Trainee news - Cardiovascular engineering training program
Carly Donahue publishes aortic calcifications paper
March 25, 2024 — Trainee Carly Donahue published a paper in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering. The article is coauthored by Ruturaj Badal, Thomas Younger, Weihua Guan, Elena Tolkacheva, and Victor Barocas and is titled, “Atherosclerotic Calcifications Have a Local Effect on the Peel Behavior of Human Aortic Media.”
Casey Kraft publishes research paper in Cryobiology
December 27, 2023 — Trainee Casey Kraft published a paper in the journal Cryobiology. The article is coauthored by Bat-Erdene Namsrai, Diane Tobolt, Michael Etheridge, Erik Finger, and John Bischof and is titled, “CPA Toxicity Screening of Cryoprotective Solutions in Rat Hearts.”
Sam Boland presents at 2023 Society of Engineering Science Technical Meeting
October 10, 2023 — Trainee Sam Boland gave a podium presentation entitled "Understanding Cytoskeletal Mechanics at High Strain-Rates in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells" at the 2023 Society of Engineering Science Technical Meeting.
Tate Shannon wins top prize in national research pitch competition
October 12, 2023 — Trainee Tate Shannon bested 46 contestants in a pitch competition hosted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Shannon pitched a fully regenerative, minimally invasive vein valve he has helped develop under Bob Tranquillo.
Tate Shannon writes an invited review
August 7, 2023— Trainee Tate Shannon wrote an invited review in the European Symposium on Vascular Biomaterials. The article is coauthored by Bob Tranquillo and called “Cell-based endothelialization approaches for emergent/emergency coronary artery bypass surgery.”
Casey Kraft presents at CRYO2023
August 1, 2023 — Trainee Casey Kraft gave an oral presentation entitled, "A CPA Toxicity Screening of Vitrification Solutions in Rat Hearts" at CRYO2023, the Society for Cryobiology’s conference.
Meghan Griffin files provisional patent application
July 11, 2023 — Trainee Meghan Griffin and collaborators have filed a provisional patent application. Their patent covers methods for converting information about alignment into toolpaths that can be deposited by 3D printers. In tissue engineering, this might involve extracting cellular alignment data from medical images and converting that information to bioprinting toolpaths that can reproduce the structure in an engineered tissue.
Adam Ley presents at SB3C
June 21, 2023 — Trainee Adam Ley gave a podium presentation entitled, "Cyclic Stretch Results in Directionally Dependent Recellularization Aligned with Cellular Stress Avoidance Reorientation" at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C).
Casey Kraft presents at SB3C
June 21, 2023 — Trainee Casey Kraft gave a poster presentation entitled, "CPA Toxicity Screening of Vitrification Solutions in Rat Hearts" at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C).
Sam Boland presents at SB3C
June 21, 2023 — Trainee Sam Boland gave a podium presentation entitled, "Reduced Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Mechanoadaptation in an in vitro Model of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy" at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C).
Adam Ley and team secure grant
June 15, 2023 — Trainee Adam Ley co-authored a grant proposal (PI: Bob Tranquillo) that was funded by University of Minnesota's International Institute for Biosensing. The project is called, “Using Light-Sheet Microscopy and FRET-Based Talin Force Sensors to Investigate Dynamic Cell Force Generation.”
Meghan Griffin awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
March 31, 2023 — Trainee Meghan Griffin has received a fellowship through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
Carly Donahue awarded AHA Predoctoral Fellowship
December 15, 2022 — Trainee Carly Donahue was awarded the Predoctoral Fellowship by the American Heart Association.
Molly Kaiser named a finalist in three-minute thesis competition
October 21, 2022 — Trainee Molly Kaiser won the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s three-minute thesis (3MT) competition in September, and was named a finalist in the College of Science and Engineering’s 3MT competition. Her talk was titled, "Getting to the heart of cardiac growth during pregnancy.”
Molly Kaiser presents at Computing in Engineering Forum
September 22, 2022 — Trainee Molly Kaiser presented (virtually) at the Computing in Engineering Forum hosted by UW-Madison College of Engineering on September 21. She gave a talk titled, "Multiscale model of heart growth applied to pregnancy and postpartum recovery."
Big wins for trainees at SB3C
June 24, 2022 — Trainees won two of the six divisions of the PhD student paper competition at the 2022 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C). Sam Boland won 1st place in the Cardiovascular Mechanics division, while Carly Donahue won 1st place in the Biofluid Mechanics and Cardiovascular Imaging division.
Casey Kraft presents at SB3C
June 24, 2022 — Trainee Casey Kraft presented research titled, "Investigating Lactate Dehydrogenase Release as a Metric of Cryoprotectant Toxicity" at the 2022 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C).
Carly Donahue presents at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference
June 23, 2022 — Trainee Carly Donahue presented research titled, "Patient-Specific Finite Element Modeling to Predict Clinical Risks of Percutaneous Pulmonary Valve Implantation" at the 2022 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference.
Meghan Griffin awarded a Tau Beta Pi fellowship
May 9, 2022 — Trainee Meghan Griffin has been awarded a Tau Beta Pi fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year. The engineering honor society selected 31 engineering students — including only 7 biomedical engineering students — from 278 applicants. More than $8.3 million in stipends will have been given by the association when this group of fellows completes its graduate work.
Carly Donahue presents at the Design of Medical Devices Conference
April 14, 2022 — Trainee Carly Donahue presented research titled, "Finite Element Modeling Using Patient-Specific Geometry to Predict Aortic Valve Insufficiency During Percutaneous Pulmonary Valve Implantation" at the 2022 Design of Medical Devices Conference.
Casey Kraft poster wins third place at the IEM Annual Conference
September 28, 2021 — Trainee Casey Kraft gave a poster presentation at the Institute for Engineering in Medicine's 2021 conference entitled, "Vitrification Solution Screening to Recover Contractility in ex vivo Rat Hearts." The poster won third place in the cardiovascular engineering section.
Carly Donahue presents at IEM Annual Conference
September 28, 2021 — Trainee Carly Donahue presented research titled, "Patient-Specific Finite Element Modeling to Evaluate Clinically Relevant Risks Associated with Percutaneous Pulmonary Valve Replacement" at IEM's 2021 Conference.
Sam Boland presents at SB3C
June 19, 2021 — Trainee Sam Boland gave a podium presentation entitled "Post-Stretch Response of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells is StrainRate Dependent" at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C), a national meeting.