Five BIOE Students & Alumni Named NSF Graduate Research Fellows

Posted on May 18, 2023 by kbradish

Five members of the BIOE community were named recipients of the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Three of these members are our very own Ryan Felix, Erfan Jabari, and Amal Shabazz.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) was established to ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Ryan Felix

Ryan Felix is a first-year BIOE Ph.D. student in BIOE chair John Fisher’s Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Lab (TEBL). Felix’s work involves the application of machine intelligence to the challenges facing 3D bioprinting by advancing a scientific understanding of how to improve tissue-engineered designs.

“Working in Dr. Fisher’s lab has been a treasure. I’m blessed to be part of a cohort of Ph.D. students who are highly knowledgeable and driven toward progressing in the field of tissue engineering, all led by such an excellent mentor, researcher, and engineer,” Felix said. After graduation, he wants to pursue entrepreneurship built upon his Ph.D. work. “I think Maryland is a great place to pursue this as there are countless resources from the university and the state to support new bioengineering technologies going to market,” he said.

Felix is overjoyed and grateful to have been selected for the fellowship. The funding will allow him to pursue his research and, hopefully, dramatically increase his research productivity by alleviating funding challenges.

Erfan Jabari

Erfan Jabari is a recent BIOE graduate and has been a member of Fisher’s Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Lab since 2019. He has assisted with osteochondral bioprinting studies and completed an honors thesis in bone regeneration. These experiences helped him better grasp the exciting role of bioengineering in solving medicine’s most complex challenges and reinforced his interest in regenerative medicine.

To continue exploring this interest, Jabari will work with the Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Lab (TEBL) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)’s Immune Regulation Unit to engineer transplantable bone marrow as a National Institute of Health postbaccalaureate. “I am excited to further my involvement with TEBL’s supportive team of scientists who have already contributed so much to my growth as an engineer,” he said.

In the future, he aims to serve as a clinician-scientist at the intersection of research and healthcare. By translating engineering innovations from bench to bedside in this position, he hopes to contribute to the actualization of regenerative therapies that will improve standards of care and human health outcomes globally.

Jabari stated that winning the NSF fellowship was a huge honor. Although he will not accept the award, receiving such a prestigious offer has boosted his confidence to continue pursuing impactful research as an aspiring clinician-scientist. Jabari will apply for Medical Scientist Training Programs, which are federally funded and best suit his interest in translational medicine.

Amal Shabazz

Amal Shabazz is a first-year Ph.D. in Fisher’s Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Lab (TEBL). She is interested in using tissue engineering, biomaterials, and stem cells to create regenerative medicine solutions for healthcare-related problems. She enjoys having the ability to work on solutions that can directly impact patients’ lives.

“[In the lab,] I have the opportunity to work with a skilled team to study and explore 3D-printing solutions for various applications. In my first year, I am focused on learning as many skills as possible,” Shabazz said.

After graduation, her goal is to close the gap in health disparities in the scientific community’s care and treatment of people of color. She would like to develop solutions that consider the treatment of different populations of people. After earning her Ph.D., she wants to continue research to work towards these solutions.

Shabazz is elated to have been chosen by the GRFP to represent the next generation of scientists within the STEM field. She is excited about the independence in research that comes with being a fellow. This opportunity will place her among an elite group of researchers and give her more opportunities for professional development beyond graduate school.

Congratulations to all five students on this achievement.

Story from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.

BIOE Ph.D. Candidate Courtney Johnson Recognized at NSBE49

Posted on May 11, 2023 by kbradish

The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) hosted its 49th Annual Convention (NSBE49) on March 22–25, 2023. The event brought 13,000 attendees to Kansas City for a week of technical, professional, and soft-skill development. The University of Maryland (UMD) had much to celebrate at NSBE49, as three Maryland Engineering students were recognized for their leadership in advancing NSBE as an organization. One such student was Fischelle Department of Bioengineering Ph.D. candidate Courtney Johnson.

Johnson was recognized during the Golden Torch Awards (GTA), which celebrates NSBE members and corporations that have done phenomenal work to advance the mission of the society. It also celebrates Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and leave a positive impact on their community.

During the GTA, Johnson was recognized as the Mike Shinn NSBE Distinguished Member (Male), a prestigious honor given to members considered role models in NSBE based on their academic and professional success and service to the organization. Johnson has exemplified this criterion since becoming an NSBE member in 2012. He has been a leader for eight years at the chapter, regional, and national levels.

As National Programs Chair, Johnson was responsible for the strategic plan concerning the programs and partnerships needed to accomplish the society’s 2025 goal of graduating 10,000 Black engineers annually. Additionally, he has awarded over $500,000 in scholarships and grants to members and chapters as the head of NSBE’s Scholarships and Awards Committee. Johnson has established long-standing partnerships with STEM organizations, such as Engineers Without Borders and DiscoverE, to conduct robust and diverse programming for NSBE members.

“In my speech, I spoke of how NSBE impacted my life significantly and was an integral part of my journey to becoming an engineer and to working toward a cure for diabetes,” he said. Johnson concluded his acceptance speech by dedicating the award to his mother, who was celebrating her birthday that night and attending her first NSBE conference.

Story written by Courtney Johnson.

Published May 5, 2023

Maryland Engineering’s John Fisher Appointed MPower Professor

Posted on November 7, 2022 by kbradish

Fischell Family Distinguished Professor and Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) Chair John P. Fisher was named an MPower Professor by the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State. Fisher is one of three University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) faculty members to receive the honor along with three University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) faculty members.

Fisher was recognized for both his collaborative research efforts and the key role he played in establishing new connections between the two campuses. On the research front, Fisher most recently worked with cross-campus collaborators in the areas of stem cell culturing and tissue reconstruction for breast cancer patients. As BIOE department chair, Fisher has been instrumental in the establishment of the joint M.D./Ph.D. and M.D./M.S. programs with BIOE and the School of Medicine (UMB), as well as in the launch ofNeuro-Link, an initiative to provide funding support for joint BIOE and Department of Neurosurgery (UMB) research endeavors.

The MPower Professorship recognizes, incentivizes, and fosters collaborations between faculty who are working together on the most pressing issues of our time. To be considered for the MPower Professorship, faculty must demonstrate collaboration on strategic research that would be unattainable or difficult to achieve by UMB or UMCP acting independently of one another and must embrace the mission of MPower to collaboratively strengthen and serve the state of Maryland and its citizens.

Each professor will receive $150,000, allocated over three years, to apply to their salary or to support supplemental research activities. These funds recognize, enable, and support strong collaborations between faculty in the joint research enterprise between UMCP and UMB.

Fisher is the second BIOE faculty member in as many years to receive the honor, following Minta Martin Professor of Engineering Christopher M. Jewell in 2021.

“The MPower Professors have shown incredible dedication and commitment to collaboration, innovation and discovery. Their work to solve major challenges and positively impact the lives of others is bolstered by this investment,” said UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, M.D.

“The six professors selected for this honor are each working across disciplines to address the most complex challenges facing society today, bridging research and scholarship between institutions to foster innovation that will impact citizens in Maryland, across the country, and around the world,” said UMCP President Darryll J. Pines.

As the director of the Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Lab, Fisher leads his research team in investigating biomaterials, stem cells, bioprinting, and bioreactors for the regeneration of lost tissues – in particular, bone, cartilage, and cardiovascular soft tissues. Fisher’s lab has published more than 200 articles, book chapters, editorials, and proceedings and delivered more than 340 invited and contributed presentations while utilizing more than $15 million in financial support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Department of Defense, and other institutions.

“Healthcare is a multifaceted challenge that requires collaboration from different fields: clinicians, engineers, scientists, and public health experts partnering on solutions to today’s most pressing challenges. As leaders in the scientific community, we have a responsibility to strengthen the ties that make human health innovation possible. Dr. Fisher is making good on that responsibility,” said Maryland Engineering Dean Samuel Graham, Jr. “We see Dr. Fisher’s dedication to his students, department, and the broader community every day, and we’re fortunate to benefit from his leadership at Maryland Engineering.”

In addition to his BIOE appointment, Fisher is also the director of the Center for Engineering Complex Tissue, an NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering center established to create a broad community that focuses on 3D printing and bioprinting for regenerative medicine applications.

Fisher is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. Among his previous awards, he has received the Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society – Americas’ Senior Scientist Award, and a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Currently, he serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Tissue Engineering, while also editing six texts in the field of tissue engineering.

Fisher earned a B.S. in biomedical and chemical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1995, an M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1998, and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Rice University in 2003. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cartilage biology and engineering at the University of California, Davis in 2003.

The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State leverages the sizable strengths and complementary missions of both UMB and UMCP to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, create opportunities for students, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation. Working together, UMB and UMCP achieve innovation and impact through collaboration.

The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership Act of 2016 strengthened and formalized the structured relationship between UMB and UMCP, which began in 2012. The law deepens the alliance and enables UMB and UMCP to pursue even greater transformative change and impact, far surpassing what each institution could do independently of the other.

Story from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.

Erfan Jabari Receives Winston Family Honors

Posted on May 10, 2022 by kbradish

Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) senior Erfan Jabari received the 2022 Winston Family Papers Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis during the University of Maryland (UMD) Honors College Citation Ceremony on Friday, April 29.

Established by Roger (’76, ’79) and Karen Winston (’75), the annual UMD Winston Honors Writing Awards recognize the best essays, research papers, and theses written by honors students.

Erfan, an undergraduate researcher in BIOE professor John Fisher’s Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Laboratory, focused his thesis on critically-sized bone defect repair in orthopedic medicine.

“Bone tissue is naturally able to repair damage and regenerate completely, but medical intervention becomes necessary when a defect’s size is too large,” Jabari said. “Bone grafts – the current treatment option – are limited in supply and pose a significant risk of donor site morbidity or immune rejection. Bone tissue engineering aims to address these shortcomings by developing synthetic constructs that coordinate biomaterials, cells, and bioactive signals to facilitate tissue repair.”

In bone tissue engineering, mesenchymal bone-forming cells have been explored thoroughly as a tool for defect repair, he noted. The role of osteoclasts – their bone resorbing counterpart – has not been investigated as extensively. Recent bone physiology research shows, however, that osteoclasts have an interesting ability to interact with bone-forming osteoblasts and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) through a variety of mechanisms to stimulate bone formation. Motivated by this concept, Jabari and fellow members of Fisher’s lab sought to develop a system whereby osteoclast-directed bone formation could be observed and investigated for bone tissue engineering purposes.

“In this effort, we successfully developed a 2D coculture model of human MSCs and peripheral blood-derived monocytes (progenitors of osteoclasts),” he said. “Our system shows that bone formation is enhanced in conditions where osteoclast development is facilitated, corroborating evidence that osteoclasts support the activity of bone-forming cells. Specifically, we observed known features of osteoclast-directed bone formation such as MSC proliferation and matrix development, and a novel feature – MSC clustering.”

Ultimately, the group demonstrated the potential of osteoclasts in bone tissue engineering to inform future strategies for bone defect repair, Jabari said. The work, which revealed the ability of osteoclasts to induce MSC clustering, also provides an accessible system for further investigation of osteoclast-directed bone formation.

In addition to his Winston Family Honors Award, Jabari was also recently named one of the University of Maryland’s Undergraduate Researchers of the Year.

Jabari plans to graduate in December 2022, after which he hopes to explore an M.D./Ph.D. program.

“I am excited to expand on the experiences the Fischell Department of Bioengineering has granted me, wherever that may be!” he said.

Story from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.

Fisher, FDA Aim to Advance Safety of Cardiac Medical Devices

Posted on May 9, 2022 by amckenn1

In recent years, the use of cardiac electrophysiology medical devices – Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT), Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) and Cardiac Contractility Modulation (CCM) – to treat diseased heart tissue during heart failure has increased. Such technologies have proven critical to reducing mortality and improving patient quality of life. Before these technologies can be used in patients, preclinical bench testing – including large- and small-animal testing strategies – serves a critical role in advancing understanding of device mechanisms and safety. Consequently, novel human-based preclinical models are needed to reduce the burden on animal testing and clinical trials, and hiPSCs have been heralded as a potential solution. To usher this technology into the regulatory setting, the scientific community needs to learn more about 3D-printed culture strategies and identify best practices for the robust generation of such tissues.

The Fisher Lab is collaborating with Ksenia Blinova, assistant director, and T. K. Feaster, staff fellow, of the Division of Biomedical Physics in the Office of Science and Engineering Labs in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, to establish standardized methods for evaluating cardiac electrophysiology medical devices in human cells at the bench. The research trio is pursuing this work as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholars-in-Residence project. They aim to develop new knowledge and testing tools to further timely predictivity of these technologies.

“We have all witnessed remarkable advances in cell adhesion centrifugation (CAC) and hiPSC technology,” said Fisher. “Although useful, the potential for CAC to generate 3D-printed human heart models warrants further investigation. With support from the NSF, the knowledge gained from the UMD-FDA collaboration can help facilitate the development of such models to accelerate and inform the regulatory review process.”

“This collaborative research project is intended to help fill a gap in knowledge and test methods that has become increasingly important in recent years, given the rising level of activity towards cardiac electrophysiology device-based therapy,” said Drs. Blinova and Feaster. “We are very excited to be working together to develop innovative technological approaches with the potential to improve public health.”

The NSF – through its Directorate for Engineering, the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division of Computer and Network Systems, and the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division of Materials Research – along with the FDA – through its Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) – have established the NSF/FDA Scholar-in-Residence Program at FDA. This program comprises an interagency partnership for the investigation of scientific and engineering issues concerning emerging trends in medical device technology. This partnership is designed to enable investigators in science, engineering, and computer science to develop research collaborations within the intramural research environment at the FDA.

For more information about this project and the NSF/FDA SIR program, contact OSEL_CDRH@fda.hhs.gov.

Published July 30, 2021