Celebrating the Women of Arkansas BMEG.. Read their stories.

   

       Dr. Xianghong Qian                Dr. Young Hye Song             Dr. Rebekah Samsonraj

 

What challenges have you faced on your path to a faculty position and how have you addressed them?

Qian: The major obstacle in my path to a faculty position is the two-body problem since my husband was a faculty member at Colorado State during my postdoctoral training at Max-Planck Institute in Germany.

Song: I think the time I spent trying to secure a faculty position was one of the craziest times of my life; juggling not only survival in the job market, but all my postdoc training duties, including my own research, grant writing and mentoring students, and life. The stress of it all was too much to handle on my own. Thankfully, I had help and encouragement from all kinds of people, including family, friends, mentors, mentees, and colleagues. I don’t think I would have survived otherwise.

Samsonraj: We are all aware that the postdoctoral years are a time of great attrition from the academic pipeline for women scientists. Data shows that women, especially those with children, tend to spend more time as postdocs than men, leading to a delayed entrance into the tenure-track. My path to a faculty position was met with challenges arising from integrating research, life, and parenting after having two babies during my stint as a postdoctoral researcher – a tough combination and a special kind of challenge that required much support from my institution, colleagues, mentors, and my family. Addressing these challenges involved several sacrifices made every single day on my path to secure a faculty position as I set my eyes on the goal and trained my mind to not lose sight of the purpose and mission of my calling to serve in academia. My workout instructor says, “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you”. I’m proud I’ve had the courage to become a better version of myself, and I’m definitely not finished learning. I’m grateful to everyone who has helped me get where I am, and I’m enjoying paying it forward.

The biomedical engineering discipline is unique and creative in that it requires active collaboration between multiple disciplines. What has been your experience with this?

Qian: I was lucky that I have a broad training in chemistry, physics and biology. As a computational scientist, I was able to work with experimentalists in different areas. Eventually, I decided to set up my own biotechnology laboratory after I moved to University of Arkansas.

Song: I think multidisciplinary collaboration is necessary in our field. I’ve been engaged in biomedical engineering research since my undergrad days, and it’s always been interdisciplinary. I’ve worked with people in so many different fields, including clinicians, food scientists, chemists, biologists, engineers in other disciplines, as well as biomedical engineers. Working with people from diverse backgrounds expands the scope of research in new ways that I hadn’t thought of, and I’ve learned so much from all of them. I look forward to continuing and expanding interdisciplinary collaborations as my research program evolves.

Samsonraj: Collaborations have been a vital part of my professional research career. In my several successful and productive collaborations, one thing has remained common: having a superordinate goal – a goal that is big enough and compelling enough to help us to overlook personal differences and transcends individual goals in order to achieve something of significance. I continue to thrive in all of the wonderful interdisciplinary biomedical collaborations I’ve established through the years. One of my wise mentors told me, “Choose your collaborators wisely – there are many takers but very few givers. Lean on the giving side but never let anyone take advantage of you”.

What about your BMEG experience are you most proud of and excited for?

Qian: I am very proud of the collaborators I am working with and the talented colleagues in my department. In particular, I am very excited to work on industrially relevant problems to help meet the challenges in the manufacturing of protein therapeutics and the emerging cell and gene therapies.

Song: The past year and a half I’ve spent here has been wonderful with everyone welcoming me in and willing to help me in all different ways. I am most proud of the students I have met in classes and research. They’re hardworking students that really appreciate their opportunities for higher education. I am excited to continue my journey as a faculty member in this department.

Samsonraj: I’m grateful and excited to be part of our vibrant BMEG community that embraces respect, integrity, teamwork, innovation, excellence, and kindness. These values are integral to succeed in academia.

If you could give your 17-year-old self a piece of advice related to pursuing a career in STEM, what would it be?

Qian: I would not put gender as an obstacle in pursuing one’s dream or career.  If you have a real passion for something, you will be good at it and become successful in that particular area.   My advice is to pursue something you really enjoy. There will be obstacles along the way, but they are much easier to overcome if you like what you do.

Song: Broaden your interests. Exercise.

Samsonraj: STEM opens up a world of opportunities to be creative – every discovery you make counts! Take time to enjoy life, laugh at the craziness of it all, and prioritize what needs to be done. Women have massive mental and emotional capacity. We get stuff done. We see things differently. And we do it with such a heart 🙂 Don’t ever underestimate the importance and value to your life and to society by being a woman in STEM.

Busch Internship Experience

As a junior biomedical engineering student, I had already been working in Dr. Kyle Quinn’s lab for two semesters and had participated in a summer research program at the Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center. My passion for biomedical engineering research was already strong, and as such, I was looking forward to participating in another research program during the summer of 2020. I applied to several programs and was accepted to an REU at the University of Georgia. Dr. Ross Marklein reached out to me the day after I received the acceptance email. We had an excellent Skype call where we discussed the work his lab was doing and the potential projects he had available for summer students. After the call, he offered me a position in his lab through the program if I accepted the offer, which I immediately did. At this point I was already ecstatic at the prospect of working in his lab and applying the imaging techniques I had learned in Dr. Quinn’s lab to different problems, as well as exploring UGA’s campus.

However, a week later the University of Arkansas cancelled classes for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester due to COVID-19. Many other colleges were following suit and I wasn’t sure what to expect from my REU program. It was a tense few weeks waiting to hear what would happen, but throughout, Dr. Marklein was very supportive and reassuring. Eventually, the program announced that we would be participating virtually. Although I was looking forward to participating in person, I was happy that at least the REU had not been cancelled outright like so many other programs.

Dr. Marklein’s lab focuses on developing innovative approaches incorporating high-throughput, therapeutically relevant single cell profiling to assess cellular heterogeneity and accelerate translation of mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapies. MSCs have significant potential to modulate the immune system and therefore, treat immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and graft-versus-host disease. Despite promising preclinical data, clinical success has been elusive, potentially due to the inherent heterogeneity of MSCs. Although this heterogeneity is widely recognized, it is not yet well understood. In addition to the heterogeneity found in individual populations, it can also arise from differences in donor source and manufacturing conditions.

My summer project in Dr. Marklein’s lab was part of a larger effort to use functionally-relevant morphological profiling to evaluate morphological features of MSCs as potential critical quality attributes (CQAs) of immunosuppressive potential. Previous work on this project involved stimulating MSCs with interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), an inflammatory cytokine, before fixing and imaging a plate of cells every 15 minutes for 24 hours. The fixed-phase imaging data showed that distinct subpopulations did arise. However, the live phase imaging data from this study had never been analyzed. This provided the perfect project for me to be able to complete remotely while still developing new skills and learning more about a different field of biomedical engineering. I used CellProfiler to develop a pipeline which was able to track and quantify the morphological features of cells at each timepoint over the 24-hour period. I found that the live phase imaging data showed evidence of potential dynamic subpopulations emerging over the course of the study and that this approach could be generalized to other adherent cells responding to a functionally-relevant stimulus. I presented this work at the REU’s end-of-summer virtual symposium, which I also co-chaired. In addition, I gave a poster presentation at the 2020 BMES Annual Meeting over this work entitled “Tracking Morphological Features of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells to Evaluate Immunosuppressive Potential.”

As I have been going through the process of applying to graduate schools, I have kept in mind a piece of advice that I received: “Don’t think about where you want to be when everything is going well; think about where you would want to be when everything is going terribly.” Although this summer was not what I expected, Dr. Mao, Dr. Marklein, and everyone else who helped put the program together did their absolute best to make the REU as positive and enjoyable for us as possible. It was an incredibly valuable experience and I gained a lot from my participation in it. I was able to develop new technical skills and learn more about a field of biomedical engineering with which I was not yet familiar. Some programs simply weren’t able to transition to virtual delivery, but it was very reassuring to see how supportive and flexible the NanoBio REU faculty, staff, and graduate students were through the entire process. I encourage any undergraduate biomedical engineering students to apply to the 2021 NanoBio REU program (which is currently planned for in-person participation!) and the other excellent REU opportunities for biomedical engineers at the University of Georgia.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions about the program!

 

 

 

 

Biomedical Engineering Professor and Doctoral Students Present Significant Cardiovascular Disease Findings at International Conference in Abu Dhabi

From left to right: Ishita Tandon, Kartik Balachandran, and Prashanth Ravishankar.

A University of Arkansas biomedical engineering professor and two doctoral students presented their cardiovascular research at the International Conference of Tissue Engineered Heart Valves in Abu Dhabi earlier this semester. The conference, ICTEHV for short, holds yearly meetings all over the globe to create a dialogue between researchers that might direct and/or translate engineered heart valve treatments. The researchers traveled to the conference before travel restrictions caused by COVID-19 were in place.

Ishita Tandon and Prashanth Ravishankar are both pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering. Tandon’s primary research focus over the last few years has been on early stages of certain cardiovascular diseases, including how these diseases are diagnosed and treated. Ravishankar’s research concentrates on the structural scaffolding of heart valves and the issues presented by the engineering of such structures.

Both are attempting to tackle diagnostic and treatment methods for aortic valve calcification. This disease, which affects up to nearly a third of the aging U.S. population, can cause constriction from calcium deposits, leading to reduced blood flow in those afflicted.

Tandon and Ravishankar work alongside Associate Professor Kartik Balachandran in his mechanobiology and soft materials laboratory. Balachandran and his lab focus on bioengineering problems presented in cardiovascular diseases and specific neurovascular disorders. It is through Balachandran’s mentorship that led the two overseas to share their research with several hundred other engineers and clinicians.

Growing up in a family of doctors, Tandon said she always knew she wanted to work with biomaterials in some way.

“Unlike other kids, my childhood dream was to develop a skin graft artificially that my father, [a burn specialist], could transplant onto a patient,” she said.

During her presentation, Tandon discussed her findings on noninvasive, early diagnostic techniques for aortic valve calcification, research for which she currently holds a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association.

“Calcific aortic valve disease currently has no drug-based therapy, no mitigation or prevention strategies resulting in valve replacement as the current treatment standard,” she said. “One major challenge in intervention strategies is lack of early detection.”

Tandon said she hopes to fill that gap by developing a set of metrics that allow for early detection and, as a consequence, enhanced treatment.  She placed second in the Young Researcher Award for her presentation at the conference.

Ravishankar’s research, although similar in scope, differed in trajectory, focusing on the issues that might present itself in the replacement of calcified aortic valves. To show the realities of possible treatments, Ravishankar created a 3D environment mimicking the heart. This provided a blueprint of the pre-diseased valve so that the replacement tissues could later be engineered in laboratories.

Ravishankar noted that, in addition to the importance of his and others’ research, the conference presented an invaluable opportunity for networking with other engineers in similar disciplines.

“The most important thing personally for me was the fact that you receive excellent feedback from individuals who are highly renowned in the field that strengthens your research,” he said.

Just a few months earlier, Balachandran presented his collaborative research at the 17th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering in Singapore. That research, with help from technology provided by Associate Professor Kyle Quinn’s lab, focused on the sensitivity of select detection markers for aortic valve calcification.  He presented an update of this work at ICTEHV in Abu Dhabi, one that focused on identifying the signaling mechanisms that maintain the aortic valve in its healthy, pre-diseased state.

“I am extremely proud of Ishita and Prashanth for their dedication and to Dr. Balachandran for actively promoting his students to conduct critical research to address cardiovascular diseases. I would also like to thank the Graduate School for their generous support to our students”, said Raj Rao, professor and department head of biomedical engineering.

Both students said they hope to push their research beyond the walls of the university. Ravishankar plans on pursuing industry so as to create lifesaving products. Tandon will continue with postdoctoral research in an effort to put the newest technologies on the market for consumers and improve patient care.

Ishita Tandon and Olivia Kolenc on Society of Women Engineers Conference

Ishita Tandon and Olivia Kolenc are both PhD candidates for the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. This past year they attended SWE’s yearly conference for women in California. Below they discuss networking benefits, memorable experiences, leadership knowledge, and awareness and ability to navigate challenges faced by minorities within the field of engineering.

Olivia Kolenc:

In November of 2019, I had the privilege of traveling to California to attend WE19, the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) largest conference to date. WE19 was held at the Anaheim Convention Center, filled with over 16,000 people ready to “Live, Learn, and Lead.”

I had yet to be a part of an event focused on women and diversity, so it was thrilling and inspiring to be surrounded by so many women and men dedicated to empowering women and minorities in STEM. I explored what WE19 had to offer, including sessions on a wide range of educational and professional development topics, an enormous career fair with over 400 attending organizations, special group meetings, and invitation-only programs such as SWE’s Collegiate Leadership Institute (CLI).

I have been a member of SWE since 2018 and currently serve as the vice-chair of the graduate student group on campus, GradSWE. Through my involvement with GradSWE, I was selected as one of 108 participants in SWE’s 2019 CLI. CLI is a program offered at each annual conference focused on helping undergraduate and graduate students develop their career and leadership skills.

The CLI program began with networking with other participants during WE19’s opening ice cream social and over dinner, where I got to know a few other graduate students. After having the opportunity to explore the conference, we were assigned mentees participating in the SWE Next High School Leadership Academy. I briefly mentored Alyssa, a high school sophomore. We spent a few hours together talking about her interest in robotics, the college application process, potential career paths, and interacting with industry representatives at the career fair.

On the final day of the conference, I attended a day-long CLI leadership colloquium. The colloquium sessions centered on providing us a framework to evaluate and discuss our strengths and weaknesses to learn what skills we as individuals needed to target to best enhance our educations and careers. We examined six competencies leaders need to develop for success and worked in groups to assess our progress in these areas. We also reflected on conventional leadership strategies, how they are currently changing, and how we can form a personal leadership structure based on leadership habits that work with our strengths. The colloquium culminated in small-table networking sessions with SWE leadership in various professional positions within, and outside, engineering.

Being part of CLI made attending WE19 much more significant to me. Not only did I garner so much new information on navigating the current challenges women and minorities face through the conference, but I also learned valuable strategies I can use to improve my own leadership abilities. After WE19, I was excited and energized to share what I learned through CLI and now have plans to conduct a leadership workshop for graduate students through GradSWE.

 

Ishita Tandon:

Four of the officers from Uark Graduate SWE RSO attended the We19, the annual conference of SWE. I have been involved with Grad SWE at Uark since 2018. I first served as the communications chair in the inaugural committee and then as the financial chair this past year. We have dedicated our RSO to hold professional and personal development events and social/ networking gatherings for Uark Students.

Some of the events which stood out to me were “I Have a PhD in Engineering – Now What?”, “Mentoring in Graduate School Panel”, “Strategies for Applying for a Job in Academia”. While I was more interested in professional development workshops, We19 offered leadership development, collegiate competitions, career fairs and social nights too. I had the opportunity to know a lot about industry careers in R&D after pursuing PhD. I also had the chance to meet and network with the SWE graduate leadership team and discuss with them opportunities for involvement and collaborations. 

This also opened the door for me to apply to the We Local Collegiate competitions. I was shortlisted as one of the 5 finalists to present my research in form of a talk and a poster at the We Local held in Salt Lake City in February, 2020. I was honored with $250 award, certificate and SWE swag for the same. The We Local, Salt Lake had a small group of men and women focused on professional development and networking. There were many workshops and seminars offered including “to post doc or not to post doc”, “resume workshop”, “flexibility in communication styles and a lot more.

Apart from deep appreciation and feedback offered on research presentations, I had two packed days of learning tips and tricks for enhancing my career, our SWE group and networking and making friends as well. The socials had professional, collegiate members and the leadership and organizing team, all enjoying food, games and good conversations. Indeed, the keynote speeches about an undergraduate’s journey from internship in NASA to Miss America pageant and a crew member of “The Maiden” which was featured in the documentary of the same name in 2018, were highly motivating. This whole experience inspired me more towards being involved in student organizations, enhance my leadership skills, appreciate the opportunities coming our way and strive for more. I hope to stay connected with the SWE strive towards further extending these opportunities to more women and underrepresented students from UARK. 

Abroad in India: Alexis Applequist on Bengaluru and Research

Alexis Applequist is a biomedical engineering student at the University of Arkansas. In summer and fall of 2019, she spent five months researching abroad in Bengaluru, India. Below, she reflects on her experiences and discusses what she has learned.

Traveling to a country with a rich and diverse history and culture to live for almost half a year has been, by far, the most eye-opening, thrilling experience of my life. Seeing the pictures and living the day-to-day life is incomparable. I’m so thankful to have had this humbling opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone to solo travel, research, help others, and learn countless valuable life lessons.

India’s mini Taj Mahal in Aurangabad

On July 4, I began (what felt like) my never ending flight to India. My family could see the excitement radiating from me the minute I had decided to go to India nine months earlier, but I couldn’t help but shed a few tears when it came time to leave them at the airport. One of the most amazing things about India to me was the number of languages spoken throughout the country. Hindi is the national language, but each state also has their own language, bringing the total spoken languages in India to 780. While the traffic was crazy and the amount of people constantly surrounding you could get to be a bit hectic at times, after a while I became comfortable with my daily routine traveling to and from work. Negotiating with the auto drivers for prices in the little Hindi I had picked up, getting to know my way around parts of the city, and acquainting myself with my favorite coffee shops and restaurants, I started to assume the culture and settle into my life in India. This cultural adjustment was made possible by the local friends I made. I also met people from countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Africa, China, London, Dubai, Kuwait, and others.

Though I did not take any classes during my time abroad, I earned credits by conducting research as an intern at a local medical technology startup, InnAccel. My research began with a small team interviewing cardiologists throughout India to determine the country’s most prominent needs in the cardio field. After wading through heaps of literature for weeks, the team decided to focus on a rechargeable pacemaker, Flexpacer. Our design includes a piezoelectric crystal which converts the heart beats’ mechanical energy to electrical energy to charge the pacemaker battery. After 500+ hours of research, our work was published with IEEE (see publication here). I am currently researching further with this company remotely from the US.

Kid’s innovation & 3D-printing camp in Bengaluru

In addition to my research, I attended seven engineering conferences, an IEEE workshop, and worked with a local NGO (non-governmental or non-profit organization). With the NGO, Aarogya Seva, I traveled to a government school outside of the city for a kids camp. Here, we talked with 1st-7th graders about innovation, 3-D printing, and how to use the skills they learned and talents to help others. Interacting with these bright, young, curious kids was definitely a highlight of my trip.

Alexis being blessed by an elephant in Coorg

While I spent five days a week in the office or at my flat in Whitefield (a subsection on the outskirts of Bengaluru) researching, I traveled most of South India on the weekends. My travels included Mysore, Nandi Hills, Chikmagalur, Belur, Yercaud, Pondicherry, Shivanasamudra Falls, Coorg, Ooty, Gokarna, Pune and Aurangabad. Some of these places had the crowded city vibe like Bengaluru, but most were a nice escape from the nearly constant envelopment of people. Some were quieter beach towns with gorgeous sunsets/sunrises while others had breathtaking hiking and waterfalls. A few highlights of my time abroad included being blessed by an elephant at Dubare Elephant Camp in Coorg, the tea and coffee plantations in Ooty, and spending Diwali (The Festival of Lights), India’s most celebrated holiday, with a friend’s family in Pune. The diverse landscapes across the country were nothing like I had ever seen before; it felt like I was in a painting.

Alexis in a traditional, Indian saree

After returning to the US, I will finish the last year of my bachelor’s degree and continue on to my doctorate. I plan to study cardiovascular device development with a focus on low-cost solutions. While designing for the Indian market, I learned there is a large focus on device development for areas with unlimited resources such as medical supplies, power, funding, and skilled medical personnel. Unfortunately, these cutting-edge devices being produced often cannot be used in many places, such as India, due to lack of resources. As an American, I find myself taking for granted the medical technology we already have that unreached populations so badly need, let alone, so many other basic “needs” (e.g., hot water, a showerhead). Overall, India helped solidify my passion for low-cost medical research, opened my mind to future international travel, and most importantly, showed me just how blessed I am to have been given the life I have here in the US.

“What lies ahead of you & what lies behind you is nothing compared to what lies within you.” -Mahatma Gandhi

 

17th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering

Various educators and researchers, including organizers, invited to the conference.

Pictured above: various educators and researchers, including organizers, invited to the conference.

Associate professor Kartik Balachandran of biomedical engineering presented his collaborative research findings at the 17th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering, ICBME for short, this past December.

An invited speaker, his talk focused on the sensitivity of select markers that determine calcific aortic valve disease progression. These findings were part of a collaborative project with associate professor Kyle Quinn’s lab, which pinned down early markers of the disease. His talk was titled, “Two Photon Excited Fluorescence Microscopy Metrics Are Sensitive to Early Phenotypic Changes in Calcific Aortic Valve Disease in Vitro and Ex Vivo.”

Balachandran found the conference to be both memorable and imperative to the outreach of researchers in the field of biomedical engineering who are working to develop and spread novel biomedical technologies. 600 participants were present, spanning a total of 30 countries; such demographics show the extent of such scientific outreach.

The ICBME is a four-day annual conference organized by the Biomedical Engineering Society in Singapore. They’re considered one of the most recognized conferences worldwide that provide “the latest developments including emerging challenges faced in the advancement of the Biomedical Engineering sector.”

Balachandran was also invited to present this research at the International Conference of Tissue-Engineered Heart Valve and Heart Valve Society Meeting in Abu Dhabi on February 14, in addition to two of his doctoral students. A Newswire on this conference is forthcoming.