CIMIT Awards Eight Graduate Fellowships to Students at MIT, BU

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CIMIT is pleased to announce winners of its medical engineering fellowship awards to students at MIT and Boston University. Each fellowship covers tuition and stipend, plus a small amount for ancillary expenses.

Winners include students who have been awarded support for a second year of study, and those who are receiving their first fellowship.

CIMIT Engineering Fellowships offer multi-year support for graduate engineering students to work in highly innovative yet traditionally under-funded areas of healthcare research. Medical device development, new algorithms, software for use in clinical practices, and the engineering of medical environments are all essential to accelerate the adoption of technologies into patient care.

Three CIMIT Medical Engineering Fellows at MIT

Second year grantees at MIT are Tsung-Han Tsai, whose advisor is James Fujimoto, PhD; and Christopher Pritchard, who will be advised by Robert Langer, PhD. Tsai’s research intent is to develop novel biomedical applications of optical coherence tomography and optical coherence microscopy, while Pritchard will be attempting to develop a novel device for local controlled release of anti-inflammatory agents.

One first year fellowship has been awarded at MIT to Alexis Turjman. Turjman will be advised by Elazer R. Edelman, MD, and the focus of the research will be to develop a computational model that indicates where cerbrovascular aneurysms are likely to form and how each potential therapy, intervention and implanted device will affect the intracranial aneurysm’s natural history.

Five CIMIT Applied Healthcare Engineering Fellows at BU

Second-year recipients at Boston University are Katherine Calabro, whose advisor is Irving Bigio, PhD; and Peng Zhang, whose advisor is Tyrone Porter, PhD.

Calabro’s research intent is to make the detection and diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases faster, easier and cheaper through optical techniques. Zhang’s goal is to develop and characterize submicron particulates to nucleate bubbles in a site-specific manner using focused ultrasound.

Three new fellowships have been named at BU, including Cassandra Browning, whose advisor is Mark N. Horenstein, PhD; Amiora Hussein, who will be mentored by Elise Morgan, PhD; and Quigqing Cao, whose research will be guided by Catherine Klapperich, PhD.

Browning’s research seeks to develop a method for the transdermal injection of PLG-encased, nanoparticles of drug or vaccines into the subcutaneous, dendritic-cell rich stratum corneum layer of the skin. If successful, the method will have widespread clinical application for needle-free vaccinations and the rapid inoculation of large populations during times of health emergency or in underserved areas.

The aim of Hussein’s investigation will be in developing new tools for clinical prediction of fracture risk in the spine. The new tool could greatly improve the predictions of bone strength, a major component of fracture risk.

And, Cao will work towards developing an integrated microfluidic platform for detection and diagnosis of H1N1 pandemic influenza virus. To achieve this, a cheap, disposable and fast point-of-care microfluidic device capable of detecting both virus and bacteria is being developed.

“We are pleased to extend these fellowships to such worthy young researchers,” said CIMIT Executive Director John Parrish, MD. “Supporting research is one of CIMIT’s most important missions, and we believe this promising group will benefit from opportunity for further study.”