Biomedical engineering seniors participated in the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Thursday, April 25, in which they presented their honors theses and fielded questions based on their research. Below is a list of students, their theses, and advisors.
- Alaa Abdelgawad’s honors thesis was titled “Investigation of Acute Radiation-Induced Changes in Oxygenation in a Murine Beast Tumor Model.” She was advised by Narasimhan Rajaram.
- Andre Figueroa’s honors thesis was titled “Design of Microporous Membranes for the Development of Brain-on-Chip Devices.” He was advised by Kartik Balachandran.
- Baylor Bush’s Honors Thesis was titled “A Bioinstrumentation Active Learning Educational Module: The Design of a Working Temperature Sensor Using a NTC Thermistor,” advised by Michelle Kim.
- Emma Sullivan’s honor thesis was titled “Generation of a CCL2 Knockout Using CRISPR/Cas9 and Lipid Mediated Transfection in CT-26 Murine Colon Carcinoma Cells,” advised by Timothy Muldoon.
- Jackson Hedrick’s honors thesis was titled “Phenotypic Characterization of Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Smooth Muscle Cells,” advised by Raj Rao.
- Josh Fahy honors thesis was titled “Role of Angiotensin I and II on the Tissue Mechanics of the Aortic Heart Valve,” advised by Kartik Balachandran.
- Katelyn Heath’s honor thesis was titled “Modeling and Validation of Tissue Optical Properties in the Photon Transport Regime,” advised by Timothy Muldoon.
Pictured: Alaa Abdelgawad
- Katie Brandecker’s honor thesis was titled “Effect of Polymer Composition of Injectable Hydrogels on Cumulative Release of Methylene Blue,” advised by Ryan Tian.
- Kristyn Robling’s honor thesis was titled “Characterization of Ocone Mediated TEMPO-Oxidized Nano Cellulose Mixed-Matrix Membranes During Ultrafiltration and Hemodialysis,” advised by Jamie Hestekin.
- Lauren Buchele’s honor thesis was titled “How Infant Positioning Impacts Hip Motion and the Associated Implications for Babies with Hip Displasia,” advised by Erin Mannen.
- Marinna Tadros’s honor thesis was titled “Designing In-Vitro Mitral Valve Mounting and Testing System for Micro CT.” She was advised by Morten Jensen.
- Mason Belue’s honor thesis was titled “Vector Flor Imaging in Pediatric Cardiology—Extracting and Validating Data,” also advised by Morten Jensen.
- Olga Brazhkina’s honor thesis was titled “Development of a Model for Accelerated Fatigue Testing in Venous Valves,” advised by Morten Jensen.
- Tasha Repella’s honor thesis was titled “Comparing the Effects of Fibroblast Growth Factors on Growth Rate of Human Fibroblast Cell Lines,” advised by Raj Rao.
- Wenbo Xu’s honor thesis was titled “Investigating Virus Clearance via pH Inactivation During Biomanufacturing,” advised by Xianghong Qian.
Two students also presented their independent research projects:
- Shelby Bess’ project was titled “Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy quantifies functional tumor response in a murine subcutaneous model of colorectal cancer,” advised by Timothy Muldoon.
- Shelby Johns also discussed her project, titled “Development of a C57BI6J Mouse Model for Calcific Aortic Valve Disease Progression,” advised by Kartik Balachandran.
Afterwards, students participated in the Poster Reception for Honors Research & Independent Study, in which members of the department and college could further explore and ask questions.
Congrats to the 2019 biomedical engineering seniors on their thesis completion!