DukeBME

SPRING 2019

PROFILE n

MAGAZINE
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

Path Spot
Engineering
Solutions to
Foodborne
Illness

inside: Personalizing the Master’s Degree 16 • Oh, the Places Grads Go 20 • Off the Beaten Path 26
 Duke BME Magazine is
Contents
DUKEBME MAGAZINE | BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
published twice yearly by Duke
Biomedical Engineering.

Mailing Address:
Room 1427 FE AT U R ES
Fitzpatrick Center (FCIEMAS)
101 Science Drive
Campus Box 90281
2 Letter from the Chair
Durham, NC 27708-0281
P: 919-660-5131 3 Beyond Duke
bme.duke.edu
4 
COVER | A Glimpse at the Possibilities
Editorial Director:
From entrepreneurs tackling foodborne pathogens to a new faculty
Ashutosh Chilkoti
member pioneering ultrasound research, Duke BME alumni are making
Editor: an impact in the professional world
Michaela Kane,
Duke BME Communications 15 A New Class of Mentors
New faculty guide the next generation of biomedical engineers
Art Director:
Lacey Chylack,
Phase 5 Creative, Inc. 16 Personalizing the Master’s Degree
Duke BME’s MS and MEng programs enable students to customize their
Photo credits by page: learning experience and chase down opportunities
Duke Photography:
Inside cover, back cover
Jack Myhre: Table of Contents
19 The Evolving BME PhD
Megan Mendenhall: 2, 25 A Q&A with associate dean for PhD education Jennifer West
Yunghi Kim: Cover, 5-7
Cydney Scott Photography: 9 20 Oh, the Places Grads Go
Michaela Kane: 11,15,17, 22, 25
Whether their career ladders lead to industry, academia or
Justin Tsucalas/ Plaid Photo: 13
Muyinatu Bell Lab: 14
entrepreneurship, Duke BME gives PhD students a leg up on post-grad life
Paul Fearis: 15
Sweetha Rathan: 15 23 A Bridge Between Engineering and Medicine
Seth Kroll/ Wyss Institute at How the Duke BME MD-PhD program prepares graduate students for a
Harvard University: 15
career in medicine
Align Technology: 18
Les Todd: 19
Courtesy Memorial Sloan 25 Tools of the Trade
Kettering Cancer Center: 20 How immersive design programs, a new class of faculty, and
Kaitlin Jones: 21 entrepreneurial know-how are preparing students to enter a modern
Courtesy Erika Moore: 24
workforce
Courtesy Garheng Kong: 26
Courtesy Lauren Polstein Toth: 27
Courtesy Matthew Rinehart: 28 26 Off the Beaten Path
Conversations with Duke BME alumni who found career success outside
ON OUR COVER:
the biomedical engineering field
Photography by Yunghi Kim

LEFT: The
atrium inside the
Fitzpatrick Center
for Interdisciplinary
Engineering,
Medicine and Applied
Sciences.
 FROM THE CHAIR

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Physicians. Entrepreneurs. Venture Capitalists. Researchers. Professors.

In Duke BME, we prepare our students to succeed in a variety of different
career paths, both inside and outside the field of biomedical engineering.
With an immersive and hands-on curriculum, a plethora of practical
research opportunities and partnerships, and the aid of prestigious
faculty and other mentors, our students graduate from Duke BME
with an impressive array of skills that allow them to make meaningful
contributions in their ideal careers.
In this issue of Duke BME Magazine, we highlight the success of
just a few alumni in their first decade after graduating from Duke BME,
including those who have accepted faculty positions at prestigious
universities, alums who accepted job positions at both startups and
well-established biomedical companies, and new entrepreneurs who
used their BME training to address problems plaguing society.
As one of the top-ranked biomedical engineering programs in the
United States, we’re helping to create the next generation of engineers
who can tackle issues we face across the spectrum of medicine. We
hope you enjoy reading about the work of our impressive alumni as they
continue to blaze new trails in the field of biomedical engineering.

Ashutosh Chilkoti
Chair
Duke Biomedical Engineering

2 | DUKEBME Magazine
Beyond Duke:
Undergrad statistics:

#3 #4
highest median biomedical engi-
starting salary neering program
($70,000)- via in the country-
Medical Product via U.S. News &
Manufacturing World Report
News

Post-graduation paths (Class of 2018):

Go on to positions Pursue opportunities Graduate / Medical /
in industry after in entrepreneurship : Professional school: Other opportunities:
graduation

64.2% 1.5% 29.9% 4.4%

Master’s statistics:

>60% 40%
a majority of
Duke BME
master’s grads of Duke BME MS
go on to careers grads enter PhD
in the public or programs
private sector

PhD statistics:
Career Outcomes:

40% 60%
of Duke BME of Duke BME
PhD grads go on grads go on to
to positions in careers in the
academia public or private
sector

Specific Breakdown:
Medical/
Academic Academic Academic Residency/ Private
Tenure Non-Tenure Administration Postdoc Additional Profit Public K-12
Track Track or Staff positions Degree Enterprises Sector Education Other

6% 2% 7% 24% 3% 52% 2% 1% 3%

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 3

 n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: PATHSPOT

C OV E R S TO RY

Engineering Solutions to
Foodborne Illness
Christine Schindler and Dutch Waanders’s startup PathSpot aims to make

R
restaurant kitchens cleaner—and safer—for consumers

omaine lettuce. Ground beef. like salmonella, E. coli or listeria in a real-world

Eggs. Chicken. Turkey. The list
setting.
of foodborne illness outbreaks “We looked to see if there was a company out
in 2018 was so long it mirrored
there already working on this, but we couldn’t
a grocery list and made eatingfind anyone doing instantaneous detection of
some of your favorite meals seem
pathogens in food service or in the restaurant
like a risky activity. The Centers
space,” says Schindler.
for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Using electronic components bought at a
more than 48 million people get sick, 128,000 RadioShack going-out-of-business sale, the
are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne duo created a hand-dryer-sized device that uses
diseases each year in the United States. Despite
spectroscopy to scan people’s hands for food-
borne contaminants. As light from the device
the prevalence of foodborne pathogens, there isn’t
bounces off hands and back
into the camera, a proprietary
“We went to restaurants door to door to ask them about the algorithm compares the wave-
lengths of the reflected light to
issue and what they needed in their facilities. People said those of different indicators for
that they’ve waited for a device like this for ten years.” foodborne pathogens including
listeria, salmonella, hepatitis A
and norovirus. If no contami-
an easy way to make sure they don’t pass from nants are detected, the device flashes a green light
people to produce. and employees are cleared to handle food.
RIGHT: Christine
After watching what felt like endless newscasts “We went to restaurants door to door to ask
Schindler and Dutch
announcing a new foodborne outbreak, Chris- them about the issue and what they needed in
Waanders (both BME
‘15) at the PathSpot
tine Schindler and Dutch Waanders decided they their facilities,” says Waanders. “People said that
offices. Their wanted to do something to address the issue. they’ve waited for a device like this for ten years.
company’s goal is to Both 2015 graduates of Duke University’s De- There was a ton of enthusiasm, so Christine and
stop the spread of partment of Biomedical Engineering, Schindler I quit our jobs and started working full time on
foodborne illnesses and Waanders recognized that their combined PathSpot.”
in produce and fast experience in entrepreneurship, global health and In tests in restaurants in Durham, New York
food. engineering gave them a unique perspective on City and Detroit, the researchers observed that
the problem. They wanted to create an easy-to- each device was used an average of 170 times each
use device that could detect signs of pathogens week, and an average of 20 percent of scans detect-

4 | DUKEBME Magazine
 PROFILE n

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 5

 n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: PATHSPOT

ed some form of contamination in the first week.
Although PathSpot is the team’s first startup to
specifically tackle a health-related issue, Schindler
and Waanders gained valuable entrepreneurial ex-
perience when launching their national non-profit,
Girls Engineering Change. Founded by Schindler
in 2012 during her sophomore year at Duke, GEC
was created to help young girls realize
the difference engineering can make in
the world by giving them hands-on de-
sign experience.
Recently, they closed a seed round after raising
two million dollars—funds they’ll use to build
their team and scale the product across restaurant
chain locations. They also have plans to expand
the potential applications of their device to scan
for flu in offices, peanut oil in school cafeterias or
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals.

“We looked to see if there

was a company out there
already working on this,
but we couldn’t find anyone
doing instantaneous
detection of pathogens.”

“We bring girls to college campus-

RIGHT: A view
es and teach them how to build and
of the PathSpot
assemble things that are then donated
scanner, which throughout the world so they can see
can be mounted the real impact of engineering,” says
on the walls in Schindler. “For example, we have them
restaurants. The make solar-powered USB chargers that
light will flash red if we’ll donate to disaster-relief settings.
an employee needs These are simple products, but they
to re-wash their can make a big difference to people in
hands to remove need.”
any pathogens.
As the organization grew and chap-
ters were established across the nation, it was even “The education we received at Duke really pre-
recognized by President Bill Clinton. Although pared us to use our engineering skills to help peo-
Schindler and Waanders have handed over the ple, and that’s why we’ve pursued the projects we
reins to a new team of leaders, they credit their have,” says Schindler. “Our engineering skills can
time with Girls Engineering Change for showing be translated to so many different fields and in
them how they could use their engineering educa- so many different ways, and I’m happy that we
tion to address unmet needs. can serve both consumers and business owners
Today, the pair is working to expand PathSpot. through PathSpot.” n

6 | DUKEBME Magazine
 PROFILE n

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 7

n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: HARVARD-MIT

The Relentless Pursuit of

Knowledge
Undergraduate alum Vincent Miao continues to expand his biomedical knowledge
through the Harvard-MIT Medical Engineering/Medical Physics PhD program

F
or most people, hearing about research other complex and useful materials, ultimately
associated with the term “Frankenstein” winning Duke’s Helmholtz Research Award in
may trigger some raised eyebrows. That’s recognition of his work.
not the case for Vincent Miao, who helped After earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical
create and study novel biomaterials that share the engineering from the Duke in the spring of 2018,
name of the famous character during his time as a Miao opted to continue his education, moving to
student at Duke University. Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend the Medical
As an undergraduate in Duke’s Department Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) pro-
of Biomedical Engineering, Miao gram, a PhD program jointly
worked in BME Chair Ashutosh offered through Harvard and
Chilkoti’s lab, where he focused the Massachusetts Institute of
on bio-inspired polymers that Technology.
demonstrated shape-shifting abil-
“I think it was Each year, nearly 30 percent
ities in response to temperature really beneficial of Duke BME graduating se-
changes. Dubbed “Frankenstein for me to see niors opt to continue their edu-
Proteins,” these biomaterials cation and pursue advanced de-
could solidify into a scaffold at up-close how grees in prestigious universities
body temperature to promote tis- graduate students around the country. For Miao,
sue growth, making them useful the Harvard-MIT graduate pro-
for tissue engineering and wound and post-doctoral gram presented an opportunity
healing. students approach to hone the engineering skills he
“My research experience was
definitely the highlight of my time
problems.” had developed during his four
years in Duke BME.
in the department, and really at “The goal of this program is to
Duke as a whole,” says Miao. “I think it was re- create researchers that have a more comprehensive
ally beneficial for me to see up-close how gradu- understanding of clinical needs and opportunities
ate students and post-doctoral students approach for translational medicine,” says Miao. “We take
problems. That helped me formulate how I could pre-clinical classes with med students so we’ll
approach my own research.” understand how physicians approach treatment
In addition to his work in the Chilkoti lab, options, which helps inform what we’ll do in a
Miao was also able to participate in the Pratt Fel- lab and how we can design tech that can one day
lows Research Program, a competitive research make its way to the bedside. There’s so much hap-
experience that allows students to pursue research pening in biomedical engineering—everywhere
projects for course credit. As a Pratt Fellow, Miao you look you have a chance to make an impact on
explored more diverse polymer designs to create human health.”

8 | DUKEBME Magazine
 PROFILE n

Now, Miao is expanding that knowledge base as
he collaborates with new colleagues in the MEMP
program and rotates through research labs. In ad-
dition to the medical courses through Harvard
Medical School, Miao is also taking a variety of
engineering courses at MIT, with focuses ranging
from machine learning to drug delivery. As he pro-
gresses through the program, he’ll also spend 12
weeks rotating through a Boston-based hospital––
similar to third-year medical school students––so
he can get a firsthand look at issues and needs in
different specialties. Vincent Miao splits
“There are an incredible number of biomedical his time between
challenges out there for us to solve in order to be- the Harvard and MIT
come better as a society,” says Miao. “Duke BME campuses in the
helped foster a sense of curiosity in me and other Medical Engineering
students, where we’re always looking to see what’s and Medical Physics
on the horizon. I’ve tried to bring that approach program.
with me to grad school, where I’m excited to ex-
plore every opportunity that’s available to me.” n

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 9

n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: PFIZER

Bringing
a Global
Perspective
to the “My goal was
to increase

Pharmaceutical access to
healthcare

Industry globally, and

I looked for
From undergraduate research to corporate career, Bianca
roles that
Bracht is on a mission to increase access to health care fit into that

M
ost of the grocery stores in the
category.”
United States have a designated
pharmacy, where relief from a per-
sistent cough or fever can easily be
purchased along with a loaf of bread. This ease of
access has made it easy to forget that nearly two
billion people across the globe don’t have consis-
tent access to medicine, whether it’s for the treat-
ment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis or pills
that can alleviate a painful earache.
With minors in global health, chemistry and
Chinese, Bianca Bracht used her global perspec-
tive to explore this problem during her time as an and his team, the Pratt Pouch is a ketchup-like
undergraduate student in Duke University’s De- packet containing antiretroviral drugs that can be
partment of Biomedical Engineering. In her role at Pfizer, administered to newborns to prevent mother-to-
Bianca Bract aims to
“I knew I wanted a role that could bridge tech- child transmission of HIV.
help make affordable
nology and health care to make a positive impact,” The innovative packaging preserves pre-mea-
pharmaceuticals
says Bracht. “Initially I thought that meant that that are broadly
sured doses of medicine for up to a year with-
I’d pursue a career in the medical device industry, accessible for people out refrigeration, making it ideal for use in re-
but my time in Duke BME also showed me that across the globe. source-limited areas. Bracht worked on the Pratt
there was a real need for engineers in pharmaceu- Pouch as a Grand Challenge Scholar at Duke,
ticals, especially in areas where there’s a lack of testing the packaging and determining what oth-
access to care and affordable drugs.” er kinds of medications could be safely preserved
This came into focus during her junior year, in the pouch.
when she began to work on the Pratt Pouch. Cre- “My work on the Pratt Pouch inspired me to
ated by Professor of the Practice Robert Malkin pursue work in the pharmaceutical industry,” says

10 | DUKEBME Magazine

Bracht. “The Pratt Pouch obviously focuses on
more low-resource settings, but there is a lot of
opportunity within the industry to make small
changes, like new ways to store medicine, that
have a large impact on patients worldwide. My
goal was to increase access to healthcare globally,
and I looked for roles that fit into that category.”
After graduating from Duke in 2015, Bracht
accepted a job at Pfizer, working at their Rocky
Mount plant in North Carolina for nine months
before moving to India to help start up opera-
tions at a new site. These roles were in the generic
Sterile Injectable drug business, and involved ex-
ploring ways to improve manufacturing practices
PROFILE n
through production advancements and standard-
ization. Now, Bracht is back in North Carolina,
this time in Pfizer’s Biotechnology business focus-
ing on their ongoing investment to build a gene
therapy manufacturing site.
“It’s exciting because this is the type of work
that will help people access treatments that may
not previously been available outside of a lab—
it’s a different way of looking at my goal of ‘in-
creasing access’,” she says. “I’m lucky because I’ve
had a wide variety of career experiences in a short
amount of time. At the end of the day we make
medicine to help people, and I’m very passionate
about what I do.” n
Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 11
 Making the
Next Wave of
Imaging Tools
for Cancer
Diagnosis
Motivated by her mother’s death from breast
cancer, Muyinatu Bell (Duke BME PhD’12) is now
advancing medical imaging as a faculty member
at Johns Hopkins

12 | DUKEBME Magazine
 n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: JOHNS HOPKINS

W ith a joint appointment in the de- my lab is the first to apply this new technique to
partments of biomedical engineer- breast images.”
ing and electrical and computer If a lump is discovered during a breast exam,
engineering, Muyinatu A. Lediju physicians need to conduct more tests to make an
Bell uses her position as an assistant professor at accurate diagnosis. Typically, this involves using
Johns Hopkins University to push the boundaries ultrasound to image the lump and determine if it’s
of medical imaging. Bell’s research is centered on benign or cancerous. Benign cysts are filled with
ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging, building fluid, so they should appear very dark in compar-
off the work she completed
as a PhD student at Duke
University’s Department of
Biomedical Engineering.
ison to surrounding tissue.
But breast tissue is highly
variable, so artifacts can ap-
pear where there should be
As a graduate student in
Gregg Trahey’s lab, she stud-
“When I started to no signal at all. This signal
reduces the radiologist’s con-
ied acoustic clutter––a type consider graduate fidence about making a con-
of noise artifact in ultra- clusive diagnosis, so they’ll
sound images that can make school, I went to often need to perform a bi-
it difficult to distinguish
different features in the im-
Google and typed opsy to ensure that the tissue
isn’t cancerous.
ages. One of Bell’s primary in keywords like “With my method, we’d be
projects involved developing able to improve the detection
a method to reduce acoustic imaging, cancer, of cysts in the breast by cut-
clutter using spatial coher-
ence information, which
ultrasound, and ting out that noise,” says Bell.
“Our goal is to ultimately
measures the similarity of ul- mechanics, and decrease the number of false
trasound echoes from tissue positives, which would re-
when recorded from slightly Gregg Trahey’s lab duce the need for invasive
different locations. This new
process allowed researchers
was the top hit.” biopsies and some of the pa-
tient anxiety that accompa-
After graduating from
Gregg Trahey’s lab in to better distinguish borders nies inconclusive diagnoses
2012, Bell accepted a between blood and tissue, with ultrasound alone.”
tenure-track positon especially in organs like the heart, which was the For Bell, the push to improve the diagnostic
at Johns Hopkins topic of Bell’s PhD dissertation. tools for breast cancer was a personal one.
University, where “This was the first time that someone had direct- “I lost my mother to breast cancer when I
she continues to ly displayed the spatial coherence of ultrasound was an undergraduate student, which fueled my
pioneer ultrasound waves to reduce noise, and it was especially prom- long-standing interest in and motivation to study
techniques to ising because it led to several patents, the first of cancer. I also knew that I wanted to pursue research
improve breast
which I’m credited on as a co-inventor,” says Bell. that used my mechanical engineering background
cancer diagnosis.
“At Johns Hopkins, I’m building on that previous to impact ultrasound imaging technology,” says
work to aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer, as Bell. “When I started to consider graduate school,

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 13

 n A GLIMPSE AT THE POSSIBILITIES: JOHNS HOPKINS

Example images from Muyinatu Bell’s PULSE Lab, demonstrating the ability of Robust Short-Lag Spatial Coherence (R-SLSC) beamforming, a
technique developed in the PULSE Lab, to differentiate between fluid-filled and solid breast masses. The top row shows a fluid-filled cyst from
one patient treated at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, while the bottom row shows a solid cancerous tumor from another patient. The standard
B-mode ultrasound imaging method used in breast clinics today (left) shows the two masses as similarly darker than the surrounding tissue.
However, the R-SLSC images (right) show improved contrast in the benign fluid-filled cyst and solid content in the malignant mass.

I went to Google and typed in keywords like imag-
ing, cancer, ultrasound and mechanics, and Gregg
Trahey’s lab was the top hit. He was developing
new ultrasound technology to image the mechan-
ical properties of tissue. I instantly knew that his
lab was the right choice for me.”
At Duke, Bell was a fellow in the NIH-funded
Duke Medical Imaging Training Program, which
gave her wide-ranging exposure and experience
across the field. With this training, she is well
equipped to teach the gateway Medical Imaging
Systems course at Johns Hopkins University, where
she has introduced new hands-on imaging mod-
ules that her students consistently rate as one of
the best aspects of her course.
“I’m grateful that I was able to connect with
a program and research lab at Duke that aligned
well with my passions,” says Bell. “Gregg’s lab is
widely recognized and respected, and I’m proud
to have him as part of my academic family tree.
“During my time at Duke I learned a lot about
the experimental design process, how to ask the
right questions and how to go after those ques-
tions,” she adds. “It was a great place to learn the
critical skills I need to be a successful researcher
and effective educator today.” n

14 | DUKEBME Magazine
 A Jessilyn Dunn
Jessilyn Dunn’s research is centered on

NEW
using large-scale biomedical data sets
for early detection, intervention, and
prevention of disease. In her new role at

CLASS OF

M
Duke, Dunn aims to draw novel health
insights and actionable conclusions
by by developing models that integrate
across data from wearable devices,
electronic health records and multi-
omics to generate predictive models

E
for diseases.

Samira Musah
Samira Musah is a stem cell biologist
and a bioengineer. Her research focuses
on uncovering the mechanisms of organ

N
development and function, and how
these processes can be therapeutically
harnessed to treat human disease.
Given the escalating medical crisis
in nephrology as growing number of
patients suffer from kidney diseases,

T
Musah aims to engineer patient-derived
stem cells into functional preclinical
models with the goal of developing
novel biomarkers and therapeutic
modalities for human kidney disease.

O
Paul Fearis
With nearly 30 years of leadership as
a medical device design consultant,
Paul Fearis brings his signature design
approach to Duke BME students

R
in his new role as senior lecturing
fellow. Fearis will play a pivotal
role in the department’s expanded
design curriculum, where he’ll mentor
students interested in careers in
industry and entrepreneurship.

S
Richardson and Fearis will
work together to lead the new
Duke Design Health Fellows
Program, a competitive nine-month
fellowship program which brings
together teams of students from
engineering, medicine and business
to identify and design marketable
solutions to unmet clinical needs.

With backgrounds spanning industry,

global health, biomedical data
sciences and stem cell research,
Duke BME’s newest faculty members
offer a plethora of expertise and
research guidance for undergraduate
and graduate students.
Eric Richardson
An associate professor of the practice
in Duke BME, Eric Richardson is leverag-
ing his background in design, industry
and global health to craft innovative and
immersive design programs for BME
students and trainees across Duke.

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 15

 Personalizing the
Master’s Degree
Duke BME’s MS and MEng programs enable students to customize their
learning experience and chase down opportunities

16 | DUKEBME Magazine
n EDUCATION: CUSTOMIZING THE MASTER’S DEGREE

L
eah Machlin didn’t expect to be work- University of California, Berkeley.
ing in an old tobacco factory in down- Although both programs prepare students for
town Durham after graduating with a success in industry, Duke’s Master of Engineer-
degree in biomedical engineering. With ing program is expressly geared toward students,
its façade still painted with advertise- like Machlin, who want to develop business lead-
ments for Liggett & Myers cigarettes, the Ches- ership and management expertise in addition to
terfield building doesn’t appear to have changed technical skills. To graduate, MEng students are
much since its construction in 1948. But inside required to complete core business courses as
it’s a different world––one with ren-
ovated lab spaces where biomedical
engineers, like Machlin, can tackle To graduate, MEng students are required to complete
cutting-edge issues in modern med-
icine. core business courses as well as an industry
Machlin is a research associate internship, while students in the Master of Science
with Element Genomics, a biotech
startup founded by Duke University
program complete a research or thesis project.
faculty members Charles Gersbach,
Greg Crawford, Tim Reddy and Kris
Wood. Gersbach, the Rooney Family Associate well as an industry intern-
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and his ship, while students in the
collaborators founded the company in 2015 after Master of Science program
developing novel technology to characterize the complete a research or thesis
non-coding genome, opening up new classes of project.
drug targets for common and rare diseases. But MEng students can
“I initially started working at Element Genom- still gain research experience
ics as an intern in the summer of 2017,” says through their independent
Machlin (MEng ’17), now a full-time employee study courses. Machlin, for
at the company. “We are applying CRISPR tech- example, says she essentially
nology to look for an epigenomic, genomic, or created a hybrid MEng pro-
drug-based fix for rare diseases. It was a really ex- gram for herself by adding
citing opportunity that engaged both my research a large research project. “I
background and the skills I gained through my presented a project propos-
master’s education.” al when I was in Ashutosh
With both Master of Engineering (MEng) and Chilkoti’s Introduction to
Master of Science (MS) options, the master’s pro- Biomolecular Engineering
gram in Duke BME offers paths tailored to stu- course, and both the TA and Dr. Chilkoti en-
dents’ professional goals and interests, whether in couraged me to consider it as a research opportu- ABOVE: Leah
industry or academia. Most graduates go on to nity,” says Machlin, who joined the Chilkoti lab Machlin, MEng'17,
careers in the public or private sector, working at to work with elastin-like polypeptides to study a is a research as-
startups, like Element Genomics, or larger com- protein associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. sociate at Element
panies like Amgen, Boston Scientific and Stryker. “Dr. Chilkoti connected me with Charlie Gers- Genomics
About 25 percent opt to continue their education bach, and that helped me land the internship and
in PhD programs, both at Duke or at schools like job at Element Genomics,” she says. “I liked the
Columbia University, the University of Pennsyl- combination of exposure to business and manage-
vania School of Medicine, Yale University and the ment without sacrificing the science. I wouldn’t

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 17

 n EDUCATION: CUSTOMIZING THE MASTER’S DEGREE

have had the opportunity to work at a company ly beneficial for students like Jordan Ekaidat
like Element without that.” (MEng’16), who joined a biomechanical research
Duke BME master’s students can also enhance project with faculty in Duke’s mechanical engi-
their degrees with additional training in in-de- neering and materials science department, where
mand specialties through a growing array of cer- he worked on a sensor that could analyze human
tificate programs. running form. This research experience, coupled
“Students interested in optical imaging tech- with his business classes, was instrumental to
nologies have been able to earn a certificate in landing his internship and subsequent job at Woo
photonics, and we also just opened a certificate Sports, an action sports startup in Boston.
in biotechnology, which teaches students cut- “I used every skill I learned in the business and
ting-edge techniques for modeling, analyzing leadership classes, which really helped me navi-
gate the professional world and life
at a startup,” says Ekaidat. “Very few
schools have the kind of collaborative
environment that would have allowed
“The exercise of me to go outside the department to
constantly asking gain that biomechanical experience,
but Duke BME really encouraged it.”
myself these tough The variety of programs and op-
questions was a big portunities make Duke’s master’s
programs fairly self-directed, which
growth experience many students identified as a benefit
for me, but it also they hadn’t considered before attend-
prepared me to be ing Duke.
“The BME master’s students were
more self-motivated only required to take a life science
in my career.” course and a math course, but other
than that you have lots of flexibility
in taking biomedical engineering classes and other
technical electives to fill the credit requirement, so
LEFT: Stacey Kuo,
you can really decide your own path,” says Stacey
MS’15 is an SQA
Kuo (MS’15). “I could ask myself which courses
Engineer at Align
Technology
were going to benefit my development towards
the career I wanted.”
This mindset was also honed through Kuo’s
research project in Jennifer West’s lab, where she
and designing molecular and cellular systems,” studied tissue engineering.
says Professor Fan Yuan, the director of master’s “Dr. West was a great person to have as my PI
studies in Duke BME. “We’re proud to offer a because she really pushed me to make sure I was
collaborative and interdisciplinary curriculum getting the most out of my research experience,”
with courses covering business and management, says Kuo, now an SQA Engineer at Align Tech-
product development, and two-semester design nology in RTP. “The exercise of constantly asking
that includes partnerships with the Duke Univer- myself these tough questions was a big growth
sity Medical Center.” experience for me, but it also prepared me to be
The collaborative curriculum was especial- more self-motivated in my career.” n

18 | DUKEBME Magazine
Jennifer West on
Q&A
the Evolving BME PhD
As the Fitzpatrick Family University Professor of Engineering at Duke,
Jennifer West leads a vibrant lab focused on biomaterials and tis-
sue engineering. Beyond mentoring her own doctoral students, West
serves as associate dean for PhD Education for the Pratt School of
Engineering, where she helps PhD students across the school develop
the necessary skills for success both inside and outside the lab.

Are you seeing a shift in the kinds of Duke BME also

careers Duke BME graduate students are
pursuing?
We have noticed an interesting trend at Duke.
Previously, about 52 percent of students
would go on to careers in industry and nearly
40 percent would go on to academia, whether
that was a faculty position or a post-doctoral
fellow position. Now, we’re seeing more and
more students want to become entrepreneurs.
It’s interesting to see how that translates to
their research projects. In addition to impres-
sive research publications, students are now
pursuing projects that they can use as the basis
for a startup, and they’re trying to collect data
that they could present to a venture capitalist.
How does the department support this
growing entrepreneurial interest?
Last year Duke BME launched BRiDGE [the
Bioengineering Research Initiative to Develop
Global Entrepreneurs] to provide resources to
lower the activation barrier to get a company
off the ground. This incubator allows students
and faculty more breathing room to develop
their idea rather than spend all of their time
raising the capital themselves, which is helpful
for new entrepreneurs. Recent graduates, like
Kelli Luginbuhl, PhD’17, have moved into
the space to launch their own companies and
learn from faculty entrepreneurs.
does a lot of work with
the Duke Innovation
& Entrepreneurship
Initiative, which is
another resource that
helps bring innovations from the lab to the
bedside. Jennifer West works
with graduate student
What sets Duke BME apart from other Jeffrey Ashton in
biomedical engineering PhD programs? her lab
Students usually don’t begin their thesis
research until they’ve completed the first year
of their PhD program. But at Duke, our
students can begin their PhD thesis research
right away, and that makes our program fairly
unique. We let students dive into their work
right away, and we offer them a flexible curric-
ulum that they can tailor to their intended
career path. If they’re interested in medicine
they are encouraged to work with colleagues
in the medical school; if they’re interested in
entrepreneurship they can use the various re-
sources across Duke to get a startup running.
And our Engineering PhD Plus program
connects them to a really impressive array of
professional development tools that can help
them prepare for whatever path they want.
It’s a truly collaborative environment, both
within the Pratt School of Engineering and
across Duke as a whole. n

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 19

A Bridge Between
Engineering and Medicine
How the Duke BME MD-PhD program prepares graduate students for a career in medicine
D
uke University Medical Center is a quick
hop, skip and jump away from Duke’s
Department of Biomedical Engineer-
ing––but most people prefer to walk.
The proximity fosters a plethora of collaborative
research and programs between
Duke’s medical school and Duke
BME, including the Duke Med-
ical Scientist Training Program
(MSTP).
Founded in 1966, Duke’s
MSTP was among the very first
MD-PhD programs in the coun-
try established by the National
RIGHT: Dr. Veronica
Rotemberg
Institutes of Health to train phy-
sician-scientists. In similar pro-
grams, medical students complete
20 | DUKEBME Magazine
two years of coursework followed by two years of
clinical rotations; the Duke curriculum concen-
trates all coursework in the first year followed by
a year in the clinic and a third year devoted to
independent research. For MSTP students, that
year extends to several as they earn
a PhD. After completing their doc-
torate, medical students spend a
Courtesy Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
final year in the clinic before they
graduate.
For students who opt to pursue
their PhD in biomedical engineer-
ing—such as recent MD-PhD grad-
uates Drs. Veronica Rotemberg and
Christina Behrend—the program
creates opportunities to pursue
research that they can eventually
n EDUCATION: ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE

move out of the lab and into the clinic. me, and I’ve benefited so much from that over the
Rotemberg (PhD’14), a dermatologist at the years,” says Rotemberg. “Now that I’m in the po-
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), sition of mentoring others I’m realizing just how
completed her PhD in BME Professor Kathy impactful her guidance was for me as a scientist,
Nightingale’s lab, where she used ultrasound im- as a professional, and as someone committed to
aging to study how changing pressure affects the mentoring students––especially women––in bio-
stiffness of liver tissue. Today, patients medical engineering.”
with advanced liver disease often need Behrend (PhD’17) is currently a
a liver biopsy so physicians can better first-year resident in neurology at
understand their degree of liver cirrho- the Hospital of the University of
sis. By correlating liver stiffness esti- Pennsylvania. As a student in BME
mates with portal venous pressure, Ro- professor Warren Grill’s lab, Beh-
temberg explored whether ultrasound rend carried out research on the
imaging-based methods may be used basic physiology of Parkinson’s Dis-
in the future to determine pressure gra- ease, a neurodegenerative disorder LEFT: Dr. Christina
dient noninvasively. that affects movement and causes Behrend
“When I was looking for a lab I tremors, to guide the design of deep
knew I wanted to work with someone
who was doing translational research
that had the potential to really impact “The opportunity to participate in research that
patients that still had a quantitative and directly involved patients helped me to continue to
technical focus,” says Rotemberg. “I
met with Kathy Nightingale and Mark develop as a physician and scientist at the same time.”
Palmeri, who was an MD-PhD student
in her lab. They were working with real
patients and the work required a lot of technical brain stimulation devices that can alleviate disease
development and a thorough understanding of symptoms.
the mechanics of human tissue. It was a perfect “By understanding more precisely which
combination for me.” pathological neural signatures are important to
Now director of the Imaging Informatics Pro- target with electrical stimulation, we can design
gram at MSK, Rotemberg has focused her im- efficient stimulation therapies that deliver less
aging research on skin disease. Building on her energy to the brain tissue overall,” says Behrend.
PhD research, she’s developing high-resolution “That maximizes the battery life of the implanted
approaches to measure skin elasticity to aid in the devices, which means patients need fewer replace-
diagnosis and tracking of skin lesions. She’s also ment surgeries. It’s a great example of how basic
working on tools for automated diagnosis that research can have a clear clinical impact.”
might allow physicians to determine whether a le- As she progresses through her residency pro-
sion is benign or malignant from a clinical photo. gram, Behrend hopes to get involved in clinical
“One of the main reasons I went to Duke for research to study disease processes and examine
graduate school was the BME program, and there how new and improved technologies can help
were structural aspects of the BME department treat neurological disorders like Parkinson’s.
that are uniquely suited to an MD-PhD student,” “Duke BME was a highly collaborative environ-
says Rotemberg. “One of my roles was to go to ment and it has incredibly strong ties to the med-
the clinic and actually image patients in the hepa- ical school, which is evident through the MSTP,”
tology clinic. As compared to other research proj- she says. “Half of my MD-PhD class did their
ects for MSTP students, the opportunity to par- PhDs in engineering, and they all had opportuni-
ticipate in research that directly involved patients ties to interact with physicians and patients. This
helped me to continue to develop as a physician collaboration was not only easy but welcomed,
and scientist at the same time.” especially because Duke BME students bring so
“Kathy was also a really wonderful mentor for many skills to the table.” n

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 21

22 | DUKEBME Magazine
 n EDUCATION: PHD STUDENTS

Oh, the
Places Grads Go
Whether their career ladders lead to industry, academia or entrepreneurship,
Duke BME gives PhD students a leg up on post-grad life

L
ike many PhD students in Duke Universi- didn’t, and what advice they had for imminent
ty’s Department of Biomedical Engineer- graduates. These conversations, she said, pointed
ing, Erika Moore wasn’t entirely settled onher in a surprising direction––back into academia.
what career to pursue after graduation. As Since graduating from Duke BME in the spring
she worked in Jennifer West’s lab, Moore had ex- of 2018, Moore has accepted a position as the Ris-
plored research in tissue engineering and bioma- ing Star Larry Hench Assistant Professor of Ma-
terials. Her main research project involved using terials Science and Engineering at the University
immune cells to encourage blood vessel develop- of Florida. During the first two years of her ap-
ment within engineered tissue scaffolds. pointment, Moore will conduct research as a visit-
Initially, she thought this work would lead her ing professor at Johns Hopkins University, where
towards a career in the biomedical industry. But she’ll create her own biomaterials-focused lab.
after completing an internship at a large company “There’s a very robust amount of professional
the summer before her fifth year in the program, development resources available to Duke BME
she didn’t feel as enamored with that option. PhD students, and I think those resources allowed
“I knew I wanted a career I would never get me to move on to the next professional level more
tired of, and a job where I could interact with comfortably than other people do,” says Moore.
“I was also able to
meet with my com-
“Duke was a great place for me to see that when you identify the mittee members fairly
right team, you can really make a lot of progress on a problem.” frequently, and they
were very open and
encouraging not only
different researchers,” says Moore. “Although for my PhD, but also for career advice, which was
working in industry was a beneficial experience, helpful as I was planning to move into my new
it triggered a period of reflection for me. During role. I was able to make this large network of sup-
that time I leaned heavily on resources for Duke port in the department.”
PhD students to explore a wider range of career Each year, more than half of Duke BME PhD
LEFT: Robert Kirkton options than I’d previously considered.” graduates go on to careers in industry or entre-
works in his lab at In addition to speaking with West and other preneurship, and more than a third continue in
Humacyte, where he BME faculty, Moore attended seminars offered academia through post-doctoral fellow or facul-
develops off-the-shelf through Duke’s PhD Plus Professional Develop- ty positions. To support students as they pursue
human blood vessels ment Program, which prepares engineering stu- an array of different career options, Duke BME
that can be implanted dents for success in their post-graduate careers. encourages PhD students to participate in de-
in patients during
The sessions gave her an opportunity to speak velopment programs, like PhD Plus, or attend
surgery.
with a variety of professionals about different as- events aimed at improving presentation and
pects of their jobs: what they liked, what they writing skills. Students can also participate in in-

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 23

n EDUCATION: PHD STUDENTS

“Although working
in industry was a
beneficial experience,
it triggered a period
of reflection for me.
During that time I
leaned heavily on
resources for Duke
PhD students to
explore a wider range
of career options
than I’d previously
considered.”

terdisciplinary research programs like MEDx, a
collaborative program between the Pratt School
ABOVE: Erika Moore of Engineering and the Duke University School
relied on resources
of Medicine, and the Duke-Coulter Translation-
through the PhD
al Research Partnership to broaden their research
Plus program during
her time as a PhD
collaborations both inside and outside of the de-
student in Duke BME, partment.
which helped her “When our students are in the program they
pursue a career as are exposed to a diverse range of research oppor-
a professor at the tunities, and this diversity is then mirrored in the
University of Florida range of career opportunities available to them af-
ter graduation,” says Joel Collier, the director of
graduate studies in Duke BME. “There’s a true
spirit of collaboration in this department, so there
are few barriers to the range of avenues students
are interested in.”
This in-depth and collaborative research experi-
ence is an asset to graduates like Robert Kirkton
(PhD’12), who completed his doctoral research in
Nenad Bursac’s lab. His work in helping to create
electrically active replacement tissue to “patch”
damaged tissue after a heart attack—drew on ex-
pertise both inside and outside the lab.
“When I got to Duke I found myself surround-
ed by highly motivated and intelligent people
from diverse technical backgrounds,” says Kirk-
ton. “You could easily collaborate with people
that had expertise in molecular and cellular biol-
ogy, computational and mechanical engineering,
materials science, or clinical practice, for example.
It was a great place for me to see that when you
identify the right team, you can really make a lot
of progress on a problem.”
Kirkton is now the associate director of new
product development at Humacyte, a biotech-
nology and regenerative medicine company in
Durham that develops tissue engineering prod-
ucts based off research conducted at Yale, MIT,
and Duke University. Although he no longer
works with cardiac cells, Kirkton draws on his lab
experience from Duke BME to aid in his current
work, which involves developing off-the-shelf
bioengineered human blood vessels that can be
implanted in patients suffering from vascular dis-
eases or in need of vascular repair or replacement.
“My time at Duke really prepared me for my
current role, whether it’s through my experience
with scientific techniques, experimental design, or
my ability to reach out to new contacts and start
collaborative projects,” says Kirkton. “Duke BME
taught me that a synergistic effort is required when
tackling complex biomedical issues, and maintain-
ing that collaborative mindset has been vital to the
success of my work at Humacyte.” n

24 | DUKEBME Magazine
Tools of the Trade
With expanded course offerings intended to provide students with practical design
experience, new research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and
innovative entrepreneurial programs, Duke BME has recently launched a spate of initiatives
to prepare the next generation of biomedical engineers for success.

DESIGN RESEARCH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

BME Design Fellows
Spanning three semesters, this
is an intensive design program
for BME juniors interested in
pursuing internships that will pro-
vide them with hands-on design
experience.
Medical Device Design
Centered on collaboration with
Duke Medicine clinicians, this
re-imagined design course chal-
lenges students to create solu-
tions to real patients’ problems.
Master’s Certificate
in Biotechnology
The new master’s certificate in
biotechnology provides students
with in-depth knowledge of cut-
ting-edge techniques for mod-
eling, analyzing and designing
molecular and cellular systems.
Working with faculty who are
leaders in the field, students
will gain hands-on experience
in molecular biology, protein
expression and purification and
gene editing.
BRiDGE
The Bioengineering Research
initiative to Develop Global Entre-
preneurs expands the resources
available to bioengineering
startup companies founded by
Duke BME faculty, PhD students,
alumni and affiliates. With 2,000
square feet of lab and office
space in downtown Durham,
the initiative provides additional
support for young startup com-
panies to attract private or public
investment. n

First-Year Design Course Biomedical and

First-Year engineering students
hit the ground running by proto-
typing, designing and ultimately
creating projects for the Duke
and Durham community.
Health Data Sciences
Through new collaborations
with the Duke University Medical
Center, researchers in Duke BME
are developing innovative data
science, machine learning, and
digital health modeling approach-
es to transform multi-scale
biomedical data into actionable
health insights.

Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 25

Alternatives:
Off the Beaten Path
Garheng Kong, MD, PhD, MBA
Founder and Managing Partner of HealthQuest Capital
in San Francisco Bay Area, CA | Advisor: Mark Dewhirst
Garheng Kong earned his PhD, MD and MBA from Duke University, where his research centered on
liposomal drug delivery for cancer treatment. Combining his extensive background in engineering, medicine
and business, Kong founded venture-capital firm HealthQuest Capital in 2012 with the aim of working
with innovative entrepreneurs to transform healthcare.

How did you make the transition from Duke
BME to your current role at HealthQuest
Capital? What inspired this transition?
My professional motivation has always been to
reach people positively through healthcare at
scale.  Many of my family members are physi-
Garheng Kong,
cians, and I originally went to medical school to
MD’01, PhD’00, care for people.  I realized that to have impact
MBA’03 on more people, I wanted to pursue translational
science and Duke BME was a fantastic oppor-
tunity to learn the skills where I might one day
advance medicine and reach many more people.  to succeed?
I was fortunate that my PhD research had near-
term clinical application, however, I also learned
that medical innovations need to be commercial-
ized to actually ever reach a patient.  That’s when
I spent time in pharma (GlaxoSmithKline),
strategy consulting (McKinsey), and eventually
healthcare startup companies (Cellective Ther-
apeutics and Viamet Pharmaceuticals).  After
working in small startups, I understood that I
could have even more scale if I helped finance a
portfolio of these companies that were develop-
ing innovations to improve patient outcomes
and healthcare economics.  It was this progres-
sion of realizations that ultimately led me into
the investing world and to eventually founding
HealthQuest Capital.   The area of research that I was focused on was
What does your role as a managing partner
at HealthQuest Capital typically involve?
We have a great group of investment and back
office professionals that work together as a team.  of our work.  One can cure all the mice in the
My role is to ensure that we partner with the
best companies driving healthcare innovation
and support these companies as they grow.  A
typical day might include meeting with prospec-
tive new investments, engaging in diligence on
these opportunities, attending board meetings
of current portfolio companies, and internal
firm management.  I’m usually traveling two to
three days per week.  One of the nice aspects of
our industry is that you can work from almost
anywhere as long as you have a connected phone
and computer.  You still have to meet in-person,
but the efficiency of our business is very high.
How did your time in Duke BME prepare you
Duke BME was a valuable experience for me
during a formative time in my development.  In
addition to critical thinking, I learned how to
conduct scientific research and was given oppor-
tunities to explore multiple professional avenues. 
Dr. Dewhirst was a wonderful advisor who was
really focused on my personal development and
was a fantastic mentor to me.  After graduating
Duke BME, the benefits of being an alumnus
were also tangible—both due to the institution’s
reputation but also due to the deep network of
alumni who preceded and supported me.
Is there an experience that defined your
time in Duke BME?
drug delivery—principally for the treatment of
cancer.  One particularly memorable moment
for me was seeing the treatment of a patient in
a clinical trial that incorporated some aspects
world of cancer, but it’s not comparable to
seeing a single patient potentially benefit.  It
really brought home to me the significance and
opportunity of advancing medicine.

26 | DUKEBME Magazine
 Lauren Polstein Toth, PhD
Sr. Principal Engineer, Northrop Grumman
Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Lauren Toth studied genetic engineering as a PhD student in Duke University’s Department of Biomed-
ical Engineering. As a senior principal engineer at Northrop Grumman, she’s applying her experience in
arenas from health to security.
Tell us about your research at Duke BME.
I was a PhD student in Charlie Gersbach’s lab,
where I engineered light-inducible systems that
can activate genes in any specific location or
pattern in a lab dish by turning on
blue light. This technology could
potentially allow a scientist to pick
any gene on a chromosome and
turn it on or off with light, which
could allow us to better study
genes’ functions and create com-
plex systems for growing tissue. My
goal was to induce muscular tissue
and vascular formation in response
to blue light.
How did you get the position at
Northrop Grumman?
When I was in graduate school I
went to a Northrop Grumman information ses-
Lauren Polstein Toth, sion, and the speaker suggested that I apply to the
PhD’15 Future Technical Leaders Program. The program
allows employees to rotate through different
specialties within the company to get a wide
variety of experiences. It was targeted towards
recent graduates with master’s or PhD degrees,
and I ended up applying and getting an offer. I
took a leap of faith in taking the job, which was
intimidating since it involved experiences outside
biomedical engineering and I was worried I’d be a
fish out of water.
What did your different roles in the program
involve?
When you start, you do three one-year rotations
through different groups within the company.
You can occupy positions in research, project
management, strategy, program execution, and
other roles. In my first placement I served as the
genomics and molecular/synthetic biology expert
within the Personalized Healthcare Group, so
I ended up working with research I was more
familiar with. My next rotation involved devising
a secure mobile data solution, which was outside
anything I’d ever done. For my final rotation, I
helped manage the Technology Services Sector’s
innovation program while taking on the new
role of business development and capture for the
New York City Wireless Network program. Now
I’m a senior principal engineer with Northrop
Grumman in NYC.
How did your time at Duke BME prepare you
for your role at Northrop Grumman?
Even when I wasn’t working directly with my
biomedical engineering background, a lot of
the things I did for my PhD really helped with
the role. I did a lot of technical writing, and the
presentation skills from lab meetings and con-
ferences helped me get comfortable speaking to
people in a formal setting.
Was there an experience that particularly
sticks out to you during your time in Duke
BME?
The first thing that comes to mind is the first
time I got a “good” result in lab. For months
during my first year, I had been tweaking con-
ditions to get my light-inducible cells to work,
and I saw one experiment fail after another. I
definitely started losing my confidence. I was
in lab one night running an assay, and as I saw
the values pop up on the screen while the test
was running, I couldn’t believe my eyes because
something finally worked! Everything clicked
into place after that, and I had enough data to
publish my first paper within a few months. Grad
school definitely teaches you how to persevere
and remain optimistic despite repeated failures,
and I’ve carried that lesson with me into my
career today.
Spring 2019, Issue 2 | 27
 n ALTERNATIVES: OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Matthew Rinehart, BSE, PhD

Senior Optical Engineer, Waymo, Mountain View, CA
Advisor: Adam Wax
Matt Rinehart got the most out of his decade at Duke, first earning his bachelor’s degrees in biomedical
engineering and electrical engineering before pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering. Leveraging his
background in optical sciences, Rinehart worked at Skybox, where he built camera and telescope systems for
space satellites, before transitioning to Waymo, where he works on sensing technology for self-driving cars.

What was the focus of your research during
your time in Duke BME?
I focused on advanced microscopy and its
potential biomedical applications. I specifically
developed instrumentation and processing meth-
ods for holographic microscopy. The instruments
enabled single-shot capture of dynamic events,
like cells moving through microstructures. I also
studied the biophysical properties of red blood
cells and the dynamic properties of microbicide
polymers as they swelled and dissolved, which
was important for the study of targeted drug
Matthew Rinehart, delivery.
BSE’08, MS’14,
PhD’14 How did your time in Duke BME prepare you
for your current career path?
I spent a decade at Duke in biomedical and
electrical engineering—four years as an under-
grad followed by six years in the PhD program.  tion. It’s really satisfying to see sensor systems
During this time, I learned really solid engi-
neering fundamentals in signal processing and
instrument design. More importantly, I was given
the latitude to perform independent research and
pursue concepts that seemed interesting to me.  in the department unique?
This led me to develop skills spanning problem
definition, experimental design & planning,
hands-on system development, image processing
and data analysis (coding), and synthesis/inter-
pretation of results.
Dr. Wax’s mentorship style pushed me to really
clarify goals for myself and then continue proj-
ects until we had meaningful results. Now in my
career, I find that my ability to dig into thorny
technical problems and rigorously troubleshoot
is invaluable.  I also developed a deep knowledge
of photonics and imaging principles that I use
quite frequently in my work in industry.
How do these skills translate to your job at
Waymo? What drew you to this non-BME
career path?
Although my current projects don’t have bio-
medical motivations, my technical background
in instrumentation, sensor systems and data
analysis has translated really well. I transitioned
to Waymo for a few reasons. It was a great chance
to be part of a good team of strong engineers that
work really well together, and I wanted to work
on higher volume products that would be used
by a lot of people. I also realized that while I had
a great background in design engineering and
prototyping, I still knew very little about product
life cycle and scaling a device to mass production
manufacturing. At Waymo, I have the opportu-
nity to contribute to the full product life cycle
from concept all the way through mass produc-
that I have worked end up on cars that drive on
public roads every day.
Is there an experience that made your time
I spent many Friday afternoons hanging out with
a core group of other BME students outside of
Twinnies. We had a “classy beer club” tradition,
and it was a great time to get out of the lab,
meet other folks around CIEMAS, chat about
research, and develop friendships. Even though
all of us from that group are scattered around the
country, those are the friends from school that
I keep in touch with. Several of those engineers
have gone on to faculty positions at other univer-
sities so it’s nice to still hear updates from within
the academic research community. n

28 | DUKEBME Magazine
 Duke University, Nature Biomedical Engineering and Nature Medicine are pleased to present:

Engineering Biology for Medicine

May 19-22, 2019 | Fitzpatrick Center, Durham, NC, USA

This conference will offer a broad perspective of state-of-the-art approaches leveraging molecular engineering,
cellular engineering and materials engineering for the manipulation of the human genome and epigenome, the
immune system and diseased tissue, in the contexts of therapy, diagnostics, disease modelling and drug discovery,
and across a broad range of disease types. The focus will be on engaging discussions about how to best harness
human biology to devise strategies for probing, diagnosing and combating human disease.

SPEAKERS:
Aravind Asokan (Duke University, USA)
Jason Burdick (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Nenad Bursac (Duke University, USA)
James Collins (MIT, USA)
Jennifer Elisseeff (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Adam Engler (University of California San Diego, USA)
Zev Gartner (University of California San Francisco, USA)
Jeff Hasty (University of California San Diego, USA)
Barton Haynes (Duke University, USA)
Jeffrey Hubbell (University of Chicago, USA)
Donald Ingber (Harvard University, USA)
Darrell Irvine (MIT, USA)
Farren Isaacs (Yale University, USA)
Jay Keasling (University of California Berkeley, USA)
David Liu (Harvard University, USA)
David Mooney (Harvard University, USA)
Niren Murthy (University of California Berkeley, USA)
David Schaffer (University of California Berkeley, USA)
Tatiana Segura (Duke University, USA)
Michael Shuler (Cornell University, USA)
Pamela Silver (Harvard University, USA)
Viola Vogel (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic (Columbia University, USA)
Cheng Zhu (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: March 1, 2019 | REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 19, 2019

VISIT: nature.com/natureconferences/EBM19

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Campus Box 90281
Durham, NC 27708-0281 Cerulean Blue Cool Gray 11 Tan
100 / 31 / 5 / 20 48 / 36 / 24 / 66 7 / 14 / 20 / 21
#235F9C #666666 #DAD0C6
PMS 3015 PMS Cool Gray 11 PMS 7529

Cool Gray 7
22 / 15 / 11 / 32
#B5B5B5
PMS Cool Gray 7

Cool Gray 3
8 / 5 / 6 / 13
#E5E5E5
PMS Cool Gray 3

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