was most recently taught by Dr. Erin Berlew, Dr. David Meaney, and Dr. Michael Siedlik.

From the beginning, Team ReFlex set out to do something ambitious: create a system that could help stroke patients regain motor function by aligning therapy with the brain’s intent to move. The idea emerged from a shared interest in neurotechnology, combined with a diverse set of technical backgrounds—bioengineering, robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, and data science. After months of conversations with professors, clinicians, and researchers, the concept took shape: an integrated platform that uses EEG signals and artificial intelligence to detect motor intent and trigger functional electrical stimulation (FES).

William Qi, Building and testing the first prototype of ReFlex. Here, the full circuitry of the device is on a breadboard – this image was taken before the team finalized a PCB.

The team’s collaborative spirit was central to their progress. Each member brought complementary skills—some focused on the machine learning algorithms, others on signal processing, printed circuit board (PCB) design, or mechanical fabrication. Together, they built a noninvasive system designed for versatility, comfort, and real-world applicability.

“We knew from the start that we wanted to work on something in neurotechnology, as it was a space where all of our interests came together,” said William Qi. “With teammates in bioengineering, robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, and data science, we felt like we had a unique mix of skills to build something meaningful.”

The path wasn’t without challenges. The interdisciplinary nature of the project meant constantly stepping beyond individual comfort zones. Signal processing became a particular hurdle once the team moved to printed circuit boards—troubleshooting became more complex, but they leaned on strong communication and trust to navigate the setbacks.

As they developed the system, the team connected with a manufacturer of FDA-approved FES devices and successfully integrated one into their prototype—something that Dr. Michael Siedlik, one of the bioengineering senior design instructors, described it as a powerful example of vision meeting execution.

“They are a shining example of how our students can turn a plan that initially seems a little like science fiction into a high-quality biomedical device with the potential to address an important need,” Siedlik noted.

From left to right: Aditya Gowd, William Qi, Udit Garg, Ryann Joseph, and Christopher Wun
ReFlex team picture picture after their successful BE demo day.

The result is a modular, user-friendly platform that allows patients to participate in their own rehabilitation more directly and independently. Designed to be compatible with existing clinical tools, ReFlex introduces a new level of personalization and responsiveness to therapy—advancing the potential of brain-computer interfaces in a field that clinicians themselves acknowledge as outdated.

ReFlex received the Judge’s Choice Award at Penn Engineering’s 2025 Senior Design Competition, a recognition not only of their technical achievement, but of their commitment to reshaping what recovery can look like for stroke survivors.