UI Department of Bioengineering

10/28/2026

Today we are pleased to recognize one of our M.Eng. in Bioengineering Merit Scholarship awardees: Erin Ford, Class of 2027. 🟠🔵

Erin earned her BS from ChBE Illinois and was drawn to the M.Eng. in BIOE program because she wanted to be a part of a "program that was built around giving master’s students skills that are valued in industry, as well as the opportunity to gain actual project management experience through the year-long capstone project”.

“I am honored to receive this scholarship! I am grateful to have my undergraduate accomplishments recognized through this scholarship, and I’m looking forward to all of the academic and professional development opportunities that M.Eng. in BIOE offers!”

Erin continues to note that the “M.Eng. faculty and staff are very friendly and supportive. I’ve truly enjoyed getting to know all of my cohort, faculty, and staff involved in the program.”

Your opportunity to be the next M.Eng. in Bioengineering Merit Scholarship recipient awaits! Learn more about our M.Eng. in-person program: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/academics/graduate/meng

10/27/2026

The Department of Bioengineering in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign invites applications for a full-time Research Assistant Professor in cancer engineering. The successful candidate will join a research group that is focused on using engineering methods to make cancer models and measuring them using novel forms of imaging. Projects in the group include those supported by The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The successful candidate will carry out responsibilities related to research and public service. As part of the larger research group, they will carry out research and educational administration to support the entire team. They will be expected to also establish and maintain an active and independent research program. Research track faculty in the Department of Bioengineering are expected to provide professional leadership within the department, other campus units, and the professional community.

Learn more and apply:

Duties & Responsibilities

10/27/2026

Please join us in Everitt Lab, room 2310 this Wednesday at 12pm for Bioengineering's Seminar Series! This Wednesday’s speaker is Dr. Robin Queen, Bertha Lamme Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University. Queen's talk is entitled "Built to Move, Designed to Adapt: Optimizing Human Function," and will cover the human musculoskeletal system, what happens when that system is disrupted by injury, and how we can design effective rehabilitation strategies and assessment tools to restore and optimize function. We hope to see you there!

10/26/2026

🎬☀️That's a wrap on BMES2026! We are so fortunate to have been joined by our Illinois alumni, faculty, students, researchers, and staff at the 2026 Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Conference in Orlando, FL.

Looking forward to BMES2027 in Columbus, OH!

10/23/2026

Tomorrow is your last chance to see one of our amazing BIOE presenters at the BMES Annual Meeting! Check out the full schedule below, and be sure to stop at booth 717 to say hello.

9:45–10:00 a.m.
Susan Leggett — Presenter
Mechanics Meets Metastasis: Engineering a Dynamic Peritoneal Cavity on-a-Chip for Studying Ovarian Cancer Dissemination
Canary 4 · Platform Session · Women’s Health
Allison Paxhia — Presenter
Engineered Microarrays to Investigate Microenvironmental Control of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
Magnolia 4 & 5 · Platform Session · Cancer Technologies

10:00–11:00 a.m.
Multiple concurrent poster presentations · Cypress Ballroom
Brock Grenci — Co-author
Probing the Effects of Extracellular Matrix Combinations on Human Liver Cells Using High-throughput Protein Microarrays
Regina Giovanni — Co-author
Probing the Effects of Extracellular Matrix Combinations on Human Liver Cells Using High-throughput Protein Microarrays
Dhanush Gandavadi — Co-author
Non-FRET-Based Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Trimeric Spike Protein Using Silver Nanoclusters (AgNCs)

1:15–1:30 p.m.
Holly Golecki — Co-author
Evaluating the Impact of Near-Peer STEM Mentorship in a Middle School Bioengineering Program
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education
Caroline Cvetkovic — Presenter
Evaluating the Impact of Near-Peer STEM Mentorship in a Middle School Bioengineering Program
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education

1:30–1:45 p.m.
Katy Wolhaupter — Co-author
Multichannel Skeletal Muscle Biohybrid Robot for Enhanced Actuation and Locomotion
Magnolia 10 · Platform Session · Biomechanics

10/23/2026

Illinois graduates at the BMES annual meeting, visit us at booth number 717 for your Alumni ribbon!

📸BIOE GROUP PHOTO TODAY. 11:00am. Illinois Bioengineering booth number 717

10/22/2026

Bioengineering at Illinois has a PACKED day tomorrow at BMES! Want to visit one of our amazing presenters? Check out the schedule below!

8:30–9:15 a.m.
Jennifer Amos — Presenter
Cybersecurity is Patient Safety: Engineering Resilience in Connected Medical Systems
San Francisco · Special Session

8:45–9:00 a.m.
Mohammadreza Ghaderinia — Presenter
Degradable Hydrogel Bead-Enabled Electrical Multiplexing Biochip for Simultaneous Cellular and Humoral Sepsis Profiling
Magnolia 16 · Platform Session · Nano and Micro Technologies

9:00–9:15 a.m.
Jennifer Amos — Co-author
BIOEref Pages: An Open Educational Resource
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education
Holly Golecki — Co-author
BIOEref Pages: An Open Educational Resource
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education
Caroline Cvetkovic — Presenter
BIOEref Pages: An Open Educational Resource
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education
Ali Ansari — Co-author
BIOEref Pages: An Open Educational Resource
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education

9:45–10:00 a.m.
Holly Golecki — Presenter
Measuring Engagement in Biomaterial Fundamentals and Engineering Design Through Soft Robotics
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education
Natalie M. Taylor — Co-author
Measuring Engagement in Biomaterial Fundamentals and Engineering Design Through Soft Robotics
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education

10:00–11:00 a.m.
Multiple concurrent poster presentations · Cypress Ballroom
Holly Golecki — Co-author
Clinical Insights into Wheelchair Cushion Recommendations and Design
Holly Golecki — Presenter
Multiphoton Fabrication of Free-Form Microactuators for Reconfigurable MEMS
Brock Grenci — Co-author
A High-Throughput Co-Culture Hydrogel Array Platform to Study Microenvironmental Regulation of Liver Fibrosis
Caroline Cvetkovic — Presenter
A Cell and Tissue Lab Course in an Undergraduate Neural Engineering Program
Regina Giovanni — Presenter
A High-Throughput Co-Culture Hydrogel Array Platform to Study Microenvironmental Regulation of Liver Fibrosis
Ali Ansari — Presenter
Applications of Game Based learning techniques using Discussion Activity Labs to course engagement and assessment
Natalie M. Taylor — Presenter
Clinical Insights into Wheelchair Cushion Recommendations and Design
Natalie M. Taylor — Co-author
Multiphoton Fabrication of Free-Form Microactuators for Reconfigurable MEMS
Dhanush Gandavadi — Presenter
DNA Nanostructure Self-Assembly in an Aqueous Ionic Liquid Solution with Enhanced Stability and Target Binding Affinity
Dhanush Gandavadi — Co-author
Repurposing Aptamers for Novel Protein Targets
Patrick Hester — Presenter
In Vitro Characterization of Macrophage-Mediated Inflammation of Skeletal Muscle
Katy Wolhaupter — Presenter
Tetany Driven Actuation of a Bio-hybrid Robot

2:00–2:15 p.m.
An Bao Van — Co-author
Rapid Culture-Free Gram Typing from Whole Blood with a Biphasic Duplex Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay
Magnolia 19 & 20 · Platform Session · Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering

2:30–2:45 p.m.
Wenhao Xu — Co-author
Intranasally Administered Sugars Metabolically Label Lung Metastases and Mediate Targeted Delivery of Drugs
Canary 4 · Platform Session · Drug Delivery

2:45–3:00 p.m.
Brock Grenci — Co-author
Microenvironmental cues control hPSC-derived liver progenitor cell fate and organization
Canary 1 · Platform Session · Tissue Engineering
Ariane Tsai — Presenter
Microenvironmental cues control hPSC-derived liver progenitor cell fate and organization
Canary 1 · Platform Session · Tissue Engineering

3:15–3:30 p.m.
Mohammadreza Ghaderinia — Presenter
Machine Learning-Optimized Simultaneous Cellular and Humoral Biomarker Panels Improve Sepsis Discrimination and Prognosis Beyond Bedside Clinical Scores
Magnolia 15 · Platform Session · Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology

4:30 p.m.
Wenhao Xu — Co-author
Rationally Designed α-Helical Polypeptides Program Dendritic Cell Activation through STING and TNF-α Signaling
Magnolia 11 & 12 · Platform Session · Immunoengineering
Wenhao Xu — Presenter
Metabolic Tagging of Tumor Extracellular Vesicles for Targeted Modulation of Dendritic Cells
Magnolia 11 & 12 · Platform Session · Immunoengineering
Xin Wang — Presenter
Rationally Designed α-Helical Polypeptides Program Dendritic Cell Activation through STING and TNF-α Signaling
Magnolia 11 & 12 · Platform Session · Immunoengineering
Brian Cunningham — Presenter
Ultrasensitive Non-Enzymatic Protein Detection using Proximity Immunoassay with Photonic Resonator Absorption Microscopy
Magnolia 16 · Platform Session · Nano and Micro Technologies

5:45–6:00 p.m.
Revathi Manoharaan — Presenter
A Tunable Dual-Hydrogel Platform for Quantifying 3D Tumor Invasion
Canary 1 · Platform Session · Tissue Engineering
Dhanush Gandavadi — Co-author
Translating Programmable Biosensors into Farm-Side Rapid Diagnostics for Swine Disease Surveillance
Magnolia 16 · Platform Session · Nano and Micro Technologies
Chau Hoang — Presenter
Translating Programmable Biosensors into Farm-Side Rapid Diagnostics for Swine Disease Surveillance
Magnolia 16 · Platform Session · Nano and Micro Technologies

10/22/2026

🔥Bioengineering booth is on fire at Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting. Stop by booth #717 to learn about our educational opportunities and more!

10/21/2026

Bioengineering is at BMES! Check out the schedule of all our presenters for tomorrow below.

8:30–9:00 a.m.
Cunjiang Yu — Presenter
Optoelectronics On and In Tissue for Cardiac Modulation
Canary 2 · Platform Session

8:30–8:45 a.m.
Yang Liu — Presenter
Imaging cancer states across scales and time
Magnolia 22 · Platform Session · Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation

8:45–9:00 a.m.
Rebecca Reck — Presenter
A Real-World Assessment of Generative AI Responses to Pre-Lab Assignments in a Biomedical Instrumentation Laboratory
Magnolia 6 · Platform Session · Biomedical Engineering Education

9:00–9:15 a.m.
An Bao Van — Presenter
Molecular Design Strategies for Leakage Suppression in Autocatalytic CRISPR-Cascade Systems
Magnolia 21 · Platform Session · Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering

9:45–10:00 a.m.
Cunjiang Yu — Presenter
Drawn-on-Skin Wearable Electronics for High-Fidelity Health Monitoring
Crystal P · Special Session

10:00–11:00 a.m.
Multiple concurrent poster presentations · Cypress Ballroom
Jennifer Amos — Presenter
Recognition Versus Risk Assessment: Expert And Novice Reasoning In Virtual Reality Surgical Planning
Holly Golecki — Presenter
Designing Faculty and Staff Workshops to Improve Lab Accessibility
Holly Golecki — Co-author
Development of a User Specific Lightweight, Pneumatic, Soft Actuating Seat Cushion
Brock Grenci — Presenter
Engineered Microwell Co-Culture Platform with Micropatterned Intercellular Interactions for Liver Differentiation
Susan Leggett — Co-author
Engineered Metastatic Microenvironments to Decipher Mechanical and Spatial Drivers of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Adaptation
Goodluck Okoro — Presenter
Tumor Volume-Aware Radiomics
Natalie M. Taylor — Co-author
Designing Faculty and Staff Workshops to Improve Lab Accessibility
Natalie M. Taylor — Co-author
Development of a User Specific Lightweight, Pneumatic, Soft Actuating Seat Cushion

1:15–2:45 p.m.
Jennifer Amos — Co-author
Integrating Engineering Education into BME
Crystal P · Special Session

2:00–2:15 p.m.
Cunjiang Yu — Co-author
Machine Learning–Optimized PLGA Core-Shell Microcapsules for Sustained IL-10 mRNA Immunotherapy in Melanoma
Canary 4 · Platform Session

3:45–5:15 p.m.
Jennifer Amos — Co-author
BME Resume Guidance and Review for Graduate Students and Postdocs
Atlanta · Special Session

4:45–5:00 p.m.
Susan Leggett — Presenter
Mapping Leader Cell Rules of Multicellular Cluster Fusion from Epithelial Reorganization to 3D Cancer Dissemination
Magnolia 19 & 20 · Platform Session

10/20/2026

Each year, Bioengineering at Illinois releases its Annual Report. This report details our most impactful research, student achievements, departmental accolades, and other noteworthy events from the past year. "This past year has been one of change and progress in bioengineering," said Interim Department Head Shuming Nie, a professor of bioengineering. "Our department has added faculty, opened new research space, and continued to expand the frontiers of our discipline." We invite you to explore the progress the department has made this year and our vision for the years to come: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/news/annual-report/2025-2026