Special Medical Engineering Seminar

Jinglin Huang (Gharib Lab) Investigation of drug mixing profiles in the eye. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of central vision loss in the developed world. In the case of wet AMD, it can be managed through serial intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents. However, sometimes the treatment is ineffective. Here, we focus on the understanding of drug mixing in vitreous chamber and parameters that could potentially influence mixing profiles. Biography: Jinglin Huang is a fourth-year graduate student in Medical Engineering. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Science with a minor in music from Smith College. There, she conducted research in biofilm formations, protein-based brain therapeutics modeling, and crystallization optimizations. She interned at Shanghai Sinopharm Pharmaceutical Design Institute, Harvard Innovation Lab, and collaborated with Pfizer on her senior project. She joined Professor Mory Gharib's group in 2015 and started investigating innovative material for seawater desalination. This project won second place in the SISCA competition. She is currently working on a side project to study fluid-mixing profiles in the eyes. ---------- Andrey Vyatskikh: (Greer Lab) Additive Manufacturing of Metals and Ceramics at the Micro- and Nano-Scale. Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals and ceramics has enabled efficient fabrication of high-performance threedimensional (3D) parts used in applications ranging from aerospace to healthcare. Most existing AM methods are limited to feature sizes of 20-50 μm, which renders them inapplicable for generating structures that require smaller dimensions, such as photonic crystals in the visible range or tools for minimally invasive procedures. We demonstrate a lithographybased AM process that can produce 3D nano-architected metals and ceramics with ~100 nm resolution. This talk will explore the synthesis of hybrid organic-inorganic precursors that are used for this process, as well as the composition and the atomic-level microstructure of the resulting materials. Probing mechanical and optical properties of these 3D nano-architected metals and ceramics will also be discussed. Biography: Andrey is a Ph.D. candidate in Medical Engineering working in Prof. Julia Greer's group at Caltech. After initial training as a Medical Devices Engineer at Bauman Moscow State Technical University in Moscow, Russia, Andrey received his MS degree from a joint program in Manufacturing between Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Andrey's research focuses on additive manufacturing of metals and ceramics at nano- and micro-scale. Andrey is a recipient of the Resnick Sustainability Institute Fellowship and the Biotechnology Leadership Award in Micro/Nano Medicine. ------------------------- Di Wu (Shapiro Lab) Acoustic manipulation of biomolecules and engineered cells. The ability to control specific biomolecules and cells, using ultrasound, is beneficial to multiple areas of biomedicine. I will describe recent work on the use of gas vesicles (GVs), a unique class of gas-filled protein nanostructures, to enable the acoustic control of genetically engineered GV-expressing cells. Biography: Di Wu is a PhD student in Medical Engineering in the laboratory of Professor Mikhail Shapiro. He received his BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto. He is a Medical Engineering Amgen Fellow. ---- Lealia Xiong (Kornfield Lab) Engineering and imaging living, responsive materials from bacterial biofilms. Current building surfaces require maintenance over the lifetime of a building due to damage. In extreme environments, such as warzones, severe impact or tearing damage is likely and is difficult to repair. We aim to create a responsive, self-healing material from bacteria exhibiting biofilm-like behavior. Biofilms are communities of microbes that secrete extracellular polymers, creating a cohesive hydrogel. In collaboration with five labs at Caltech, we engineer well-characterized bacteria to exhibit a cohesive phenotype, forming a living material, and to respond to environmental inputs such as damage or temperature changes. For the material to self-regulate its temperature, maintaining optimal conditions for bacteria growth and protein production, we are designing a bacterial genetic circuit such that melanin production is induced by low temperatures and repressed by high temperatures. The dark pigment will absorb solar energy in low temperature conditions. In addition, we characterize 10-100 micron-scale surface morphology of the films using optical coherence tomography. Biography: Lealia is a third-year PhD student in the labs of Julie Kornfield and Mikhail Shapiro. She received her bachelor's degree in physics from MIT in 2015. She previously served as the first employee at CoolComposites, Inc., a building materials start-up company in Boston.