Author: amyliles@illinois.edu

2020-05-04

Taher Saif, Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and students Onur Aydin and Bashar Emon are testing common household fabrics to better inform those making homemade masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19. “The droplets released during coughing and sneezing come in various sizes and velocities. The fabric for any mask should be breathable and impermeable to high- and low-velocity droplets,” said Saif.

The study found that breathable materials, such as t-shirt fabric, are good options for homemade masks. Find out more and watch videos of the tests.

2020-03-26

Sisi He, PhD Candidate in Molecular and Integrative Physiology, will be defending her thesis, “The Impact of Cholesterol and Its Metabolites on the Ovarian Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Progression” April 6, 2020, at 3:00 p.m.

Sisi is a student in CCIL’s Cancer Scholars for Translational and Applied Research program and the Tissue Microenvironment program. She was also in the 2019 Illini 4000 team, which bikes across the country and supports cancer research and awareness.

Read more about her studies in an interview with us and join her online defense by Zoom.

Carlos Renteria
2019-04-26

The TiMe Cohort hosted the third-annual Tissue Microenvironment (TiMe) Symposium on April 26, 2019 at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. This year over 90 participants across 15 departments from the University of Illinois participated to share the diverse research related to the tissue microenvironment.. Several faculty members provided research talks spanning biomechanics, molecular imaging, cancer, and other aspects of the microenvironment. Prof. Dennis Discher from the University of Pennsylvania served as keynote speaker, and Prof. Rashid Bashir, Dean of The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois provided the lunchtime talk. Four plenary talks were presented by Illinois faculty members Stephen A. Boppart, Shuming Nie, Wawosz Dobrucki, and Amy Waggoner Johnson. The TiMe T32 scholars presented three-minute lightning talks to showcase the myriad of inquiries the current cohort is actively researching. The session was concluded with a poster session featuring 25 posters. Profs. Marina Marjanovic, Gregory Underhill, Marni Boppart, John Erdman, Jeff Chan, and Rex Gaskins worked together to select the three winners for the poster session. The winners for the best poster awards were Luke Akin, Anuj Yadav, and Mai Ngo.

Paloma Pearson
2019-03-27

TiMe students had the opportunity to interact with guest speaker Dr. Cyrus Ghajar of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Ghajar’s work forcuses on the metastatic microenvironment and the goal of his research is to understand how microenvironments within distant tissues regulate dormancy and growth of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs), and whether these niches convey chemoresistance to dormant DTCs. Students had the privilege of going to dinner with Dr. Ghajar before attending his seminar hosted by the Molecular and Integrative Physiology Department the following day.

Paloma Pearson
2019-03-20

Students from the Tissue Microenvironment (TiMe) program participated in the Beckman Institute’s biannual open house. Visitors had the opportunity to explore the research occurring at Beckman in conjunction with the annual Engineering Open House. The TiMe cohort and ENVISION gave visitors a chance to utilize 3D pens to build their own artistic pieces including snowflakes, animals, glasses, and a house.

Paloma Pearson
2019-03-27

TiMe students had the opportunity to interact with guest speaker Dr. Cyrus Ghajar of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Ghajar’s work forcuses on the metastatic microenvironment and the goal of his research is to understand how microenvironments within distant tissues regulate dormancy and growth of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs), and whether these niches convey chemoresistance to dormant DTCs. Students had the privilege of going to dinner with Dr. Ghajar before attending his seminar hosted by the Molecular and Integrative Physiology Department the following day.

Paloma Pearson
2019-03-20

Students from the Tissue Microenvironment (TiMe) program participated in the Beckman Institute’s biannual open house. Visitors had the opportunity to explore the research occurring at Beckman in conjunction with the annual Engineering Open House. The TiMe cohort and ENVISION gave visitors a chance to utilize 3D pens to build their own artistic pieces including snowflakes, animals, glasses, and a house.

2019-02-01

Announcement originally from BioEngineering:

Parinaz Fathi, a doctoral student in Professor Dipanjan Pan’s research group, has been selected to participate in the 2019 Science of Signatures Advanced Studies Institute at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) this spring. This highly selective, three-week program brings 15 accomplished Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers from around the country together to work in multi-disciplinary teams to generate novel, creative solutions to pressing national security problems. The participants also build the skills needed for successful research program development at national laboratories and in academia. Fathi’s research focuses on translational medicine applications of biomaterials and nanomaterials.

Program Description

2018-10-05

TiMe students had the opportunity to interact with Dr. Kirti Kulkarni of the University of Chicago’s Cancer Center. Dr. Kulkarni provided them an in-depth understanding of the day-to-day interactions of a radiologist with patients and physician colleagues, and also discussed the complexities of radiological reading. There were conversations and discussions of improvements in radiological and pathological software, and how bioengineering and bioinformatics impact the understanding of disease progressing. Questions arose about how cancer metastasizes to different areas of the body, how to try and understand the differences between each patient diagnosis, and overall the understanding, processes, and collaboration that occurs to care and treat patients.

2018-04-19

Emily Chen was selected as one of the Mavis Future Faculty Fellows (MF3) for the 2018-2019 academic year. This program is designed to facilitate the training for the next generation of great engineering professors.

Engineering at Illinois is internationally recognized for the impact of our research and the strength of our graduate education. The doctoral programs that produce this reputation are primarily research-focused and may not provide students interested in academic careers with the opportunity to gain the knowledge of how to become a highly productive faculty member.

To help address this issue, the Office of Engineering Graduate, Professional and Online Programs facilitates the MF3 Academy where fellows participate in a series of workshops, seminars, and activities that cover various aspects of an academic career. Workshop themes include describing life as a faculty member, writing cover letters and CVs, preparing for campus interviews, and defining and achieving success as a faculty member. These workshops are available to all engineering graduate students.

The three main components to the MF3 Academy are research, teaching and mentoring. All fellows will become proficient in these core areas through various activities and events. The activities in each area will be designed to enhance the graduate students’ experiences in their departments. In addition, the fellows will complete a capstone experience that will enhance their professional development in a self-directed area.

Learn more about MF3