High-throughput screening (HTS) is an essential step in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Droplet-based and continuous-flow microfluidic platforms offer improved sensitivity, reduced cost, and enhanced physiological relevance compared with conventional screening technologies such as microplates and flow cytometers. However, a challenge towards unlocking the full potential of microfluidic platforms for HTS in academic […]
Abstract: The field of solid state nanopores presents nearly limitless customizability in both the types of molecules that can be studied as well as the aspects of their structures which can be examined. Following an introduction to solid-state nanopores, their operating principles, and their trajectory as a biosensing technology, this dissertation presents their use in the […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Michael Mitchell are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Hannah Geisler. Title: "Engineering targeted lipid nanoparticles for RNA delivery to the placenta" Advisor: Dr. Michael Mitchell Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2026 Time: 3:00 PM Location: Singh Center, Glandt Forum The public is […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Michael Mitchell are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Ann Metzloff. Title: "Engineering mRNA Lipid Nanoparticles to Overcome Barriers to T Cell Cancer Immunotherapy" Advisor: Dr. Michael Mitchell Date: Thursday, June 4th, 2026 Time: 10:00 AM Location: Singh Center, Glandt Forum The […]
Lattice materials, a class of architected material, demonstrate a broad range of mechanical behaviors enabled by the design of their internal geometry and selection of their constituent material. At low relative densities (where the ratio between lattice and base material density is less than 0.3), lattices exhibit high specific toughness compared to traditional engineering materials, […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Michael Mitchell are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Ajay Thatte. Title: "Engineering mRNA lipid nanoparticles to combat inflammatory and autoimmune disease" Advisor: Dr. Michael Mitchell Date: Friday, June 5, 2026 Time: 2:00 PM Location: Glandt Forum, 3rd Floor Singh Center The […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Avery Posey are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of John Keane. Title: "Improving CAR T cell performance with targeted delivery of cytokines and cytokine signals" Advisor: Dr. Avery Posey Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 Time: 1:00 PM Location: Jordan Law Auditorium, 5th […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Andrew Tsourkas are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Jennifer Ferd. Title: "Design and Evaluation of Nanotheranostics for Visualization and Ablation of Solid Tumors" Advisor: Dr. Andrew Tsourkas Date: Thursday, June 11, 2026 Time: 9:00 AM Location: Singh Center, Glandt Forum The […]
This event is hoted by the Community for Rigor What does scientific rigor look like when time is limited, funding is finite, and real projects don’t unfold under ideal conditions? Scientific rigor is often discussed as an ideal—but real biomedical research unfolds under constraints. Time is limited. Funding runs out. Reagents, animals, access to specialized […]
This talk will focus on my doctoral research and consists of two parts. In the first part of the seminar, I will introduce my work on data-driven discovery of internal variables. Internal variable theory has been highly successful in continuum mechanics, but its reliance on phenomenological intuition—often without a direct connection to lower-scale structure—can lead […]
Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations must solve Newton’s equations at the femtosecond scale to resolve atomistic vibrations. However, most phenomena of scientific interest occur at the micro to millisecond scale. This massive timescale discrepancy creates a severe computational bottleneck, requiring traditional MD to run an impractical number of simulation steps. To bypass this limitation, researchers frequently […]
The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Robert Levy are pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Tina Thomas. Title: "Prevention of Structural Valve Degeneration of Bioprosthetic Heart Valves due to Advanced Glycation End Products and Serum Protein Infiltration" Advisor: Dr. Robert Levy Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 Time: 11:00 […]
Abstract: It may seem surprising that we can lower the pressure in a liquid to negative values, far below the saturated vapor pressure at which a vapor phase should form. In water, such deeply metastable states are possible only when it is exceptionally pure and free of nucleation sites. It is therefore even more striking […]
Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92711825975?pwd=t5bjbMBW8FmePQfQVpwYAs7SyENU1r.1 Meeting ID: 927 1182 5975 Passcode: 429961 Abstract: The semiconductor industry’s ever-growing demand for smaller device dimensions, better power efficiency and lower prices has pushed state of the art silicon-based computing technology to its physical limits. Ferroelectric non-volatile technology could be the answer to this challenge as it enables memory and logic tasks […]
Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/7354979301?pwd=lQzV6QIdj4Br8fQvim4PJgV8GSl1Cp.1&omn=99268288296 Meeting ID: 735 497 9301 Passcode: 94358124 Abstract: Layered control is a concept in decision-making that separates responsibilities across different optimization problems designed to collectively perform an overall task. This concept is well-understood among robotics and control engineers, since computation is a fundamental bottleneck in real-time, safety-critical applications. However, the failure of a […]
While the movement of fluid through rigid conduits is a well-characterized classical problem, predicting the behavior of fluid flow through a compliant tube, in which tube deformation and the behavior of the fluid are strongly coupled, remains a challenge. There are many applications related to soft actuators, adaptive structures, and biomedical transport devices in which […]
Hydrogels are fluid-filled polymer networks whose mechanical behavior is governed by the coupling between network deformation, solvent transport, molecular architecture, and time-dependent dissipation. In this seminar, I will present a continuum modeling framework for hydrogels that progressively incorporates these physical mechanisms across several material systems. I will begin with a poroelastic model for brush gels, […]
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/9888713654 Despite the monumental success of modern deep learning, our theoretical understanding of these machine learning systems remains limited. Many prevailing theoretical frameworks fail to capture critical and defining properties of neural networks such as feature learning, and are mostly unable to offer tangible prescriptions for practitioners. In this talk, we take steps […]
Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/9071889851?pwd=1L0RTqQqINUhCGNfssVMYaHbnM7HDN.1&omn=98919332390 Meeting ID: 907 188 9851 Passcode: 172834 A ubiquitous feature of modern AI applications involves training or deploying models sequentially, such as in robot learning and language modeling. So far, the dominant, scalable recipe involves amassing demonstration data, such as human teleoperation or internet text, and training a neural network via a […]
Zoom Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/99241403942?pwd=utmb7mJnRmc4z4whwVTCLr1f7Hi0UU.1 Meeting ID: 992 4140 3942 Passcode: 051736 Abstract: The transition of robot deployment beyond structured factories into homes, offices and busy urban spaces introduce compounded challenges of shifting task demands, unpredictable human motion, partial and noisy perception. Relying on a single monolithic planner to interpret observations, reason over high-level objectives, and compute […]
Abstract: As filtration and separation technologies continue to improve, an emerging bottleneck arises in the differentiation between similarly sized nanometer-scale particles. Polymer brushes are densely grafted polymer chains and are viable as a surface coating to achieve improved nanometer-scale separations. Due to their stimuli-responsive nature to voltage, pH, salt concentration, etc., weak polyelectrolyte brushes are […]
Monitoring underwater ecosystems is critical for assessing marine biodiversity and tracking the ongoing impacts of global climate change. Bio-inspired soft robots present an ideal solution for these environments, leveraging morphological mimicry, physical compliance, and low-acoustic locomotion to enable the non-disruptive observation of aquatic life. In this thesis, we investigate a squid-inspired, jet-propelled robotic platform, presenting […]
