Biomedical Engineering Graduate Students Recognized with Poster Awards
Daanish Kulkarni won the People’s Choice Award for his research poster at the 2025 Cellular and Molecular Engineering Special Interest Group conference.
March 17, 2025 - Three UC Irvine biomedical engineering doctoral students won research poster awards at the Biomedical Engineering Society’s 2025 Cellular and Molecular Engineering Special Interest Group conference in Carlsbad.
Daanish Kulkarni’s poster won the People’s Choice Award, voted on by all conference attendees, and Michelle Lanterman and Khanh Tran-Dao both earned recognition from the judged sessions. The three UCI students were among 15 overall who were honored at the conference with poster awards.
The research of Tran-Dao and Kulkarni, who also received a travel award to attend the conference, explores the role of the brain’s immune cells in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Tran-Dao’s research investigates the effect of CD200 on microglia, the primary immune cell of the brain. CD200 is a protein that facilitates the body's immune response by preventing immune cells from attacking the body's own cells and has been shown to decrease with age and in AD. Her data suggest that adding soluble CD200 to microglia can address certain hallmarks of the disease such as plaque uptake, secretion of inflammatory signals, and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Kulkarni’s research similarly explores the role of microglia in AD, focusing on the role of mechano-sensing through the Piezo1 ion channel on the function and metabolism of microglia.
Khanh Tran-Dao earned a poster award for her research exploring the role of the brain’s immune cells in Alzheimer’s Disease.
Microglia tend to surround stiff plaques in a relatively soft tissue (brain) and become dysfunctional with chronic activation, characterized metabolically by the accumulation of intracellular lipid droplets. His work has shown the direct role of mechanical stiffness and Piezo1 activation as major drivers of lipid accumulation in these cells.
Lanterman’s research uses optical tweezers to measure the evolving mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix during capillary morphogenesis. Vascularization is critical to the development of engineered tissues, and various stromal cells in co-culture with endothelial cells in 3D hydrogels have been explored to support vascular development. She found that elevated tissue stiffening accompanied greater vascular development when comparing two stromal cell types. Her data suggests a connection between stromal cell-dependent contractility, ECM stiffening and vascular development, underscoring the importance of considering these effects in the development of vascularized tissues.
Michelle Lanterman won recognition for her research, which uses optical tweezers to measure the evolving mechanical properties during vascular development.
The BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group brings together researchers with diverse scientific and clinical interests with a common goal of understanding and engineering molecules, cells, their interactions and microenvironments in the pursuit of controlling biological processes and improving the practice of medicine. This year’s conference focused on cell engineering for mechano-medicine and rejuvenation.
Also at the conference, Quinton Smith, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, was one off 20 to receive the CMBE Rising Star Award in recognition of his outstanding impact on the field of cellular and molecular bioengineering.
– Lori Brandt
