BME Student Wins Conference Award

Lee presented her team's paper at ICNST 2018; the International Conference on Materials and Intelligent Manufacturing was held simultaneously.Sept. 20, 2018 - Biomedical engineering graduate student Carina Lee won the Best Oral Presentation Paper Award at the 2018 International Conference on Nano Science & Technology (ICNST 2018) in Sapporo, Japan, last month.

Lee presented a paper written by her, and fellow Samueli School biomedical engineering associates student William Agnew and Professor Bill Tang, her adviser.

"Micromechanistically Modulated Cardiomyocyte Alignment in Vitro," explores the mechanistic response of cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells) to external cues. Lee explains that by studying cardiomyocytes from mice, researchers can better understand human heart cell function and more effectively develop drugs for those suffering from cardiovascular disease. The paper described a cell-based setup on which HL-1 cardiomyocytes were aligned on polymer substrates constructed with ridges and grooves, and observed for contractility (the ability to self-contract).

“The experimental results suggest that our micro-platform can promote cardiomyocyte alignment in-vitro, which is a crucial intermediate step toward rapid drug screening for cardiotoxicity,” said Lee, who received her master’s degree in June.

“I was very happy and very surprised to receive the Best Oral Paper Award for the biomedical section,” Lee added.  “I am very grateful to Professor Tang and the Tang Microbiomechanics Lab for their help.  Also, I am grateful for help from the cardio team. 

“A big thanks to Professor Tang for giving me the opportunity to attend and present at the conference. All the hard work finally paid off!”

- Anna Lynn Spitzer

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