2026 Seminars
September 8: Dr. Kristy K. Brock, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - "From Anatomy to Outcomes: Computational Imaging, Biomechanical Modeling, and AI for Precision Head and Neck Cancer Therapy"
Radiation Research Program Selection
Read about Dr. Brock's seminar and register to attend here.
June 2: Dr. Nicole Steinmetz, University of California, San Diego - "From Plants to Planets: Plant Virus Therapeutics for One Health"
Cancer Imaging Program Selection
Dr. Steinmetz is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; she holds the Leo and Trude Szilard Chancellor's Endowed Chair. Dr. Steinmetz’s research program focuses on the engineering of plant virus-based nanomaterials targeting human and plant health applications, such as drug and pesticide delivery, vaccines and immunotherapies.
May 14: Dr. Carston Wagner, University of Minnesota - "Immunotherapy with T-cell Engaging Chemically Self-Assembled Nanorings"
Cancer Imaging Program Selection
Watch a recording of Dr. Wagner's presentation.
Dr. Wagner is a Professor and the Endowed Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and Dept. Head at the University of Minnesota. His laboratory seeks to apply the principles of organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, enzymology, analytical chemistry, molecular & cellular biology, biophysics and nanotechnology to the development of new methods for novel antiviral drug design, the investigation of new pain targets and the use of nanotechnology to engineer cell-cell interactions, particularly as it applies to cancer immunotherapy.
April 7: Dr. Hakho Lee, Harvard Medical School - "Emerging Technologies for Nanoscale Liquid Biopsy: Toward Next-Generation Cancer Diagnostics"
Cancer Diagnosis Program Selection
Watch a recording of Dr. Lee's presentation.
Dr. Hakho Lee is a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program at the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). His research focuses on advancing next-generation diagnostic technologies at the intersection of nanotechnology, microelectronics, and biophysics.
March 4: Dr. Sarah Heilshorn, Standford University - "Biotechnologies to Study the Cancer–Matrix Interface"
Cancer Diagnosis Program Selection
Watch a recording of Dr. Heilshorn's presentation.
Sarah Heilshorn is the Rickey/Nielsen Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford University, where she is also a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Her laboratory integrates concepts from materials science and protein engineering to design new, bioinspired materials for 3D bioprinting, regenerative medicine, and human tissue modeling.
February 12: Dr. Wilson Wong, Boston University - "Engineering Vaccines, Cell and Gene Therapies Using Synthetic Biology"
Cancer Diagnosis Program Selection
Watch a recording of Dr. Wong's presentation.
Dr. Wilson Wong is a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University and a core member of the BU Biological Design Center. His lab focuses on developing synthetic biology tools in mammalian systems for cell-based therapies, tissue engineering, vaccines, and diagnostics.
2025 Seminars
December 1: Dr. Jan Schuemann, Harvard Medical School - "Understanding Radiation Effects with Multi-scale Computer Simulations using TOPAS and TOPAS-nBio"
Watch a recording of Dr. Schuemann's presentation.
Dr. Jan Schuemann is an Associate Professor in the department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schuemann is the Head of the Multi-Scale Monte Carlo Modeling Lab. Dr. Schuemann’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of radiation effects from first principles.
September 8: Dr. Mekhail Anwar, University of California, San Francisco - "Bringing the Lab Inside the Patient: Integrated Circuit-Based Platforms for Surgery, Immunotherapy, and Theranostics"
Watch a recording of Dr. Anwar's presentation.
Dr. Anwar integrates his clinical practice with a background in bioengineering and integrated circuit design. His research is centered on developing new approaches to guide cancer therapy at the cellular level using novel technology platforms that effectively place the physician inside the patient, providing heretofore unattainable insight into complex biology in vivo.
May 29: Dr. Utkan Demirci, Stanford University - "Impacting Medicine with Microfluidics & Nanotechnology: Advancing Diagnostics and Medicine"
Dr. Utkan Demirci is a tenured Professor of Radiology and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering, at Stanford University. He leads Stanford's Bio-Acoustic MEMS in Medicine (BAMM) Lab. Dr. Demirci’s lab focuses on developing translational technologies at the intersection of microfluidics, biosensing, photonics, and smart robotics to address clinical challenges.
April 23: Dr. Scott Manalis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - "Measuring Single-cell Mass: Biological Insights and Clinical Translation"
Dr. Scott Manalis is the associate department head of the biological engineering department and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and MIT’s Center for Precision Cancer Research. His lab developed the suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) technique, which weighs individual cells to a precision better than one part in 1,000.
Dr. Nadav Ahituv, University of California, San Francisco - "Functional Characterization, Diagnostics, and Therapeutic Targeting of Cancer-Associated Gene Regulatory Elements"
Watch a recording of Dr. Ahituv's presentation.
Dr. Nadav Ahituv is the director for the Institute for Human Genetics and a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ahituv’s research is focused on uncovering how variations in gene regulatory elements influence human phenotypes and diseases.
2024 Seminars
November 21: Dr. Gabe A. Kwong, Georgia Tech and Emory University - "Bioengineering Synthetic Biomarkers for Earlier Cancer Detection"
Dr. Gabe Kwong is an Associate Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. His research program is centered at the interface of bioengineering, immunology and medicine. His group pioneers cell therapies and biosensors to address frontier challenges in cancer, transplantation medicine, and infectious diseases.
August 22: Dr. Anthony Kim, University of Maryland School of Medicine - "Development of targeted nanotherapeutics for primary and metastatic cancers"
Dr. Anthony Kim is a Professor (Tenured) of Neurosurgery, Pharmacology, and Bioengineering at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. As Director of the Nanotherapeutics Laboratory and Co-Director of the Translational Therapeutics Research Group (TTRG), Dr. Kim's research focuses on developing translational nanomedicine for brain, breast, and other cancers. Through a collaborative team of engineers, basic scientists, and clinicians to spur innovation at the interface of biomedical engineering and clinical medicine, his team works to identify and characterize the rate-limiting extra- and intracellular barriers by applying innovative biophysical tools, and develop advanced therapeutic platforms that overcome these barriers to improve therapeutic outcomes.
May 7: Dr. Oliver Jonas, Harvard Medical School - "Implantable microdevices (IMD) to measure multiple drug responses and guide treatment decisions in cancer patients"
Dr. Oliver Jonas, Ph.D. is Director of the Laboratory for Bio-Micro-Devices at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School with appointment in the Departments of Radiology. Dr. Jonas’ research focuses on new technologies for precision medicine, such as microscale implantable drug delivery and sensing devices, miniaturized biomedical optics, and in situ drug response measurements in tumors.