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2021-2022 Cohort

Mary Cassidy

Mary Cassidy’s work centers on the development of non-invasive therapeutics for myocardial infarction patients. Using a polymer-based proteomimetic technology that specifically reacts to an enzyme that is naturally produced at the infarction site, her approach ensures rapid accumulation and scaffold assembly of systemically injected, inflammation responsive polymer in the target area while remaining inactive in the rest of the body. Mary’s materials would allow for the targeted delivery of a localized cellular scaffold, small molecule drug or a peptide-based therapeutic. The goal is to reduce the long term effects of a myocardial infarction through the promotion of tissue repair and revascularization, to arrest overall decline in heart function, and improve patient outcomes.

Mary earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Mechanics with a specialization in Biomechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s of Science in Biotechnology from Northwestern University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with advisor Prof. Nathan Gianneschi. Her work in the Re-Training Program is undertaken alongside Drs. Nathan Gianneschi, Neha Kamat, and R Kannan Mutharasan.

Taylor Brown

Taylor Brown’s research focuses on methods for stimulating the innervation of vascular grafts as a means of increasing their long-term viability. These efforts focus on studying the changes in vascular smooth muscle cells that commonly lead to causes of graft failure, such as neointimal hyperplasia and calcification, with the goal of establishing a correlation between their occurrence and a lack of sympathetic nerve regeneration in the graft itself. Alongside this, Brown is developing a perivascular delivery device that can be used to stimulate the innervation of vascular grafts, and ultimately reduce the need for corrective surgery or replacement.

Brown’s work in the RE-Training program is undertaken alongside Drs. Bin Jiang, Karen Ho, and Mark Eskandari. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and she is currently enrolled in the Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program as a member of the Jiang lab. A founder of the Competition for Undergraduate Regenerative Engineering (CURE), Brown continues her association with the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering as an inaugural member of the RE-Training program.

Madeleine Goedegebuure

For patients with severe bladder disease, surgical removal of affected tissue has lifelong consequences. Grafts and regenerative therapies can act as partial replacements, but without the ability to replace the nerve function necessary for patients to regain direct control, full recovery has not been possible. Madeleine Goedegebuure seeks to address this issue through a combination of optogenetics and stem-cell based tissue regeneration. Using an implantable scaffold including a micro-LED, Goedegebuure can introduce light-sensitive cells to the affected area that will contract and relax when the LED is activated, mimicking normal bladder function. The effectiveness of the implant can be monitored electronically, ensuring that treatment teams have real-time information on a patient’s progress. Beyond this, other stem cells seeded in the implanted scaffold promote the regeneration of other tissue in the surrounding area. The combined effect will provide patients a significant step forward in their quality-of-life post-surgery.

Goedegebuure earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Washington University of St. Louis before pursuing her Ph.D. Alongside her research responsibilities, she serves on the executive board of Northwestern’s Graduate Society of Women Engineers chapter. Goedegebuure’s work in the RE-Training program is undertaken alongside Drs. Guillermo Ameer, Arun Sharma, and Earl Cheng.

María Méndez-Santos

María Méndez-Santos’s research focuses on promoting rapid wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers. Given the patient’s reduced capacity for wound recovery, and the consequently increased risk of infection and other complications, more generic approaches to wound regenerative therapy cannot be guaranteed to have equivalent effects for diabetic patients. In response to this, Méndez-Santos has identified a novel extension of a recently developed wound recovery gel from Dr. Guillermo Ameer’s lab. Her addition of Cu2+ ions drawn from metal-organic framework nanoparticles (CMOF) addresses two common issues complicating wound care in the target population. CMOF functions as an antimicrobial agent, helping to limit associated infections, while Cu2+ has been proven effective for blood vessel regeneration in diabetic patients. Alongside an expanded testing program that will see the technology proven on a tight-skin animal model analogous to human skin, Méndez-Santos’s represents a significant step toward more effective care for diabetic foot ulcers.

Méndez-Santos earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University Puerto Rico. A GEM Fellow, she has worked for the 3M Company on wound dressing research in addition to her current research. Méndez-Santos’s work in the RE-Training Program is undertaken alongside Drs. Guillermo Ameer, Amy Paller, and Robert Galiano.

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