Stories from BME | In the News | Recent Grants | Honorable Mentions

Stories from BME

Detecting Cancer that Lurks After Surgeries

Apr 2026:  Shortly after joining the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2017, Dr. Bing Yu discovered a breakthrough technology to ... Continue Reading 

Restoring Function After Spinal Cord Injuries

Apr 2026:  Spinal cord injuries can be devastating, compromising people’s ability to walk, talk, breathe efficiently and complete daily tasks. Dr. Jordan Williams is encouraged that scientists can now ... Continue Reading 

Igniting Change in Cancer Screening

Apr 2026:  Few fires burn as fiercely as the one driving Dr. Efraín Torres, a 2019 Marquette biomedical engineering alumnus and CEO and co-founder of Adialante, a startup focused on … Continue Reading

 

 

In the News

• Learning alongside clinical partners in Manila: International partnership offers OREC students firsthand look at global healthcare technology (Marquette Today, July 2026)
• Student perspectives on global engineering experiences at Marquette (Marquette Today, April 2026)
• Sound foundations: Dr. Karen Kruger's innovations in biomedical engineering are helping young patients navigate pediatric foot conditions (Marquette Today, April 2026)
• Biomedical Engineering Student Ian Ortega to Deliver 2026 Marquette Undergraduate Commencement Address (Marquette Today, April 2026)
• Department Chair Dr. Hu Yang elected fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (Marquette Today, April 2026)
• Dr. Karen Kruger listed as Marquette Innovator, 2025, for her work with pediatric flatfoot deformity (Marquette Today, March 2026)
• Project Wonder presents "Little Heart Warrior," an animated video featuring the childhood art of a boy whose life has been drastically impacted by scientific advancements led by Dr. Brandon Tefft. (Project Wonder, February 2026)
• Dr. Brandon Tefft and collaborator Aoy Tomita Mitchell discuss cardiovascular bioengineering and the importance of designing biomedical solutions specifically targeting pediatric medical concerns. See the Milwaukee Health Briefing from February 10^th. (WTMJ, February 2026)
• TRE Lab Medical Student Presents Bone Regeneration Research at International Conference in Shanghai. (MCW Knowledge, January 2026) 

Recent Grants 

• Dr. Jordan Williams wins $1.7 M NIH grant to develop and optimize viral-mediated optogenetic nerve stimulation techniques for restoring motor function after spinal cord injury (June 2026)
• Dr. Jim Hokanson wins $3.7 M NIH grant to define optimal tibial nerve stimulation protocols for improving bladder function following spinal cord injury (May 2026)
• Dr. Roger Guillory wins $2.1M NIH grant to investigate degradation mechanisms of bioabsorbable metal and their relationship to inflammation during wound healing (Feb 2026)

Honorable Mentions 

• Carolyn (Cazza) Czerniak, BME PhD candidate in Dr. Roger Guillory's Regenerative Engineered Biomaterials Lab (REB Lab), has received the Paper of the Season award from MCW's School of Graduate Studies for Summer 2026. This award is in recognition of the paper titled, "Mg-Y-Nd alloy biocorrosion behavior in hyperlipidemia models in vivo and in vitro.” (July 2026)
• Janet Le, BME graduate student from the Motion Analysis Center at Shriners Children's working under the direction of Dr. Karen Kruger, has been selected as a 2026 Best Paper Finalist for the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society's (GCMAS) Annual Meeting. This award is in recognition of her work titled, "Comparison of Segmental Foot Kinematics with and without X-Ray Metrics in Pediatric Foot Deformities." (July 2026)
• Dr. Maxine Olson, BME PhD graduate from the Motion Analysis Center at Shriners Children's under the direction of Dr. Karen Kruger, has been awarded the Kevin P. Granata Student Award from the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society (GCMAS) Annual Meeting. This award is in recognition of her presentation titled, "Are Abnormal Foot Invertor and Evertor Muscle Tendon Lengths Related to Abnormal Coronal Plane Kinematics?" (July 2026) 
• Nabil Othman, BME senior in Dr. Scott Beardsley's Integrative Neural Systems Laboratory (INSL), has been awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (June 2026)
• Dr. Teri Sippel Schmidt, Eng ’87, Grad ’92, receives the Opus College of Engineering Service Award for her outstanding service to Marquette University and the College of Engineering (June 2026)
• Dr. Sayantan Sinha, postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Amit Joshi's Nanomedicine & Image-Guided Interventions Laboratory (NIGIL), has been selected for an oral presentation at the 2026 World Molecular Imaging Congress in Salt Lake City, Utah (May 2026) 
• A collaborative film inspired by the pediatric cardiovascular precision medicine of Drs. Tefft & Tomita-Mitchell is scheduled to air at Milwaukee Film Festival (April 2026)
• BME PhD candidate Shamudra Dey wins Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellowship, 2026, for excellence in academics and leadership (Mar 2026)

 

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