Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University
News & Events
What's happening in SITE Lab?
2023
Publications
Abbie and her team of undergraduates published their findings on how peristalsis mechanics push colorectal cancer progression in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering.
Sabrina and Dillon publish on breast cancer lung metastasis using engineered lung biomatrices in Science Advances.
Claudia publishes her findings on Gulf War Illness in Advanced Biology.
Abbie and Sabrina developed methods to test biocompatibility of liquid crystal elastomers, published in Biomaterials.
Awards & Milestones
Sabrina VandenHeuvel was awarded a Collaboration & Community Engagement Abstract Award at the Drexel University Immune Modulation and Engineering Symposium!
Aelita Salikhova won the Wanda & Jack McMahan ‘43 Scholarship!
Abbie Clevenger was awarded the US Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship!
Claudia Collier was awarded the NDSEG Fellowship through the Army Research Office!
Dr. Shreya Raghavan was awarded the BMES Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award!
Sabrina VandenHeuvel won the Best Podium Presentation Award at GRS 2023!
Dr. Shreya Raghavan has been named a finalist for the Scientific American Cancer Community Awards!
Undergrads Joy Chen and Sameera Dabbiru won an Undergraduate Summer Research Grant!
Sabrina VandenHeuvel and Claudia Collier have received GSA Travel Awards to attend BMES!
Dr. Shreya Raghavan has been named a Young Innovator by the BMES-CMBE Journal!
Sabrina VandenHeuvel and Abbie Clevenger are doctoral candidates!
Presentations
Sabrina VandenHeuvel gave a talk on her work on ovarian cancer nano-immunotherapy at the Drexel Immune Modulation and Engineering Symposium in Philadelphia!
Abbie Clevenger gave a talk at the Gordon Research Conference Physics of Cancer in Galveston.
Graduate students Claudia Collier and Abbie Clevenger gave talks at the annual BMES meeting in Seattle, Sabrina presented a poster!
Dr. Raghavan gave the Rita Schaffer plenary lecture at BMES on Oct. 14.
Dr. Raghavan gave a research talk in the CMBE Young Innovators special session.
Joy Chen presented her undergraduate research through the Undergraduate Summer Research Grant symposium.
Funding
Dr. Raghavan was awarded an NIH R37 MERIT Award to fund our colorectal cancer liver metastasis work!
Dr. Raghavan was awarded a CPRIT Texas Regional Excellence in Cancer to establish a center for cancer research at Texas A&M!
2022
Publications
Abbie and Sabrina published a book chapter - "The Intersection of Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering and Immuno-Oncology"
Sabrina published an expert review describing nanomedicine applications to target proteases in ovarian cancer in International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Dr. Raghavan published a perspective on how inclusive bioengineered cancer models are in Disease Models and Mechanisms
Sarah Chau published the lab's first quantified immune response metrics to implantable devices in the SFB journal of Biomedical Materials Research B
Abbie published her first research paper describing the peristalsis bioreactor in Cells Tissues Organs
With collaborators at Wash U- St Louis, we published new ways to adapt peristaltic pumps for vascular laminar flow in the Journal of Biologic Chemistry
Dr. Raghavan and Dr. Walsh published the findings of a DEI activity for the undergraduate classroom in Biomedical Engineering Education
Dr. Raghavan developed an educational toolkit for inclusive biomaterials pedagogy, published in Biomedical Engineering Education.
Awards & Milestones
Sabrina VandenHeuvel was named a national finalist for the PEO Scholar Award!
Claudia Collier received an Honorable Mention on her NSF GRFP!
Undergrad Vibha Sheshadri is awarded the Undergraduate Excellence in Research Award
Undergrads Del Donehoo and Anirudh Madyastha won an Undergraduate Summer Research Grant!
Dr. Raghavan was awarded the Center for Teaching Excellence Montague Scholars Award, for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Dr. Raghavan was named an Emerging Leader in Biological Engineering by the Journal of Biological Engineering!
Presentations
Graduate students Claudia Collier, Abbie Clevenger, Sabrina VandenHeuvel and Valentina Garcia gave presentations at BMES about their research and STEM Outreach!
Grad student Sabrina VandenHeuvel presented her ovarian cancer metastasis research at the annual Society for Biomaterials meeting in Baltimore.
Dr. Raghavan gave a talk at the CMBE Meeting, and gave several seminars nation-wide.
Undergrads Del and Anirudh presented their research at Student Research Week
Funding
The Raghavan lab was awarded a grant from Shape Memory Medical Inc to evaluate immunocompatibility of their aneurysm occlusion devices.
Other News
Arpita Mohapatra joined the Raghavan Lab as a PhD Student!
Several of our undergraduates graduated and went on to take up industry positions!
2021
Publications
We were working really hard as we recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic on our scientific stories! Stay tuned for more science updates in 2021!
Fellowships and Awards
Abbie received an Honorable Mention on her Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship!
Dr. Raghavan received a Young Investigator Award from the journal Cells Tissues Organs.
Dr. Raghavan and colleagues received an Honorable Mention on an essay to reimagine biomedical science through the Health Research Alliance and PLoS One
Claudia Collier won the Aviles-Johnson Fellowship at Texas A&M University, and joined the Raghavan Lab!
Presentations
Abbie presented her work at the CMBE Annual Meeting in Indian Wells, CA
Dr. Raghavan gave a talk at the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation conference on evaluating in vitro immunocompatibility for implantable devices.
Funding
The Raghavan lab was awarded an NIH R21 from the National Cancer Institute to study and model perineural invasion in colorectal cancers
The Raghavan lab was awarded a CPRIT Core Facility Grant to establish a Microphysiologic Lead Optimization and Toxicity Screening Core - this core services the entire Gulf Coast Consortium in their quest to find new therapeutics to fight cancer.
The Raghavan lab was awarded a CDMRP Gulf War Illness Idea Award to ask why Gulf War veterans have impaired neural function in their guts.
Other News
Claudia Collier joined the Raghavan Lab as a PhD Student and Aviles-Johnson Fellow!
Logan, our very first grad student, graduated and got a job with Alcon!
2020
Publications
We published our first paper outlining the importance of new nanomedicine approaches to target liver metastatic cancers.
Fellowships and Awards
THE RAGHAVAN LAB OPENED ITS DOORS IN JANUARY 2020!
Presentations
Logan presented his first virtual poster at BMES on a new design for a peristalsis bioreactor!
Funding
The Raghavan lab was awarded its first funding from the Kaplan Gynecologic Cancer Fund through Houston Methodist Hospital!
The Raghavan lab was awarded a pilot grant through the T3 Triads for Transformation mechanism at Texas A&M University.
Other News
Logan Crawford was our first ever graduate student!
Abbie Clevenger and Sabrina VandenHeuvel joined as our first ever PhD students!