Research Areas
Research in the CBR covers a variety of areas in biomedical engineering, including biomaterials, tissue engineering, biofabrication, biosensors, biomedical imaging and biomedical therapeutics.
All current research areas have been classified within one of four strategic pillars to help facilitate collaboration:
- Pillar 1 - Biomaterials, Drug/Gene Delivery & Tissue Engineering
- Pillar 2 - Medical Devices, Sensors & AI-Enabled Diagnostics
- Pillar 3 - Disease Biology, Molecular Therapeutics & Infection/Injury Mechanisms
- Pillar 4 - Computational Science, Data Analytics & Health Systems/Human Factors
Click each link above to be taken directly to each pillar or scroll below to view more information.
Research Collaboration
Faculty investigators in the CBR have active collaboration with several institutions, including University of Missouri campuses in Columbia and Kansas City, St. Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Phelps Health.
Research Pillars
Research pillars have been established based on each member's quad-chart profile to help facilitate collaboration, both within the CBR and with external universities and industry relations. Member areas of expertise are clustered into four strategic pillars. Several members sit naturally at the intersection of two pillars; they are listed in both relevant pillars.
#pillar1
To point to this anchor, create a link with the target "#pillar1" instead of a URL. Note that this blue block will not be visible on your live site or in previews.
Pillar 1: Biomaterials, Drug/Gene Delivery & Tissue Engineering
Designing materials, scaffolds, and delivery vehicles that interface directly with living tissue — for regeneration, wound healing, and therapeutic payload delivery
Richard Brow
Focus - Bioactive glasses, ceramic/glass scaffolds for bone repair, hydrogel composites
Amitava Choudhury
Focus - Solid-state materials chemistry (batteries, MOFs) — general materials capability
Anthony Convertine
Focus - Nanoparticle therapies for TBI, polymeric prodrugs, hemostatic nanogels
Fateme Fayyazbakhsh
Focus - Bioprinted wound dressings, stimuli-responsive drug delivery, AI-enabled wound diagnostics
Ryan Gilbert
Focus - Lipid nanoparticle/mRNA and protein delivery via electrospun fibers, neural tissue engineering
Yue-Wern Huang
Focus - Nanoparticle drug delivery platforms, tissue regeneration
Gabriela Moreira Lana
Focus - Architected soft biomaterials, tumor-microenvironment-on-a-chip, embedded bioprinting
Ming Leu
Focus - Bioprinting, metal/ceramic additive manufacturing for scaffolds
Vadym Mochalin
Focus - Nanodiamonds for drug delivery/theranostics, MXenes
Jonghyun Park
Focus - Nanomaterials for brachytherapy/PDT, bioprinting, biodegradable batteries
Julie Semon
Focus - Mesenchymal stem cell therapy, 3D-bioprinted stem cells, wound healing
James Sterling
Focus - Glycopolymer biophysics, glycocalyx drug delivery, biomolecular condensates
Mark Towler
Focus - Bioadhesives, mesoporous glass hemostats, laser-based musculoskeletal diagnostics
Risheng Wang
Focus - DNA-based drug delivery nanostructures, DNA nanotechnology
Jeffrey Winiarz
Focus - Photonic/nanocrystal materials — general materials capability
Mostafa Yazdi
Focus - Immunoengineering scaffolds for bone repair, cancer nanovaccines
#pillar2
To point to this anchor, create a link with the target "#pillar2" instead of a URL. Note that this blue block will not be visible on your live site or in previews.
Pillar 2: Medical Devices, Sensors & AI-Enabled Diagnostics
Sensing, imaging, and digital tools that detect, monitor, and diagnose — from fiber optics to wearables to AI classifiers
Carlos Castano
Focus - Nuclear nanoradioisotope production, radioactive nanoparticle imaging/therapy
Xiaosong Du
Focus - Generative AI, digital twins, surrogate modeling for precision medicine
Mina Esmaeelpour
Focus - Fiber optic biosensors, ultrafast LIDAR/spectroscopy, quantum sensors
Jie Huang
Focus - Fiber optic sensors for structural/human health monitoring, femtosecond micromachining
Chang-Soo Kim
Focus - Self-calibrating metabolite sensors, wearable skin patches, biodegradable implants
Bo Mi Lee
Focus - 3D-printed hydrogel/PEDOT:PSS wearable sensors, ML-based gas sensing
Paul Nam
Focus - Biosensors, TBI/seed-quality biomarkers, smart oxygen sensor bandages
Manashi Nath
Focus - Non-enzymatic electrochemical biosensors (dopamine, glucose), point-of-care detection
Yun Seong Song
Focus - Physical human-robot interaction, rehabilitation robotics, wearable mobility aids
William Stoecker
Focus - AI-based melanoma/skin cancer detection, spider-bite diagnostics, smart bandages
Huiyuan Yang
Focus - Affective computing, facial expression/multimodal AI for health monitoring
#pillar3
To point to this anchor, create a link with the target "#pillar3" instead of a URL. Note that this blue block will not be visible on your live site or in previews.
Pillar 3: Disease Biology, Molecular Therapeutics & Infection/Injury Mechanisms
Understanding disease at the molecular, cellular, and organismal level — signaling, toxicology, microbiology, and injury — to identify therapeutic targets
Amy Belfi
Focus - Cognitive neuroscience, music/memory, neuroimaging methods
Bob Bourret
Focus - Bacterial signal transduction, antimicrobial target discovery
Anthony Convertine
Focus - Nanoparticle therapies for TBI, polymeric prodrugs, hemostatic nanogels
David Duvernell
Focus - Population genetics/genomics, natural selection
Nuran Ercal
Focus - Redox biology, thiol antioxidants for cataract therapy
Michael Eze
Focus - Metabolomics, environmental toxicology, bioremediation
Daoru Han
Focus - Cold atmospheric plasma for biomedical/antimicrobial applications
Catherine Johnson
Focus - Blast-induced traumatic brain injury models, explosive taggants
Grant Kolar
Focus - Spatial transcriptomics/proteomics, rare disease pathophysiology (Prader-Willi, diabetes)
Shelley Minteer
Focus - Bioelectrocatalysis, enzyme engineering for biofuels and biosynthesis
Paul Nam
Focus - Biosensors, TBI/seed-quality biomarkers, smart oxygen sensor bandages
Amber Pete
Focus - Microplastics, antibiotic resistance gene transfer, environmental health
Willis (Rick) Samson
Focus - Neuroendocrinology, orphan GPCR deorphanization, hypertension in pregnancy
Andrea Scharf
Focus - Nanoparticle/pollution-induced premature aging, C. elegans models
Katie Shannon
Focus - Cytokinesis regulation, cancer-relevant cell division mechanisms
Pablo Sobrado
Focus - Enzyme mechanisms, antibiotic/natural product biosynthesis, drug discovery
William Stoecker
Focus - AI-based melanoma/skin cancer detection, spider-bite diagnostics, smart bandages
Matthew Thimgan
Focus - Sleep/wakefulness biology, aging, metabolomic consequences of sleep loss
Dave Westenberg
Focus - Antibacterial materials, biofilm assays, antimicrobial screening
Mostafa Yazdi
Focus - Immunoengineering scaffolds for bone repair, cancer nanovaccines
Gina Yosten
Focus - Neuroendocrine physiology, GPCR ligand discovery, metabolic/endocrine disease
#pillar4
To point to this anchor, create a link with the target "#pillar4" instead of a URL. Note that this blue block will not be visible on your live site or in previews.
Pillar 4: Computational Science, Data Analytics & Health Systems/Human Factors
Modeling, statistics, AI infrastructure, and human-centered systems that turn biomedical and behavioral data into decisions
Amy Belfi
Focus - Cognitive neuroscience, music/memory, neuroimaging methods
Casey Canfield
Focus - Decision science, human-computer interaction trials, socio-technical simulation
Steven Corns
Focus - Computational intelligence, evolutionary computation, complex systems modeling
Amber Henslee
Focus - College student health behavior (alcohol/cannabis use patterns)
Clair Reynolds Kueny
Focus - Healthcare team dynamics, interprofessional practice, organizational psychology
Venkata Sriram Siddhardh Nadendla
Focus - Cyber-physical-human systems, algorithmic fairness in kidney allocation
Gayla Olbricht
Focus - Statistical genomics, differential methylation, TBI cluster analysis
Robert Paige
Focus - Statistical shape/image analysis, biomedical statistics
Seung-Jong (Jay) Park
Focus - High-performance computing, AI-based mammogram/genome analysis, AlphaFold screening
V.A. Samaranayake
Focus - Time series/reliability statistics, biological phenomena modeling
Matthew Thimgan
Focus - Sleep/wakefulness biology, aging, metabolomic consequences of sleep loss