Bioengineering Summer 2026 Newsletter

This spring and summer, Lehigh Creative Inquiry and Global Social Impact Fellowship (GSIF) teams traveled abroad to test and refine health technologies and leadership programs developed with communities in Kazakhstan and Sierra Leone.

• In May, the TremorTrack team, mentored by Prof. Dhruv Seshadri, spent two weeks in Almaty, Kazakhstan testing a wearable device designed to give clinicians continuous, objective data on Parkinson's tremors. Read more.
• Over the summer, the Swello team, also mentored by Prof. Seshadri, returned to Almaty to test low-cost hydrogel electrodes made from wheat, a local agricultural surplus, for dysphagia monitoring. Read more.
• Also this summer, a team mentored by Prof. Amirtaha Taebi advanced work on a smartphone-based platform for cardiorespiratory monitoring, using a phone's built-in accelerometer and gyroscope to detect early signs of cardiovascular disease. Read more.
• In August, the SicklED team, co-led by Prof. Xuanhong Cheng, returned to Sierra Leone to continue advocating for sickle cell disease patients and testing a diagnostic device developed at Lehigh. The team is one of five Lehigh groups developing health technologies to address health disparities in Sierra Leone, working on diagnostic test strips, provider education, and outreach materials. Read more.

Faculty Highlights

Anand Ramamurthi received the 2026 Rossin College Interdisciplinary Research Award, and Xuanhong Cheng received the 2026 Rossin College Peer Mentoring Award.

Anand Ramamurthi and Dhruv Seshadri have been named among the second cohort of LU/UN Faculty Fellows, representing Lehigh University at the United Nations. Read more.

Yevgeny Berdichevsky and Svetlana Tatic-Lucic received an NSF Award for "EAGER: Electromagnetic Detection of Brain Activity," focused on using changes in the electrical transmission (dielectric) properties of neural tissue at radio and microwave frequencies to develop sensors of brain activity.

Tomas Gonzalez Fernandez was awarded the Rossin Innovation Grant for his project, "AI-Guided DNA Methylation Editing for Cartilage Regeneration in Osteoarthritis." The collaborative proposal brings together Gonzalez Fernandez with Dr. Lifang He (Computer Science and Engineering) and Dr. Greg Carolan (Orthopedic Surgeon, Saint Luke's Hospital), and focuses on developing epigenetic therapies for arthritic cartilage regeneration.

Juan Aceros was awarded the Rossin Innovation Grant for his project, "Integrated Oculomotor and Visuomotor Rehabilitation using Intelligent Robotic Blimps." This collaborative proposal brings together Dr. Aceros's lab with Dr. David Saldaña (Computer Science and Engineering) and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital vision therapists. It focuses on developing an intelligent micro-blimp system for safe indoor use and patient interaction, providing a controllable source of three-dimensional visual stimuli for rehabilitation tasks.

Yevgeny Berdichevsky gave an invited talk at the Gill Institute for Neuroscience and the Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University, titled "Engineering Intelligent Systems Based on Living Neurons," in May 2026.

Tomas Gonzalez-Fernandez gave an invited talk at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia titled "Harnessing Deep Learning and Biomaterials for Precision Gene Editing and Cell Reprogramming." He and his group also attended the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain (April 2026), presenting two talks and one poster. Additionally, Tomas was selected as a spotlight keynote speaker at the 2026 Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina (March 2026), and attended the Keystone Symposium on Precision Gene Editing in Banff, Canada.

• J. P. Graham, A. V. Arteaga, A. S. Moghaddam, K. L. Spiller, D. J. Laverty, T. Gonzalez-Fernandez. Integrative Multiomic Analysis Reveals How Non-Viral Delivery System Selection Shapes CRISPR Gene Editing Outcomes in Stem Cells. Preprint at BioRxiv June 2026. Read more.
• E. Ismail, J. De Leon, J.P. Sah, I.C. Berg, G. Giridharan, P. Sethu, X. Cheng. Effect of Pulse Frequency on Shear-Induced Extension of Von Willebrand Factor in Continuous-Flow Ventricular Assist Device (CF-VAD). ASAIO Journal 72 (7), 582-589. Read more.
• S. Sun, N. Alqasawah, A. Yung, V. Ware, K. Jellison, X. Cheng. Simplified Wastewater Processing Using Ultrafiltration and Dipstick-based RNA Extraction for SARS-CoV-2 Monitoring. Journal of Water and Health 24 (4), 503-517. Read more.
• S. Qin, Z. Sun, S. Sun, J. Wang, C. Rahman, T.E. Gartner III, X. Cheng, E. Reichmanis. Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductor Device Platforms for Emerging Biosensor Application. npj Biosensing 3 (1), 10. Read more.
• Q. Maqbool and N. Holten-Andersen. Mineral-controlled heat-stiffening in dynamically crosslinked polymer networks. Preprint at ChemRxiv, June 2026.
• Juan Aceros was granted a new US Patent: US 12,656,873 B1 – Apparatus and Method for Developmental and/or Rehabilitative Sensory Substitution (Granted Jun 2026).

BIOE Co-Sponsors Materials Symposium

The department of Bioengineering partnered with the Institute for Functional Materials & Devices to sponsor the 2026 Lehigh Materials Symposium. The Lehigh research community gained key insight from a session focused on the future of biomaterials and therapeutic development. Among the session panelists was Dylan Smolen '19 (Prime Medicine). The event also included a graduate student poster session and an industry panel session organized by BEGA.

BIOE earns 2nd place at 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium

BioE undergraduate student researchers had a strong showing at the 2026 David & Lorraine Freed Undergraduate Research Symposium held in May. Yanmin Zhen, Antonia Zong, Kavya Famolari (IDEAS/BIOE), Juliana Margarelli, Zelalem Ayalew and Benjamin Childs were among the chosen group of students who presented their research. Childs earned 2nd place at the symposium, which will support his travel to a scientific conference.

2026 Disrupt Conference

Dr. Juan Aceros' students, Luke Blum, Jade Bond, Jiliang He, and Songyuan Wu, won the Best Student Poster Presentation Award at the DISRUPT 2026 Conference. The students were enrolled in his Design of Assistive Technologies class. The conference was organized by Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital.

Congratulations Graduates!

44 undergraduates earned their Bachelor of Science degrees in Bioengineering during the 2026 spring commencement ceremonies. We're proud of all of the graduates and excited to see what their future holds! Here's a snapshot:

• 11 BioE graduates are pursuing the MS degree in BioE at Lehigh and several more are venturing out to MS programs at other institutions.
• 3 BioE graduates will continue in PhD programs.
• Ben Sucheski started a position as a Manufacturing Engineer at Secant Group in Quakertown.
• Evelyn Wong accepted a position as a Global Graduate Process Engineer at AstraZeneca.
• Alicia Jaffer is now an Associate Project Manager in Biopharmaceutical Product Testing at Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories.

BIOE PhD student co-founds Lehigh Rising Scholars Journal

The Lehigh Rising Scholars Research Journal was inspired by the high-level research being performed by undergraduate and graduate students in the Rossin College, and by the goal of building a continuing pipeline of graduates who can actively contribute to the peer review process after graduation. Abofazl Salehi Moghaddam, a BioE PhD student in the Pashuck lab, worked with ChBE graduate student, K. Mirlohi, to bring their vision of a student-run, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to showcasing exceptional research from undergraduate and graduate students at Lehigh University to life. The journal has been approved by the university, named its editorial board (which in addition to Moghaddam includes BioE PhD students F. Geraldo Ortega Oviedo and Francesca Morrell), is accepting manuscripts for review and the inaugural issue is scheduled to be published in the fall.

PhD Dissertation Defense

Yingjie Wu defended "High-Throughput Discovery and Optimization of Degradable Peptide Crosslinkers for Cell-Responsive Hydrogel Design" on June 22, 2026, under advisor Dr. Tommy Pashuck.

MS Degrees Granted

We're proud to announce the Spring 2026 Bioengineering MS degree recipients: George Barakat, Devon Ennis, Brody Lane, Charles Rulon, Victoria Wagner and Songyuan Wu. Congratulations!

Awards and Conferences

• Victoria Wagner (BS '25, MS '26) was recognized as a Graduate Student Senate Champion during the 2026 Graduate Student Award Ceremony, for her positive attitude and for her readiness and willingness to help others.
• Josh Graham gave two talks and a poster at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) European Chapter at Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and one talk at the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Annual Meeting in Charlotte (North Carolina).
• PhD students Alex Arteaga, Savannah Pender, Talyor Krajewski, Abhiram Babu, Francesca Morrell and Ali Mutah, gave talks at the North East Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC) in Philadelphia (April 2026).

BEGA updates and upcoming events:

BioE graduate students visited the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia for an educational and social outing exploring the intersection of medicine, science, and history.

BEGA has also unveiled its new poster and has a great set of events and activities planned for the fall 2026 semester. Stay tuned for updates!

• Kendalin Flores (B.S. '26) was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for travel to the Dominican Republic. Read more
• Kayleigh Atanasoff (B.S. '20, M.S. '21) is currently a Manager of Commercial Manufacturing supporting contracted radiopharmaceutical operations at Eli Lilly.
• Dylan Smolen (B.S. '19) is a Senior Associate Engineer I at Prime Medicine, Inc., where he has worked to take the company's gene therapy products from small-scale feasibility to large-scale manufacturing. Smolen also recently returned to campus to provide key professional insight as part of an industry panel session during the 2026 Lehigh Materials Symposium.
• Teddy Leggett (B.S. '21, HSE M.S. '22) is pursuing his doctorate in Health Informatics at Rutgers School of Health Professions while continuing to work full-time as a Senior Clinical Analyst at George Washington University Hospital.
• Maggie Campbell Ziarnik (M.S. '26) has started a role as a Demand Analytics Planner at Unilever.
• Dina Gofman (M.S. '26) is an R&D Engineer II at BD, the global medical technology company.
• Nicole Malofsky (B.S. '19, M.S. '21) completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in May 2026, where her dissertation research focused on developing low-cost diagnostics for screening tuberculosis drug resistance. She is now pursuing a career in consulting.
• Annie Behre (B.S. '19) recently joined Klona Biotech as Founding Tissue Engineer.
• Kyle Garland (B.S. '16) was recently promoted to VP of R&D at Factor Bioscience Inc.
• Katie (Jennison) Klee (B.S. '17) gave the keynote speech at this year's annual Women and Non-Binary People in STEM Dinner at Lehigh.
• Leah Pasch (B.S. '21) completed her M.D. at Drexel University College of Medicine and matched at Mount Sinai in New York for her Pediatrics residency.
• Nicole Pellecchia (B.S. '18) completed her M.B.A. at Villanova.
• Amanda Rubin (B.S. '22) was promoted to Manager at Accenture earlier this year.
• Divya Patel (B.S. '18) was promoted to Senior Supervisor, Software Test Engineering, at Nihon Kohden.
• Alexis Kelerchian (B.S. '26) participated in the AAAS Catalyzing Advocacy in Science & Engineering (CASE) Workshop in Washington, D.C. in spring 2026, representing the Rossin College.