Department of Bioengineering Archives

woman floats in zero gravity with her arms and legs outstretched

People with disabilities have been locked out of spaceflight. But that is changing.

If you can’t see in zero gravity, how do you know which way is up? Northeastern assistant professor of bioengineering Mona Minkara, who is legally blind, recently took a zero gravity flight as part of her work to make spaceflight inclusive and accessible for all.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki November 8, 2021

A more contagious variant of the coronavirus is now dominant in the U.S. Variants are complicating the fight to subdue the pandemic and raising calls for continued vigilance–and mask-wearing. Illustration by Alison Booth/Northeastern University

Vaccinated? Don’t toss that mask just yet.

A more contagious variant of the coronavirus is now dominant in the U.S. The threat of variants complicates the fight to subdue the COVID-19 pandemic, and raises questions about the efficacy of current vaccines against new strains. That means you should keep wearing that mask, Northeastern public health specialists say.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki April 14, 2021

Portrait of Kerry Eller, Connor Holmes, and Abigale Purvis.

3 ways to create socially conscious academic careers

Kerry Eller, Abigale Purvis, and Connor Holmes receive the Harold D. Hodgkinson Award, one of Northeastern’s highest awards for academics and experiential performance, for their dedication to improving health systems and creating socially responsible businesses.

by Emily Arntsen April 9, 2021

Graduate student Suzanne Stasiak is part of a team of researchers studying how smooth muscle cells in the human airway behave to trigger asthma. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Cells in your airway talk to each other. For some, what they say can trigger an asthma attack.

Conventional asthma research has largely focused on diseased cells in human airways. But now, researchers at Northeastern have found that asthma attacks are not only the result of diseased cells acting up—healthy cells get caught up in the mix, too.

by Roberto Molar Candanosa August 24, 2020

Christina Carroll, a bioengineering student at Northeastern, teaches Arduino, a coding platform that allows for rapid prototyping, to a group of technicians, technical students, and engineers at St. Paul’s Hospital and Millennium Medical College. Photo courtesy of Caitlynn Tov

Engineering students had a bright idea: A new kind of surgical lamp for doctors in Ethiopia

At the second-largest hospital in Ethiopia, medical devices are often donated, and the overwhelming majority are faulty after five years, says bioengineering student Joe Iskander. He and a team of students traveled to Addis Ababa in March, where they equipped the hospital with a surgical lamp that can be recreated and repaired with locally sourced parts.

by Irvin Zhang May 19, 2020

Glioblastoma stem cells aggressively invade a model made of human brain cells and biomaterials. Photo courtesy of Guohao Dai

A 3D-printed brain could make it easier to find cancer treatments

Guohao Dai, an associate professor of bioengineering, has devised a new way to study a deadly form of brain cancer using a three-dimensional structure made of an agglomeration of human brain cells and biomaterials.

by Laura Castañón April 1, 2020

Jake Potts, a bioengineering student at Northeastern, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship, which he will use to study mutations in DNA repair genes at Sorbonne University in Paris. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

He wants to find ways to prevent or slow the spread of cancer

Jake Potts, a bioengineering student at Northeastern, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study how DNA repair pathways cause mutations. He’ll attend Sorbonne University in Paris in the fall.

by Khalida Sarwari March 26, 2020

Abigail Koppes, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is isolating cell groups on tiny plastic chips, enabling her team to observe the specific roles of cells that have gotten lost in the noise of the body. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

If cells could talk… Actually, they do. But what are they saying?

How our cells talk—and what they say—is complicated, and it’s different body to body. To boil down this performance to its characters, assistant professor Abigail Koppes is letting them play out on a chip, clarifying both their roles and how sensitive they are to a set change.

by Aria Bracci January 31, 2020

A firefighter covers his face from black smoke as he battles a wildfire near Bendalong, Australia on Jan. 3, 2020. Increasingly intense wildfires that have scorched forests from California to Australia are stoking worry about long-term health impacts from smoke exposure in affected cities and towns. AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

What’s in the smoke given off by the Australian wildfires?

The smoke created by wildfires is filled with chemicals and particulate matter that make it dangerous to breathe, both for firefighters and civilians, say Jessica Oakes and Chiara Bellini, both assistant bioengineering professors who study the health consequences of wildfires.

by Molly Callahan January 16, 2020

Ambika Bajpayee, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Northeastern, has created a birth control pill that would need to be taken just once per month. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

What if birth control pills could be taken monthly, instead of every day?

Currently, oral contraceptives need to be taken at the same time every day to be effective. Ambika Bajpayee, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Northeastern, has created a birth control pill that needs to be taken just once per month.

by Laura Castañón December 4, 2019