Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Childhood Neuroanatomical Markers Of Familial And Nonfamilial Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Rahman Baboli

Dissertations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Children with family history of ADHD are at an elevated risk of having ADHD as well as a higher risk of persistent ADHD into adulthood, reflecting a source of etiological heterogeneity in ADHD. This heterogeneity in terms of both biological and environmental risk factors may explain differences in neural correlates, outcomes, cognitive, behavioral as well as developmental trajectories. It is therefore critical to understand the influence of having, or not having positive family risk factors on the neuroanatomical structures of the …

The Interplay Of Accommodation And Oculomotor Vergence Within Young Adults With Binocularly Normal Vision And Typically-Occurring Convergence Insufficiency, Sebastian Fine

Dissertations

Concerted binocular coordination evoking oculomotor and refractive responses to visual stimuli are essential to daily function. Oculomotor dysfunctions can inhibit binocular responses to visually-near stimuli and have high comorbidities to accommodative dysfunctions. Three visual cues for inward (convergent) and outward (divergent) oculomotor movements, when presented concertedly create natural-viewing conditions: disparity- the binocular difference in light cast onto the fovea due to differing ocular perspectives, blur- the acuity of a visual target which stimulates accommodation, and proximal- the perceived distance of a visual stimuli based on size.

This study aims to quantitatively investigate oculomotor vergence and accommodation performances between individuals with …

Modulation Of Cerebellar Cells By Transcranial Ac Stimulation In Anesthetized Rats, Qi Kang

Dissertations

Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is increasingly utilized in clinical trials for the treatment of neurological disorders. Each NIBS technique offers distinct advantages. Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) is easy to apply and requires only simple equipment, while transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can penetrate deeper than tES into the brain and it is more focal. Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS) is superior to both in terms of penetration and focal stimulation. This study focuses on the modulation of the cerebellum, traditionally believed to be associated with motor coordination but increasingly recognized for its role in cognition and emotion as well. While tES …

A Joint Geometric Topological Analysis Network (Jgta-Net) For Detecting And Segmenting Intracranial Aneurysms, Xinyue Zhang, Zonghan Lyu, Yang Wang, Bo Peng, Jingfeng Jiang

Michigan Tech Publications

Objective: The rupture of intracranial aneurysms leads to subarachnoid hemorrhage. Detecting intracranial aneurysms before rupture and stratifying their risk is critical in guiding preventive measures. Point-based aneurysm segmentation provides a plausible pathway for automatic aneurysm detection. However, challenges in existing segmentation methods motivate the proposed work. Methods: We propose a dual-branch network model (JGTANet) for accurately detecting aneurysms. JGTA-Net employs a hierarchical geometric feature learning framework to extract local contextual geometric information from the point cloud representing intracranial vessels. Building on this, we integrated a topological analysis module that leverages persistent homology to capture complex structural details of 3D objects, …

Skin Cancer Diagnosis Utilizing Hybrid Discrete Cosine Transform And High-Performance Convolutional Neural Networks, Mohammed M. Abo-Zahhad, Mohammed Abo-Zahhad

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Detecting skin cancer early and accurately is crucial for successfully treating this potentially fatal disease. Enhancing the accuracy of visual inspection techniques is often necessary to improve clinical decision-making and increase the chance of successful treatment outcomes. In this research, high-performance deep learning (DL) models for automated skin cancer categorization and early skin cancer diagnosis screening are developed and evaluated in conjunction with the discrete cosine transform (DCT). For this purpose, features are extracted from medical images using both techniques. The DCT is used for feature extraction and dimensionality reduction, while deep learning (DL) trains fully connected models for classification …

Engineering The Immune Response To Biomaterials, Abolfazl Salehi Moghaddam, Mehran Bahrami, Einollah Sarikhani, Rumeysa Tutar, Yavuz Nuri Ertas, Faleh Tamimi, Ali Hedayatnia, Clotilde Jugie, Houman Savoji, Asma Talib Qureshi, Muhammad Rizwan, Chima V. Maduka, Nureddin Ashammakhi

Michigan Tech Publications

Biomaterials are increasingly used as implants in the body, but they often elicit tissue reactions due to the immune system recognizing them as foreign bodies. These reactions typically involve the activation of innate immunity and the initiation of an inflammatory response, which can persist as chronic inflammation, causing implant failure. To reduce these risks, various strategies have been developed to modify the material composition, surface characteristics, or mechanical properties of biomaterials. Moreover, bioactive materials have emerged as a new class of biomaterials that can induce desirable tissue responses and form a strong bond between the implant and the host tissue. …

Predicting Seizure Onset Zones From Interictal Intracranial Eeg Using Functional Connectivity And Machine Learning, Jared Pilet, Scott A. Beardsley, Chad Carlson, Christopher T. Anderson, Candida Ustine, Sean Lew, Wade Mueller, Manoj Raghavan

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Functional connectivity (FC) analyses of intracranial EEG (iEEG) signals can potentially improve the mapping of epileptic networks in drug-resistant focal epilepsy. However, it remains unclear whether FC-based metrics provide additional value beyond established epilepsy biomarkers such as epileptic spikes and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs). Using interictal iEEG data from 26 patients, we estimated FC across eight frequency bands (4–290 Hz) using amplitude envelope correlation (AEC) and phase locking value (PLV). From the resulting FC-matrices, we estimated two graph metrics each to derive 32 FC-based features. We also extracted features related to spikes, HFOs, and power spectral densities (PSD). A trained support …

Impact Of Prior Exposures On Biomarkers Of Blast During Military Tactical Training, Zhaoyu Wang, Shengnan Sun, Alis Aksar Kranfli, Jeffrey Nemes, Molly J. Sullan, Andrew J. Hoisington, Lisa A. Brenner, Miciej Skotak, Christina R. Lavalle, Yongchao Ge, Walter Carr, Fatemah Haghighi

Faculty Publications

Blast injuries and subclinical effects are of significant concern among those Service Members (SMs) participating in military operations and tactical trainings. Studies of SMs repeatedly exposed during training find concussion-like symptomology with transient decrements in neurocognitive performance, and alterations in blood biomarkers. How prior mild TBI (mTBI) history interacts with low-level blast (LLB) exposure, however, remains unexplored, which we investigate in the present study, to identify interindividual biomarker changes from LLB exposures influenced by prior history of mTBI.

Development Of A Light-Based Platform To Assess Cervical Mucus Barrier Function And Physical Mucus Properties, Elizabeth J. Buzbee

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide, yet current clinical tools for predicting its risk lack specificity and reliability. Cervical mucus plays a crucial role in maintaining pregnancy by forming a barrier that protects the uterus against infection. This study investigates the use of laser speckle rheology as a noninvasive technique to assess cervical mucus biomechanics. Synthetic cervical mucus was fabricated at varying hydration levels and tested using a conventional rheometer that confirmed that the mechanical properties of the synthetic mucus samples were representative of physiological cervical mucus. These results were compared to the complex …

Multi-Modal Mri For The Pre-Clinical Evaluation Of Hiv-Linked Changes In The Central Nervous System, Gabriel Gauthier

Theses & Dissertations

Though the inception of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has fundamentally changed the life expectancy of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients, accessibility and outcomes vary enormously along demographic lines. Even for people living with HIV (PLWH) with perfect access and adherence to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), modern treatment plans are fundamentally unable to secure complete viral remission for patients. The cause of this perpetual infection is the persistence of viral reservoirs in the central nervous system (CNS), hidden beyond the reach of modern ARVs, leaving patients to deal with lifelong medication side-effects and risks of developing HIV-associated neurodegenerative disorders (HAND). Despite improving outcomes …

Computational Models Of Vocal Fold Lesions: Analysis Of Fluid-Structure Interaction, Manoela Rocha Neves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The biomechanical and aerodynamic behaviors of the vocal folds (VFs) during phonation are heavily influenced by their structural composition and pathological changes. These conditions can induce localized stiffening that disrupts vibratory symmetry and alters airflow resistance. Previous research has lacked the integration of VF lesions in computational simulations using anatomically accurate models, limiting the understanding of their effects in phonation and potential contribution to voice disorders. Addressing this gap, this thesis develops a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model of a realistic two-layered VF structure with lesions, comparing airflow patterns, structural deformations, and vibration profiles in both healthy and diseased cases.

The …

Opmed Seal: Engineering A Rapid-Response Biodegradable Device For Hemorrhage Control And Infection Prevention In Abdominal Trauma, Paula M. Cabrera, Wesley Stephen Murphy

Honors Theses

Abdominal gunshot wounds are amongst the deadliest injuries encountered in combat and remote emergency settings. For military medics and first responders, the challenge lies in controlling internal bleeding and preventing infection before patients can reach surgical care-often within a narrow window of time known as the “golden hour”. Currently available field treatments are either too slow, not designed for internal wounds, or fail to provide antimicrobial protection. To address this gap, our team developed OpMed Seal: a compact, dual-syringe delivery system that deploys a biodegradable, antibiotic-infused hydrogel directly into abdominal injuries. The system is designed for rapid hemorrhage control, localized …

American Football Internal Helmet Padding Material And Design Testing, Spencer J. Pigman

Honors Thesis

Football helmets have evolved significantly to improve player safety and reduce the risk of concussions and traumatic brain injuries. Early leather designs offered minimal protection, while modern helmets use advanced materials to absorb and distribute impact forces more effectively. To support ongoing helmet safety research, a custom 3D-printed headform modeled from a human scan was equipped with a WitMotion BWT901BLECL5.0 accelerometer and used in controlled drop tests. The study evaluated various internal padding materials including spray foam, two sizes of bubble wrap, Oobleck, scrub sponges, KTOESHEO foam, Hijelyn air pillows, and the standard padding from a Riddell Victor youth helmet. …

Direct Computations Of Spatially Resolved Viscoelastic Moduli Of Biomolecular Condensates, Liwen Gu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Biomolecular condensates are viscoelastic materials formed by liquid-liquid phase separations (LLPS) of biopolymers. In this study, we develop a modified graph Laplacian-based collective model to characterize viscoelastic heterogeneity within condensates based on results of lattice-based Metropolis Monte Carlo (MMC) simulations. By integrating random graph models and simulations of A1-LCD, a type of intrinsically disordered protein, we examine how network topology influences storage modulus, loss modulus, crossover frequency, and relaxation time spectra. Our results reveal a strong correlation between topological features and mechanical response, with the condensate interior exhibiting higher stiffness and faster relaxation than the interface. The relaxation spectra provide …

Alterations And Improvements Of The Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry Method, Nicholas J. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence and proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria present a significant and growing challenge to global public health, with the potential to render many existing antibiotics ineffective. Infections caused by these resistant pathogens are difficult to treat, resulting in higher morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. A major obstacle in combating these infections is the slow pace of traditional diagnostic methods, such as blood cultures, which typically take 2-3 days to identify the causative bacteria and determine their antibiotic resistance profiles. This delay in diagnosis hinders timely interventions and appropriate treatment, further contributing to the spread of resistant infections. As such, there …

Design And Development Of A Stethoscope Attachment For Instant Heart Murmur Detection, Caitlin K. Cherwin, Dillon Desai

Honors Theses

Heart murmurs are critical indicators of potential cardiovascular conditions yet their detection can often go unnoticed due limitations in equipment and is dependent on clinician experience. Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide, therefore, early detection of heart murmurs play a crucial role in improving patient outcomes. Many established methods of detection are expensive and often unreliable allowing there to be room for a device which is more cost and result effective. This paper presents the development of a device that attaches onto a regular stethoscope and analyzes auscultatory sounds to diagnose the possibility of a present murmur. …

The Role Of Piezo1 In Mediating Chondrocyte Cell Signaling And Senescence, Sophie Gretler Paradi

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Osteoarthritis (OA), the leading cause of disability, is driven by articular cartilage degeneration and inflammation. Mechanosensitive ion channels PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 have been implicated in OA progression via calcium signaling in chondrocytes. This study investigates the role of conditional Piezo channel knockout (cKO) in modulating calcium signaling and senescence in OA, particularly under the supra-physiologic inflammatory condition of a high-fat diet (HFD). Using calcium imaging, we found that Piezo1 cKO and dual Piezo1/2 cKO significantly reduced Yoda1-induced calcium signaling, while Piezo2 cKO alone had no effect. Under HFD conditions, Piezo1 cKO showed a non-significant trend toward reduced calcium influx, potentially …

Automated Beam Stitching And Segmentation Procedure For Space Division Multiplexing Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography, Andrew J. Song

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) has revolutionized ophthalmic imaging and its capability to produce high-resolution 3D maps of the retinal microvasculature is instrumental in diagnosing retinovascular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration; However, the existing OCTA devices often suffer from slow acquisition speed limiting the field-of-view (FOV) in the clinic. Space Division Multiplexing OCTA (SDM-OCTA) address these limitations by acquiring multiple beams simultaneously, achieving manyfold faster acquisition speeds than single beam OCTA systems. But as each beam contains only part of the image, SDM-OCTA requires additional processing steps to produce coherent wide-field images. Though manual stitching and …

Towards The Performance Characterization Of A Robotic Multimodal Diagnostic Imaging System, George Papaioannou, Christos Mitrogiannis, Mark Schweitzer, Nikolaos Michailidis, Maria Pappa, Pegah Khosravi, Apostolos Karantanas, Sean Starling, Christian Ruberg

Publications and Research

Characterizing imaging performance requires a multidisciplinary approach that evaluates various interconnected parameters, including dosage optimization and dynamic accuracy. Radiation dose and dynamic accuracy are challenged by patient motion that results in poor image quality. These challenges are more prevalent in the brain/cardiac pediatric patient imaging, as they relate to excess radiation dose that may be associated with various complications. Scanning vulnerable pediatric patients ought to eliminate anesthesia due to critical risks associated in some cases with intracranial hemorrhages, brain strokes, and congenital heart disease. Some pediatric imaging, however, requires prolonged scanning under anesthesia. It can often be a laborious, suboptimal …

Fundus Retinal Images And Glaucoma Detection, Lama Alsabban, Malak Alnahdi, Nema Salem

Effat Undergraduate Research Journal

Abstract. Glaucoma is a severe eye disease that has no symptoms and, globally, it is the second cause of blindness. Glaucoma causes structural changes in the retina that make ophthalmologists detecting the disease in early stage and thus provide the suitable treatment. Fundus camera is an imaging technique that provides the fundus image showing the internal structure of retina. Our project provides an automated system for early detection of Glaucoma. The proposed system based MATLAB starts by acquiring the fundus image, followed by preprocessing stage, going through noise removal, enhancement, segmentation, feature extraction and ends up by the classification stage. …

Design And Assembly Of A Lightweight, Multi-Cannula Tetrode Drive For Bilateral Hippocampal And Acc Recordings, Homero Phelps, Jasmine Sidhu, Jonathan V. Trinidad, Talha Soluoku

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Implants and Electrophysiology:

Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical properties of cells and tissues, neuronal implants enable high-resolution recordings of neuron action potentials and their locations in the brain.

Data gathered is key in investigating/mapping cognition and effects of neurological pathologies on regular neural systems.

Hyperdrive Model:

Previous model was restricted to two implant sites, and displayed frequent tetrode deformation

Hyperdrive was modified to support four implant sites and 16 independently movable tetrodes using 3D modeling software, while keeping its weight below 1.5 grams.

Targets:

Researchers targeted the hippocampus (CA1, CA3) and ACC, using the novel bilateral model

Intercellular Stress Generation During 1d Collective Migration Of Cancer Cells, Logan Waddle

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Physical forces drive many cellular processes such as migration and proliferation. A metastatic tumor will have invasive strands/chains that extend from the main tumor. These chains of cells collectively migrate away from the main tumor to establish new colonies elsewhere in the body. However, how physical forces drive this collective invasion and the required energy for this process is not well understood. Invasion of a metastatic tumor to surrounding tissues leads to a majority of cancer-associated death and is often a collective effort among cells, it is therefore important to fully understand the process behind collective cancer invasion.

The goal …

Analysis Of The Mechanical, Microstructural, And Biocompatibility Properties Of Novel Magnesium-Based Hybrid Nanocomposite Materials For Orthopedic Applications, Thomas H. Mcgehee

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bone fractures and complete joint replacements are becoming more common, primarily because of accidents and age-related issues. Conventional solutions to treat these orthopedic injuries involve inert metal alloys to correct bone fractures until the healing process is complete, where a secondary revision surgery is then required to remove the implant. Issues regularly associated with these solutions include stress shielding, bone resorption, infection, inflammation, and implant loosening. Magnesium (Mg)-based nanocomposites offer promising potential as an alternative to commonly used metal alloys because of their favorable mechanical properties and biocompatibility. A particularly advantageous property of Mg is its natural biodegradation in vivo, …

Applying Residence Time Distribution Theory To Coronary Thermodilution Curves., Jacob Michael Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide and coronary microvascular dysfunction is one cardiovascular disease which is particularly challenging to diagnose and treat. Coronary thermodilution is a widely used, invasive procedure to evaluate microvascular function by generating physiological indices such as coronary flow reserve and the index of microvascular resistance. Although commonly cited as an indicator dilution method in the cardiovascular literature, current coronary thermodilution techniques lack rigorous application of the accompanying mathematical framework, thereby leaving potentially valuable diagnostic information unexploited. This study bridges that gap by demonstrating the equivalence between indicator-dilution theory and residence time distribution theory …

3d Bioprinting Of Hydrogel Scaffold Skin Equivalents For Cosmetic And Drug Testing, Allison Reno

All Dissertations

Tissue engineering scaffolds are a crucial element of generating larger 3D tissue equivalents for modeling and clinical grafting. Currently, much of scaffold technology has not been significantly updated since the introduction of manually pipetted hydrogels and electrospun fiber scaffolds. Both of these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, but neither utilize emerging biofabrication techniques such as advanced 3D bioprinting and plotting. In addition to more precision in the outer geometries of the scaffold, the use of bioprinting also introduces the ability to shape hydrogels into very intricate porous inner patterns within the outer geometries. This allows for the design of …

Development Of Rolipram Loaded Pgp Nanoparticles For Spinal Cord Injury Repair, Zhen Liao

All Dissertations

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating neurological deficits due to primary mechanical damage and secondary injury mechanisms, including inflammation, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, and inhibitory scarring, which collectively impede neural regeneration. One key aspect of SCI pathology is a significant reduction in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels, primarily due to increased phosphodiesterase (PDE 4) activity. As a ubiquitous second messenger, cAMP regulates key signaling pathways, including protein kinase A (PKA) / cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and exchange protein activated by cAMP 2 (EPAC2). Therefore, restoring/increasing cAMP level is one of the major therapeutic strategies to reduce neurotrauma and restore …

Development Of Translational Microscale Systems To Interrogate How Biophysical And Biochemical Cues Alter The Phenotype Of Hormone Positive Breast Cancer, Braulio Ortega Quesada

All Dissertations

Cancer is a complicated disease and one in every three diagnoses are women with breast cancer. Recent research shows that the progression of cancer depends strongly on interactions with other non-cancerous cells and non-cellular components. Metastasis, the spread of cancer to other parts of the body, is a key step in cancer progression and makes treatment harder, leading to poor response to treatments culminating in death in ~90% of patients. This dissertation focused on creating a series of microdevices as novel pre-clinical models of breast cancer. Two different devices were fabricated to (1) study how exposing cancer cells to the …

Toward The Application Of Natural Language Processing In Electronic Health Record Analysis For Taxonomy Development, Latoya Mcdonald

All Dissertations

Electronic health records (EHRs) are pivotal resources for nurse practice because they increase the timeliness and reliability of patient information at the point of care and support access by multiple healthcare providers and the individual patients themselves. However, it is widely recognized that data extraction from EHRs is challenging due to the variability in the language used in clinical care notes and the lack of standardized terminology across healthcare systems. The broad objective of this dissertation is to develop taxonomy-based classification models for nursing care by applying feature engineering approaches to EHRs that include nursing care of ostomy patients following …

Ex Vivo Multiplex Knockdown Of Angptl3 And Cypor In Hepatocytes As A Novel Cell Therapy For Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Callie D. Clark

All Dissertations

Inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) affect approximately 1 in 800 individuals. The only curative treatment for IMDs is liver transplantation. However, transplantation carries significant risks, including organ rejection and a lifelong need for immunosuppression. Therefore, gene editing has emerged as a promising alternative to liver transplantation for treating IMDs.

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is and IMD characterized by elevated LDL-C levels resulting in premature cardiovascular disease. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing to disrupt the gene encoding angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3) in the liver represents a novel therapeutic approach for FH. Nonviral delivery performed ex vivo is safer than systemic delivery because gene editing is in …

Identifying Novel Molecular Targets To Induce Ferroptosis In Drug-Tolerant Cancer Cells Through Computational Modeling, Haris J. Rana

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-driven form of regulated cell death in which the cell membrane is degraded by lipid peroxidation. It is regulated by multiple enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), which prevents membrane degradation by reducing lipid peroxides and protecting cells from oxidative damage. When inhibitors like RSL3 target GPX4, lipid peroxides build up, and toxic ROS compromises membrane integrity. Traditional anticancer treatments, such as most chemotherapies, aim to eliminate tumor cells by damaging DNA and triggering apoptosis. However, resistance to apoptosis is a “hallmark of cancer,” often resulting in treatment failure. As a distinct …