2023 Teacher Research Training

Dartmouth College - 1 teacher position

Primary Research Mentor: Katherine Hixon

Primary Research Mentor: Adelaide Cagle

Project Description:

Limb loss is incredibly common with nearly 2 million amputees in the US as of 2005, and numbers expected to double/triple by 2050. Despite this, success rates for socket prosthetics remain low. New osseointegrated prostheses are distinguished by their use of a metal implant directly integrated with native, healthy bone, allowing for improved stability and support; however, dermal tissue cannot adhere to the metal implant, leaving the interface vulnerable to infection. Tissue engineering and biomaterials offers a unique matrix for repair, replacement, and regeneration. The combination of 3D-printing and electrospinning is of interest to create integrated biomaterial structures.
Student Role: The teacher will assist with designing 3D-printed constructs to improve the attachment of electrospun fibers.

Prerequisites: 3D-printing, SolidWorks (not required, but encouraged)

UNH Durham- 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Mentor: Chenfeng Ke

Project Description:

The teacher will work on the end group modification of polyethylene glycols and subsequent 3D printing gel formation.

Prerequisites: Completed Organic Chemistry 1 and II

Dartmouth College - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher: Ian Baker

Primary Research Mentor: Bram Kuijer

Project Description:

The teacher will assist the graduate student in sample preparation and experiments of various metals used in biomedical and biomaterials uses. Teacher will learn to use equipment such as high and slow speed saws, autopolisher, potentiostat, tensile tester, and electron microscopes. The teacher will engage also in electrolyte (acidic, basic, and simulated body fluid) preparation and handling. The teacher will also learn to identify different types of corrosion and characterize the effects of the electrolyte on the metal. This is an important skill in many scientific fields and the experience will provide a specialized knowledge of the subject as well as use of commonly used equipment in engineering.

Prerequisites: General Chemistry, basic Materials Science

UNH Durham - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Research Mentor: Md. Ahasan Habib

Project Description:

This research aims to provide a background for three-dimensional (3D) printing applications for cell scaffolding. Three-dimensional bioprinting is a rapidly growing field attempting to recreate functional tissues for medical and pharmaceutical purposes. Perfusion bioreactors may offer better fresh growth medium to encapsulated cell compared to traditional static incubation technique. We have already designed and manufactured a perfusion bioreactor in our lab. In this research, we will continue to improve our already designed and manufactured bioreactor so that   the geometry of incubated 3D scaffolds can be preserved. To do this, we may need to modify material compositions and bioreactor related process parameters. 
Students will be trained before starting the work. Teacher will work as part of a team, finish the work in a timely manner, update the work to the primary researcher, maintain proper communication, follow the lab working protocol, manage the test data and maintain records. 

Prerequisites: Completed coursework in CAD, and basic engineering

UNh Durham - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Mentor: Kyung Jae Jeong

Project Description:

The teacher will participate in developing novel bioinks for 3D bio-printing. Mesenchymal stem cells will be embedded in the bioinks and differentiated into various linages (osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes) within the printed microstructures. The teacher will learn rheology, 3D printing, basic cell culture and several biological assays throughout the project.

Prerequisites: None

UNH Durham - 2 Teacher Positions

Lead Researcher/Primary Mentor: Julianna Gesun

Project Description:

Do you enjoy making aesthetically appealing tables and diagrams for academic research? Do you enjoy academic writing? This project involves working with data from thriving engineering students and representing it in aesthetically pleasing formats for academic journal publication.

Prerequisites: Academic writing experience and/or interest. Conscientious. Data visualization experience preferred.

UNH Durham - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher(s)/Primary Research Mentor(s): JinJin Ha, Brad Kinsey, Abrar Ebrahim

Project Description

This project is to characterize twinning kinetics for CP-Ti material, which is used for the trauma fixation hardware, using in-plane biaxial testing machine. The teacher will perform the experiment in John Olson Advanced Manufacturing center in UNH (Durham) and report the post-processing result for stress/strain analysis and martensite volume fraction measurement.

Desirable: Lab experience, coursework in Mechanical and Material Science

UNH Durham - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Research Mentor: Linqing Li

Project Description:

The research project aims to develop a processing protocol to generate microstructured pro-angiogenic hydrogels via capturing thermodynamically driven liquid-liquid phase separation process. The teacher will learn to fabricate various types of phase-separated biomaterials, characterize mechanical properties of these hydrogels, learn how to encapsulate cells in 3D matrix, maintain general cell culture, process tissue samples, and familiarize fluorescent staining protocols and imaging processing, some of the key techniques in the field of biomedical and tissue engineering.

Prerequisites: Basic Materials Science and Engineering & some general Chemistry are preferred but not required.

UNH Durham - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Research Mentor: Nate Oldenhuis

Project Description:

The teacher will isolate pDNA and proteins from bioreactor based fermentation processes and then chemically alter them to make precursors for materials. These materials will be used for applications in drug delivery, gene production, and cellular scaffolding.

Prerequisite: Organic Chemistry

Desireable: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

UNH Durham - Remote Only - 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher: Harish Vashisth

Primary Research Mentor: Brunno Rocha

Project Description:

This project involve smodeling and simulations of biomolecules. The teacher will learn to set up and run computer simulations of multi-particle systems and model intermolecular interactions under different conditions (for example, temperature and solvent). The teacher will also learn to extract data from computer simulations using visualization and analysis tools.

Prerequisites: Chemistry and understanding of biological molecules. Teacher must have a laptop.

UNH Manchester- 1 teacher position

Lead Researcher/Primary Mentor: Won Hyuk Suh

Project Description:

Teacher will learn how to work with mammalian cells (e.g., neural stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells), naturally-occurring polymers, and synthetic polymers to formulate new bioink formulations to three-dimensionally print human stem cells and perform needed physicochemical and biological characterization experiments. Depending on specific student interest and background, students can focus on two or more of the following topics: (1) 3D printing of protein-based bioinks, (2) rheology, (3) cell culture, (4) protein techniques, (5) fluorescence microscopy, (6) electron microscopy, (7) numerical/statistical analysis.

Prerequisites: General Chemistry or General Biology or Calculus or Statistics