Summer of 2014: I joined Dr. Molly Frame’s lab where we studied the effect that different temperatures had on red blood cells (RBCs) in vitro. I assisted Dr. Harrison Seidner and his team by aiding in image capture of the cells during experiments, and afterwards I helped vet a MATLAB program by manually counting RBCs in photographs for comparison to the MATLAB program’s count. Throughout the summer the MATLAB program was repeatedly tweaked and improved until manual counting was deemed unnecessary. During my time on this project, the instrument used to mimic blood flow was altered twice and Dr. Seidner and I altered the device to more accurately imitate the physiology of a blood vessel. In addition, I was individually responsible for keeping notes of everything that went on in the lab each day. Before leaving, I was asked to create a standard operating procedure for the lab and each experimental procedure in order to expedite bringing the next person up to speed in order to familiarize them with my role and to prevent the team’s project from slowing down.

Summer of 2015: I began working in Dr. Cezary Marcinkiewicz’s lab at Temple University and continued working with him during my junior year. The research being conducted was investigating the healing properties of soybeans, and how well soy protein promoted faster regeneration of skin when a electrospun soy protein graft was used on the wounds of mice. I was solely responsible for isolating soy samples with a high-performance liquid chromatography machine, and then purifying the final soy product. I consolidated samples and stored them for use later in the day when Dr. Marcinkiewicz ran experiments. After this research opportunity I decided that I was going to go directly into the bioengineering industry immediately after graduation because I wanted to gain practical knowledge and be on the ground floor of new medical discoveries.

January of 2016 -May 2017: I worked on a senior design team where we attempted to design an electrocardiogram that was compatible with the iPhone. Due to time and budget constraints, our final design utilized a standard iPhone camera in order to take a photoplethysmograph (PPG) of the heart, which is essentially a type of test that measures volumetric changes in circulation. We achieved this by designing an app that would record video of a person’s thumb as it was pressed against the phone’s camera. The app analyzed changes in light absorption of the thumb in the hundreds of images captured in the minute of video recording in order to produce a PPG. We manually took accurate PPG’s simultaneously of each volunteer and compared the results to those acquired by our app. Our PPG was very successful in determining the pulse of the individual and actually helped our team identify a heart condition of one of our volunteers. The project was a success in one part because our team achieved a large aspect of the original goal we set, in creating a phone application from scratch that was capable of measuring an individual’s heart rate. Although the original goal was to create an electrocardiogram, our PPG application was well received by the project committee. In addition, our team was chosen, twice, to create a poster for the project and put it on display at the research fair at both the beginning and end of our final year in the school. We were in the running for the best three posters but narrowly missed out on the podium. In addition, it was after this project that I realized just how much more to learn there is in this multifaceted discipline and in this acknowledgement, my career course was altered one final time as I became determined to acquire an advanced degree in biomedical engineering in order to gain the knowledge necessary to better prepare myself for future success.

September 2019- Present: I joined Dr. Donghui Zhu’s laboratory and I am currently assisting Dr. Yingchao Su. The focus of our research is to test different biodegradable polymeric implants. One of such biomaterials selected was a zinc-silver alloy. Zinc was chosen over magnesium (Mg) and iron (Fe) to be the base of the alloy because Mg is known to degrade too quickly while Fe degrades too slowly. In order to combat the serious risk of microbial growth on implants, silver was elected to make up part of the alloy due to the metal’s antimicrobial characteristic. In addition, calcium phosphate coated Mg is being tested because the coating improves the resistance of Mg to degradation, because otherwise the metal would degrade too quickly for clinical use. This coating was also chosen because the coating increases the alloy’s surface bioactivity. In the lab, I am expected to help Dr. Su run tests of the different metal alloys as well as assist Dr. Su in completing different applications and forms for the laboratory to facilitate lab operation.