NeuroProstheses Research Laboratory
University of Florida: Department of Biomedical Engineering
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kevin J. Otto
August 2017 - May 2019
My project focused on the Tissue Engineered Electronic Neural Interface (TEENI). The TEENI device is a regenerative neural interface that provides a novel approach by utilizing micro-fabrication and tissue engineering. In my role, I assisted with animal surgery, animal habituation, cryo-sectioning, immunohistochemistry, fluorescence microscopy, and image analysis.
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With my work on the TEENI project I have presented at two national conferences (BMES 2018, SfN 2018) and numerous local symposiums. I have been awarded travel stipends from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Center for Undergraduate Research, and the Honors Program to fund my conference attendances.
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Additionally, I was accepted into the Center for Undergraduate Research University Scholars Program and I will be defending my thesis for Magna Cum Laude Honors.
Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology
National Institutes of Health: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Principal Investigator: Dr. Herbert M. Geller
June 2018 - August 2018
I was one of 16 students accepted in the Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program at the National Institutes of Health. My work focused on developing a system to be able to quantify the force exerted by neuronal cell adhesions to a soft substrate. My tasks included collection and culturing of murine dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) substrates fabrication, immunohistochemistry, and image analysis.
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I presented my work at the National Institutes of Health Summer Internship Program Poster Day and gave an oral presentation of my project.
Medical Imaging and Computational Analysis Laboratory
University of Florida: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Radiation and Oncology
Principal Investigator: Dr. Walter G. O'Dell
May 2016 - December 2017
My project was to validate the Gatortail method (developed by Dr. O'Dell) for calculating vessel diameters from medical images (3D CT or MRI). In order to do so, a 3D model of lung vasculature was generated and 3D printed. The 3D phantom model was then imaged with industry standard 3D CT settings. The estimations for vessel size calculated from the images was then compared to physical measurements done blinded and in triplicate.
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I presented this work nationally at BMES 2017 and locally at several symposiums. I won Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation at the 2016 Pruitt Research Day and co-authored a publication in the Medical Physics.