BME faculty receive significant federal funding including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award

In the second half of 2018, faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Akron earned over $1.5 million in research awards from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the American Heart Association (AHA) among others. These awards will fund topics ranging from cancer drug resistance to iris biomechanics to cardiac regenerative medicine strategies. These awards support ongoing research and the integration of graduate and undergraduate students in labs, giving students hands-on experience alongside their classroom education.

Christie Zhang, Ph.D. received $154,000 from the AHA to engineer vascularized cardiac tissue using sheet technology and nature biomaterials, which will be used to repair a heart after a heart attack. She also received $152,000 from the National Institute of Health to to collaborate with Dr. Yi Hong's researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington to develop a drug delivery system for non-invasive cardiac therapy.

Rouzbeh Amini, Ph.D. received $150,000 from the Bright Focus Foundation to study the mechanical properties of the human iris. This project will combine non-invasive imaging techniques to estimate iris stiffness. Amini’s research group aims to understand how stiffening of the iris affects the shape of its composite cells during the pupil’s responses to light, as it is believed that cellular-level deformation is an important factor in the regulation of activities in those cells. The main goal of the project is to examine if, why, and how the iris becomes stiffer and consequently abnormally deformed in the eyes of certain groups of patients who suffer from a certain type of glaucoma.

Hossein Tavana, Ph.D. earned more than $860,000 in 2018 for research that could lead to more effective cancer treatment. He is using a $467,312 grant from the NIH Cancer Institute to model the response of colon cancer cells to anticancer drugs. The grant will address the critical need to identify molecular mechanisms of drug resistance of colon cancer cells and to develop new treatment strategies that effectively block tumor growth but with reduced toxic effects.

Tavana received $328,426 from the NSF to study the role of stromal cells in breast cancer. The research will utilize his lab’s patented technology to make 3D culture models that mimic the morphology of tumors and reproduce the interactions between stromal and cancer cells. Using the models, Tavana’s research group will better understand how stromal cells render cancer cells proliferative and drug-resistant. This will allow for more accurate drug testing and introduce stromal cells as new therapeutic targets.

Tavana also received $68,248 from the NSF (through a subaward from his startup company OncoSolutions LLC) to validate his team’s 3D tumor model for cancer drug testing and commercial service.

Francis Loth, Ph.D. and Rouzbeh Amini, Ph.D. received $157,543 from the Conquer Chiari Foundation to develop a tool that aims to predict the success of patient surgeries undertaken to reduce symptoms associated with this disease. Patients with Chiari malformations have a structural defect in the base of the skull and cerebellum, which can lead to neck pain, trouble with balance and coordination, and depression.

In 2019, Rouzbeh Amini, Ph.D. received a $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award to better understand how heart valves in pregnant women change at the sub-tissue and cellular level.

Congratulations to the faculty in the Biomedical Engineering Department! Learn more about our undergraduate and graduate programs.