Jay L. Alberts
Jay L. Alberts, staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Edward F. and Barbara A. Bell Family Endowed Chair, director of Cleveland Clinic’s Concussion Center and vice chair of Innovation with Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute, was awarded an R01 grant from the Department of Defense for his project titled, “Identifying the Neural Signature of Exercise to Advance Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) Cognitive Declines.” The project aims to provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying executive functioning changes in patients with PD, systematically measuring neural activity to understand how exercise impacts the function of the basal ganglia and its cognitive-motor network, with the potential to replicate these effects through specific deep brain stimulation parameters, offering an alternative to an “exercise pill” in the form of exercise deep brain stimulation. In addition, Alberts received an R01 grant from the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which also aims to investigate the relationship between genetics, aerobic exercise and PD patients. The combined grants total more than $1 million in federal funding in 2023.
Hamid Charkhkar
Hamid Charkhkar, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, received a $1.49 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. As principal investigator, Charkhkar will partner with co-investigators from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the University of Illinois Chicago, as well as clinicians from the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, to study neurally integrated lower limb prothesis for home and community use.
The project builds on earlier development of a neuroprosthesis that restores plantar sensation to individuals with lower limb loss by electrically activating the remaining nerves in the residual limb via an implanted neural interface. “In this four-year project, we aim to take the next logical step to understand the real-world benefits of this technology by investigating its effects when used freely at home and in the community during self-selected daily activities,” says Charkhkar.
Margot Damaser
Margot Damaser, staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) as a Senior Member. The cohort of 429 Senior Members are active researchers who “foster the spirit of innovation within their communities and institutions while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.” In addition, Damaser’s article, “First in Human Subjects Testing of the UroMonitor: A Catheter-free Wireless Ambulatory Bladder Pressure Monitor,” was the featured cover story in the July 2023 issue of the Journal of Urology. The UroMonitor is the first device to enable catheter-free telemetric ambulatory bladder pressure monitoring in humans and promises to help patients and physicians more reliably identify bladder events.
Kathleen Derwin
Kathleen Derwin, vice chair and associate staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was selected as an Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Fellow of the Year (2023). Additionally, Derwin and a team of principal investigators who direct Cleveland Clinic’s Musculoskeletal Research Center, were one of only three centers to be awarded an “LRI Center of Excellence in Osteoarthritis.” This two-year (Phase I) grant will provide resources and establish a Musculoskeletal Biomarkers Core, a Data Science Core and launch three additional projects. The underlining goal is to build a foundation around a highly prevalent and debilitating musculoskeletal condition (osteoarthritis), from which future extramural grants and philanthropic funding can be obtained.
Dominique Durand
Dominique Durand, the Elmer Lincoln Lindseth Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, won the 2024 Engineering Innovator Award from the North American Neuromodulation Society. The award recognizes his accomplishments as a world-renowned researcher in neural engineering, computational neuroscience, neurophysiology and control of epilepsy, non-linear dynamics of neural systems, neural prostheses, and applied magnetic and electrical field interactions with neural tissue. Durand has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, serves on 14 editorial boards of peer-reviewed scientific journals and has consulted for many biotechnology companies and foundations.
Ahmet Erdemir
Ahmet Erdemir, associate staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering and director at the Computational Biomodeling (CoBi) Core, serves as one of Cleveland Clinic’s lead investigators for the Discovery Accelerator “Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence” project. This innovative partnership between Cleveland Clinic and IBM resulted in the unveiling of the first quantum computer dedicated to healthcare research, deployed at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. In addition, Erdemir was awarded a four-year $2.3 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) for his proposal, “Reproducibility in simulation-based prediction of natural knee mechanics.” Five teams led by knee biomechanics experts are developing knee computational models to analyze current practices in joint and tissue mechanics, with the goal of establishing reliable knee joint models for simulation-based discoveries and medical device design and evaluation.
David Escobar
David Escobar, assistant staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering and director of Cleveland Clinic’s Neural Dynamics and Modulation Laboratory, was awarded a five-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This $3 million award will support Escobar’s research to identify the specific neural dynamics that underlie movement disruption in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Escobar’s proposal will leverage insights into neural circuits to further advance deep brain stimulation (DBS) technologies.
Agata Exner
Agata Exner was appointed director of Case Western Reserve University’s Center for Imaging Research. The globally acclaimed expert in molecular imaging and theranostics also serves as the Henry Willson Payne Professor and vice chair of basic research in the university’s Department of Radiology, as well as professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Chris Flask
Chris Flask, professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and pediatrics in the Case School of Medicine, was one of 59 investigators to receive the 2023 Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research. In November, he was inducted into the Academy’s Council of Distinguished Investigators during the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. In addition, Flask’s groundbreaking research in MRI and imaging technology was featured recently in a Bruker BioSpin Customer Insight article entitled, “Imaging Serves as a Scientific Hub to Unite Preclinical and Clinical Research.”
Kiyotaka Fukamachi
Kiyotaka Fukamachi, staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Taiyo Kuroda, a postdoctoral research fellow in his lab, were selected as Cleveland Clinic Catalyst SPARK Award recipients for the project titled, “Freedom from driveline for LVAD patients: Abdominal Implantable Battery and trans-umbilicus energy transmission system.” Fukamachi’s lab aims to create a wireless charging battery system, designed to be implanted into the abdominal region, with the goal of providing power to a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) without the need for skin-penetrating cables.
Chaitali Ghosh
Chaitali Ghosh, staff scientist, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was selected to be a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society (FAES). This designation honors researchers who have demonstrated long-term dedication and commitment to advance both the AES mission and the field of epilepsy. Ghosh was invited to present her research, “GLUT1 and Cerebral Glucose Hypometabolism Signatures in Human Focal Cortical Dysplasia Linked to Hypermethylation of Key Glucose Regulatory Targets,” at both the AES and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) annual meetings as a featured speaker.
Vijay Krishna
Vijay Krishna, associate staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was one of 12 researchers globally to receive the Wellcome Leap Foundation’s “Quantum for Bio Challenge” (Q4Bio) award. The global challenge focuses on expediting the research and development of quantum computing applications in healthcare. The award will fund Krishna’s proposal, “Quantum Computing for Photon-Drug Interactions,” a multi-site, multi-disciplinary, collaborative endeavor between Cleveland Clinic, IBM Quantum and Algorithmiq. Krishna, one of the three co-principal investigators managing the project, and his team will receive funding of $4.25 million over three years.
Vinod Labhasetwar
Vinod Labhasetwar, staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded a Cleveland Clinic Catalyst SPARK Award to fund research to develop nanoparticle-delivered treatments for stroke and other clotting diseases. Labhasetwar also published the article, “Nanotechnology in Stroke: New Trails with Smaller Scales,” in the journal Biomedicines. Labhasetwar’s lab strives to address the need for effective stroke treatment, as current FDA-approved interventions – such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) – are limited by a short therapeutic time window and potential adverse effects. The lab aims to develop nanoparticle-based approaches that lead to safer, multifunctional thrombolytic agents, with the potential to improve clinical outcomes in stroke patients.
Shuo Li
Shuo Li, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, is part of a team that received a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Li and colleagues from the Case School of Engineering, Case School of Medicine, Case Center for Imaging Research and the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center are developing a virtual contrast-enhanced imaging technique as an alternative to medical imaging processes that use chemical contrast agents. Li and other members of the Case Center for Imaging Research also received the Best Paper Award – Runner Up at the 2023 International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention for their paper, “Spatiotemporal knowledge teacher-student reinforcement learning to detect liver tumors without contrast agents.”
Xiaojuan Li
Xiaojuan Li, staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Program for Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging (PAMI), and her lab were selected as recipients of The Journal of Orthopaedic Research (JOR) “Excellence in Basic Science Award” for their article, “Shear strain and inflammation-induced fixed charge density loss in the knee joint cartilage following ACL injury and reconstruction: A computational study.” The study demonstrates that excessive tissue deformation and acute inflammation after ACL injury and reconstruction surgery hasten fixed charged density (FCD) loss and cartilage degeneration, where biomechanical and biochemical models predict FCD loss, showing localized FCD loss near the lesion, and simulated reduction of cytokine concentration leads to partial FCD content recovery, highlighting the potential for estimating in vivo FCD loss post-injury and aiding post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) progression prediction and treatment interventions.
Dan Ma
Dan Ma, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, is co-principal investigator on a $3.05 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute to study whether magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) can predict early response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. MRF is a novel approach to MRI that allows multiple tissues in the body to be examined by taking a single image, or “fingerprint.” Ma is leading the study with Holly Marshall, associate professor in the Case School of Medicine and division chief of breast imaging at University Hospitals, and Young Chen, assistant professor of radiology at the Case School of Medicine.
In addition, Ma and Chaitra Badve, associate professor in the Department of Radiology at the Case School of Medicine, presented a poster entitled, “Motion robust MR fingerprinting scans for non-sedated infant imaging” at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine’s 2023 annual meeting. Ma was also named to Crain’s Cleveland Business 2023 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes the best and brightest professionals in northeast Ohio.
Christopher Nguyen
Christopher Nguyen, director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Research Center; director of MRI research in the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute at Cleveland Clinic; and associate staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, was featured in Nature magazine in December 2023. The report highlighted a ground-breaking achievement in the field of cardiac medicine: a successful robotic replica of the heart’s right chamber. This collaborative effort with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital unveiled the bio-robotic model, which simulates the function of the heart’s right ventricle, mimicking its real pumping action. The model could help to evaluate new implants and devices to treat an array of cardiac disorders. This was Nguyen’s second appearance in Nature in 2023. Earlier in the year, his article, “An implantable soft robotic sleeve for the recapitulation of aortic stenosis,” was the featured cover story of the October Nature Biomedical Engineering issue.
Ela Plow
Ela Plow, associate staff, Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering, received a two-year Department of Defense U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDRMP), Spinal Cord Injury Program (SCRIP) Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) for her proposal, “Biomarkers of Response to Neurorestorative Therapies in Cervical SCI.” The grant will fund research to test the hypothesis that transcranial, direct-current stimulation (tDCS), when combined with rehabilitation, has positive effects on upper-extremity (UE) motor outcomes in chronic tetraplegia in association with improved corticomotor physiology.
Anirban Sen Gupta
Anirban Sen Gupta, the Wallace R. Persons Professor in the Case School of Engineering, was named a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), the highest honor among the global biomaterials community. The fellowship, presented by the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, recognizes the innovative work conducted in Sen Gupta’s lab, including development of synthetic platelets to treat hemorrhagic complications and inherited blood disorders, as well as integration of such technologies to create biosynthetic whole blood.
“It is also an opportunity for me to work with my peers in the global biomaterials community to advocate for education and research in our field and enhance the impact on global healthcare, recognizing the opportunities, challenges and disparities that exist across the world in this area,” says Sen Gupta.
Ron Triolo
Under the leadership of Executive Director Ron Triolo, the Advanced Platform Technology Center was renewed through the end of the decade as a Department of Veterans Affairs Research Center in the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service. The APT Center addresses the clinical needs of disabled veterans through the development, clinical translation and dissemination of novel rehabilitation devices and interventions. “This renewal would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the team at the APT Center to improve the lives of veterans each and every day,” says Triolo, who is also a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University.
Triolo also secured a $1.2 million, four-year Rehabilitation Research and Development Merit Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs for the study, “Neural Stimulation to Enhance Community Mobility After Incomplete SCI.” The goal of the project is to enable veterans with partial paralysis to improve their daily walking capabilities through development of practical and readily customizable control systems for peripheral nerve stimulation to augment the actions of selected muscles based on real-time feedback of voluntary body movements.
Satish Viswanath
Satish Viswanath, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, received the 2023 Imaging Informatics Innovator Award from the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine. He also was named to Crain’s Cleveland Business 2023 Notables in Education Leadership list.
In addition, Viswanath traveled to Malaysia in August as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Specialist Program, where his work centered on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital pathology – two areas closely aligned with his lab’s focus at Case. The INVent Lab develops AI schemes to enable precision medicine by unlocking embedded information captured by different modalities in an intuitive way. In October, the INVent Lab was issued a patent on structural rectal atlas deformation features for characterizing intra-wall and peri-wall chemoradiation response on MRI.
David Wilson
David Wilson, the Robert Herbold Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, and Sanjay Rajagopalan, chief of cardiovascular medicine for University Hospitals (UH) Cleveland Medical Center and director of the Case Cardiovascular Research Institute at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are co-principal investigators on two grants from the National Institutes of Health to predict cardiovascular disease through artificial intelligence techniques.
The funding, totaling $6.2 million, is based on the CLARIFY Registry, a UH initiative offering free CT scan calcium score assessments to community members with high-risk factors for heart disease. The study will employ cutting-edge AI technologies using machine- and deep-learning models to recognize complex patterns in medical images and usher in a new era of predictive health analytics to automate risk assessment.
Mei Zhang
Mei Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Immune Oncology Program, has been awarded $2.2 million from the Department of Defense. The three-year award will fund research to develop an innovative adjuvant therapy designed to transform tumor-associated inflammation into tumor-reactive immune responses by focusing on the differentiation epitopes in CD11b, crucial markers on tumor-associated inflammatory monocytes. Zhang’s research has been featured in several scientific journals, including a June 2023 article in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer with an impact factor of 12.43. The innate immune cell engager developed by Zhang’s team received FDA approval for orphan drug and rare disease designations in 2020.
BME Faculty Land University Awards
Several biomedical engineering faculty members earned awards from Case Western Reserve University in 2023, including the following:
Faculty Distinguished Research Award
- Robert Kirsch, Allen H. and Constance T. Ford Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Umut Gurkan, Wilbert J. Austin Professor of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Department of Biomedical Engineering
Commercialization Award
These faculty had a newly-licensed technology through the university’s Technology Transfer Office:
- Emily Graczyk, assistant professor
- Mark Griswold, associate professor
- Kenneth Gustafson, associate professor
- Michael Jenkins, associate professor
- Michael Moffitt, associate professor
- Dustin Tyler, Kent H. Smith Professor II of Biomedical Engineering
Inventor Award
These faculty received at least one issued patent through the university’s Technology Transfer Office:
- Dominique Durand, Elmer Lincoln Lindseth Professor in Biomedical Engineering
- Mark Griswold, associate professor
- Zheng-Rong Lu, professor
- Grant McCallum, research assistant professor
- Debra McGivney, assistant professor
- P. Hunter Peckham, professor emeritus
- Anirban Sen Gupta, Wallace R. Persons Professor of Engineering
- Ronald Triolo, professor
- Dustin Tyler, Kent H. Smith Professor II of Biomedical Engineering
- Matthew Williams, assistant professor
- David Wilson, Robert J. Herbold Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Xin Yu, F. Alex Nason Professor II of Biomedical Engineering
In The News
CWRU researchers ready to test device that could restore sense of feeling for mastectomy patients
A team of Case Western Reserve University engineers, led by Emily Graczyk, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Dustin Tyler, Kent H. Smith Professor II of Biomedical Engineering, are collaborating with engineers from the University of Chicago to test an implantable device that could restore the sense of feeling to breast cancer patients who have had reconstructive surgery.
Ground-breaking Imaging Research
Fox 8 Cleveland: Dan Ma, assistant professor of biomedical engineering; Mark Griswold, the Pavey Family Designated Professor of Innovative Imaging-Revolutionizing the Worlds of Education; Chris Flask, professor of radiology, shared their work alongside physicians and scientists from University Hospitals developing a transformative magnetic resonance fingerprinting technology that was recently approved by the FDA.