{"id":52026,"date":"2026-01-13T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&p=52026"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:50:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:50:28","slug":"chembe-malone-symposium","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/chembe-malone-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Students Receive 2025 Malone Symposium Poster Session Honors"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 8, 2025, the Malone Center hosted two poster sessions featuring the latest in healthcare engineering research as part of its\u00a0<\/span>9th Annual Johns Hopkins Research Symposium on Engineering in Healthcare<\/a>, \u201cHuman + AI: Redefining the Standard of Care in Medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 40 groups presented their work for symposium attendees to view, discuss, and vote on. All presenters received certificates of participation, while the top three posters in each session were awarded prizes. Learn more about the winners below.<\/p>\n

Morning Session<\/h4>\n
\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Donald Kramer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The poster \u201cDONNIE: Deep Omics Neural Network Inferred Expression\u201d\u2014presented by Donald Kramer, a PhD student of chemical and biomedical engineering and a member of the\u00a0<\/span>Johns Hopkins Institute for Nanobiotechnology<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(INBT)\u2014was one of the top three posters in the morning session as voted by symposium participants.<\/p>\n

Along with his co-authors\u2014Fan Wu, also a PhD student in ChemBE and INBT member; Joel Sunshine, an assistant professor of dermatology, pathology, oncology, and biomedical engineering; and Pei-Hsun Wu and Denis Wirtz, both faculty in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and INBT\u2014as well as mentors Qingfeng Zhu and Robert Anders, both members of the\u00a0<\/span>Convergence Institute<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>at the\u00a0<\/span>Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and faculty in the\u00a0<\/span>School of Medicine<\/a>, Kramer showcased a powerful new deep learning tool that can be used to gain deeper molecular insights from standard images of hematoxylin and eosin stained slides, which have been used by pathologists to diagnose and understand disease for over 100 years. This work has the potential to allow researchers and doctors to rapidly and affordably extract detailed molecular information from existing standard pathology slides\u2014promising to speed up research, help better classify diseases, and ultimately enhance personalized medicine by providing fast, data-driven molecular maps right where the diagnosis happens.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Iris<\/p>\n

Iris Zheng<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Also recognized was \u201cDe Novo Design of Alpha-Synuclein Fibrils Inhibitors for Treating Parkinson\u2019s Disease,\u201d presented by Iris Zheng, an undergraduate student of biomedical engineering.<\/p>\n

Joined by Zachary Sayyah, an undergraduate double majoring in biomedical engineering and computer science; Yiwen \u201cMelody\u201d Jin, an undergraduate student of chemical and biomolecular engineering; and chemical and biomolecular engineering Professor Jeffrey Gray, Zheng presented a new protein design pipeline to generate stronger inhibitors that target the steric zipper interface of alpha-synuclein fibrils to help treat Parkinson\u2019s disease and other progressive neurodegenerative disorders. Their study establishes a scalable computational strategy for designing peptide-based inhibitors with high affinity and specificity.<\/p>\n

The final award in the morning session went to\u00a0<\/span>Kendall Reid<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and Madeline Brooks for their poster, \u201cDo Machine Learning and Traditional Regression Models Identify the Same Influential Risk Factors? A Case Study of Virologic Failure in People with HIV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reid, a master\u2019s student in bioinformatics and a research staff member at the\u00a0<\/span>Bloomberg School of Public Health<\/a>, and Brooks, a PhD student of epidemiology, conducted this work with Yao Zhao, a PhD student of applied mathematics and statistics; Chunyan Zheng and Elizabeth Humes, both biostatisticians in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Epidemiology<\/a>; Malone Center affiliate\u00a0<\/span>Yanxun Xu<\/a>, an associate professor of applied mathematics and statistics; and epidemiology Professor Keri Althoff. The team sought to determine if machine learning approaches differ from traditional regression models in their ranking of risk factors for time to HIV virologic failure in the first decade after antiretroviral therapy initiation using different feature selection approaches.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Madeline<\/p>\n

Madeline Brooks, Keri Althoff, and Kendall Reid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Afternoon Session<\/h4>\n
\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Amama Mahmood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the afternoon, Malone Postdoctoral Fellow\u00a0<\/span>Amama Mahmood<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>won recognition for her poster, \u201cReimagining Behavioral Sleep Medicine: Designing Conversational Sleep Diary and Visualization Tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her co-authors\u2014Bokyung Kim, a master\u2019s student of engineering management; Honghao Zhao, a master\u2019s student of computer science;\u00a0<\/span>Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>faculty Molly E. Atwood, Luis F. Buenaver, and Michael T. Smith; and\u00a0<\/span>Chien-Ming Huang<\/a>, a John C. Malone Associate Professor of Computer Science\u2014Mahmood designed a voice-based conversational agent as an alternative method of making sleep diary entries. The work introduces a large language model-powered conversational sleep diary and a specialist-facing visualization tool, and provides empirical insights into how conversational agents can support behavioral sleep interventions in new and transformative ways.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Haoyue Sun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another prize went to Haoyue Sun, a senior research data analyst in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics<\/a>, for his poster, \u201cKM-GPT: An Automated Pipeline for Reconstructing Individual Patient Data from Kaplan-Meier Plots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joined by Yao Zhao, Yantian Ding, Engr \u201925 (MSE), and Yanxun Xu, Sun developed the first fully automated, AI-powered pipeline for reconstructing individual patient data directly from Kaplan\u2013Meier survival plots with high accuracy, robustness, and reproducibility to support more informed evidence-based decision-making in clinical research. Learn more about this work\u00a0<\/span>here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Matthew Farah<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Finally, biomedical engineering undergraduate student Matthew Farah was recognized for his work on \u201cA Novel Quantitative Method to Evaluate Functional Impairment in Patients with Parkinson\u2019s Disease and Other Movement Disorders.\u201d He was joined by team members Arihant Singh, also an undergraduate student of biomedical engineering; Ramya Palani, Engr \u201925 (BS); Jerry Jing, an undergraduate double majoring in biomedical engineering and applied mathematics and statistics; and Viggy Vanchinathan, Engr \u201925 (BS), and was mentored by\u00a0<\/span>Neurology and Neurosurgery<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>faculty Stephen Grill and Alexander Pantely; Michelle Zwernemann, an associate professor of the practice in\u00a0<\/span>Biomedical Engineering<\/a>; and\u00a0James Brasic, a former assistant professor of radiology and radiological science.<\/p>\n

To address the pressing need for quantitative technology to aid in both the diagnosis and long-term management of movement disorders like Parkinson\u2019s disease, the team developed a novel, sensor-based system to collect data from patients while they brush their teeth and comb their hair, enabling objective assessment during naturalistic daily activities and providing a powerful tool to support diagnosis and long-term patient management.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

See the full list of posters presented in both sessions\u00a0<\/span>here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Malone Center would like to thank all who presented at, attended, and organized this year\u2019s poster sessions, and looks forward to hosting more trainee research at its next symposium, scheduled to take place on December 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally posted by the Johns Hopkins Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-52026","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-awards-and-honors","news_categories-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChemical and Biomolecular Engineering Students Receive 2025 Malone Symposium Poster Session Honors - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/chembe-malone-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Students Receive 2025 Malone Symposium Poster Session Honors - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On December 8, 2025, the Malone Center hosted two poster sessions featuring the latest in healthcare engineering research as part of its\u00a09th Annual Johns Hopkins Research Symposium on Engineering in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/chembe-malone-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-13T16:50:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Students Receive 2025 Malone Symposium Poster Session Honors - 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