On Friday, April 21st, undergraduate students from across the university will participate in DREAMS – Day of undergraduate Research in Engineering, the Arts & humanities, Medicine, and the Sciences. The event, formerly known as Undergraduate Research Day (URD), is held each year with the goal of showcasing the research achievements of Johns Hopkins University undergraduate students. But, DREAMS isn’t only about research. The event also aims to showcase the creative innovations that Johns Hopkins University students have developed. If a student can create it, they are encouraged to showcase their work at DREAMS.
The Department of Materials Science is proud to have a role in three teams being featured at this year’s DREAMS event. Each team’s project focuses on alleviating a specific problem that occurs with surgery or medical procedures. Below is a brief description of each team’s project.
Team 1: Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals have been on the hook financially for the cost post-surgical osteomyelitis (PSO). After a patient has a traumatic orthopedic procedure, the chance of infection is extremely high. Often, the treatment of these infections involves additional surgeries. The cost of these additional surgeries and treatments is estimated at $150 million, annually. The team is in the process of developing a way to greatly reduce the occurrence of PSO. They are developing a biomaterial spray that would offer the controlled release of antibiotics. The antibiotics would be loaded into the biomaterial and then applied to the surgical site as a preventative measure to PSO.
Team Members: Shin-Jae Lee (Team Leader), MSE senior; Gunnar Mattson (BME); Janani Narayan (ChemBE); Sam Norwood; Salvatore Caruso (ChemBE); and Connor Krill, MSE freshman.
Team 2: The team is working on designing an embolic device that would act as a blockage to stifle the flow of blood to a specific area. Think of it as the opposite of a stent, which is placed in blood vessels to open up an area to allow more blood flow. The device would be deposited into place using a catheter. Working on the idea of Dr. Christos Georgiades MD PhD at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the team has been busy bringing the device to realization. Michael Marinier, TA and team leader, truly enjoys the independence that the team has to move from theory to implementation.
Team Members: Mike Marinier (Team Leader), MSE senior; AJ Bizub, MSE junior; Kevin Necochea, MSE junior; Rasha Bara, MSE sophomore; Bijan Varjavand, MSE sophomore with junior class standing; Kendall Free, MSE freshman
Team 3: Since the current system of bone marrow extraction lacks efficiency and is susceptible to sample contamination, the team decided to develop a streamlined, closed system for bone marrow extraction. The team has been able to develop an easily integrated solution that minimizes the possibility of contamination and streamlines the aspiration process. The optimized procedure will benefit bone marrow related patients and operators with a faster and safer process.
Team Members: Ukrit Rojanasena (Team Leader), MSE senior; Brendan Shannon, MSE senior; Jaehyun Han, MSE senior; Madelaine Else, MSE junior; Grace Hao, MSE junior; Kevin Li, MSE junior; Roshan Plamthottam, MSE junior; Omar Saul, MSE junior