📣 CMBE Council Member Nominations are open
Nominate a colleague or yourself to help lead the CMBE community
Deadline January 30 2026 at 11:59 PM ET

Submit here 👉 forms.gle/NwyHh1JB7CuV...

🫀🔥 When inflammation flares, the heart feels it.

Dr. Renita Horton (University of Houston) investigates how inflammation drives autoimmune-mediated cardiovascular disease.

Decoding immune signals with cardiac consequences.
#CMBE2026

🧬⚙️ When cells feel the beat, function follows.

Dr. Kelly Vazquez (Wheaton College) links mechanical cues to oscillatory dynamics, cytoskeletal remodeling, and functional markers in β-cells.

Mechanics set the rhythm.
#CMBE2026

🚀🧬 Momentum isn’t just speed—it’s sustained impact.

Congratulations to Momentum Award winner Jianping Fu (Univ Michigan) from BioMEMS to stem cells to developmental bioengineering and mechanobiology, always pushing the field to new directions and dimensions.

#CMBE2026

⚡🎓3 talks. 3'.
Grad Student Awardees David Gazzo (NotreDame)
tunes mechanical Ca²⁺ signaling, Connor Devine (U Penn)
assembles functional TCRs in a day, and Farnaz Naeemikia (Penn State) designs autonomous, reversible switches for smarter cell therapies.
#CMBE2026

🫁🧬Organoids work better with immune cells inside.

Rising Star Awardee Elizabeth Wayne (University of Washington) optimizes incorporation of monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages into human airway organoids.

Building airways with immunity included.🌟
#CMBE2026 #RisingStar

🧬🛡️ If you want to infiltrate tumors, send in the pros.

Congrats to Postdoctoral Travel Awardee Charles Park (Harvard)!

Charles reimagines macrophages as a platform for tumor-infiltrating immunotherapy.

Built to enter. Engineered to fight.
#CMBE2026 #PostdocAward

🗣️🧬 When healing hits the right note.

Dr. Donald Freytes (NC State) shows how injecting vocal fold lamina propria–derived hydrogels can modulate fibrosis in injured vocal folds.

Engineering recovery you can hear.
#CMBE2026

🧠🍬In the brain, sugar matters.

Rising Star Awardee Juhi Samal (Univ of Alabama Birmingham) reveals how microglial glycan remodeling—from the cell surface to mitochondria—shapes aging and stroke responses.

Sweet chemistry. Serious consequences. 🌟
#CMBE2026 #RisingStar

🧬❄️ To heat up cold tumors, change the environment.

Rising Star Pilar de la Puente (Sanford Research, Univ of North Dakota) engineers physiologically relevant, patient-derived tumor–immune models to target immunologically cold high-grade serous tumors.🌟

#CMBE2026

🧬🌱 Start early. Engineer carefully. Heal better.

Rising Star Awardee Dake Hao (UC Davis) engineers the fetal environment to treat spina bifida bone defects.

When timing is everything, so is design. 🌟
#CMBE #RisingStar

🌍🧬 Bioengineering works best when patients lead the way.

Vision Keynote Speaker Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez (UT Austin Biomedical) putting patients at the center of design brings bioengineering innovation to the clinic.

Innovation with purpose.
#CMBE2026

⚡🎓 Graduate Student Awardees María del C. Ramos-Álamo (U Puerto Rico) uses deep learning image profiling to reveal morphological markers, while Yansong Peng (Cornell) shows how normalizing tumor lymphatic drainage can boost immunotherapy.

Fast talks. Sharp insights.
#CMBE2026

🧬⏳ Aging leaves signatures—immune cells keep the record.

Congrats to Postdoctoral Travel Awardee Anthony Fung (Yale University)!

Anthony uses multi-modal senotyping to map how immune cells change during aging.

Reading immunity across time.
#CMBE2026 #PostdocAward

Audrey McCarthy (from Tejal Desai lab, Brown University) presents EGFR-targeted lipid nanoparticles to enhance endometrial uptake in vitro.

Precision delivery, by design.
#CMBE2026

👀🫁 Disease doesn’t ignore sex—models shouldn’t either.

Mark Mondrinos (Tulane University) uses sex-specific microphysiological systems to study hormone effects in diabetic retinopathy and lung cancer.

Context changes outcomes.
#CMBE2026

🦠🫀When the gut talks, heart valves listen.

Rising Star Awardee Ana Maria Porras (University of Florida) shows how TMAO induces valve cell activation and ECM production via PERK-dependent ER stress.

Metabolites with mechanical consequences. 🌟
#CMBE2026

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🧬🧭 Where mechanics change, function follows.

Rising Star Jennifer Young (Nat. Univ. of Singapore) uses spatial mechanomics to uncover how extracellular matrix mechanics are regulated in ovarian aging dysfunction.

Mapping mechanics to understand aging. 🌟
#CMBE2026
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🌱🧬💡Resilient science doesn’t resist change—it uses it.

Dr. Ariella Shikanov (Univ Michigan Ann Arbor) challenges us with a story of resilience, scientific adaptability, and accelerating women’s health innovation.

Vision that adapts. Science that delivers.
#CMBE2026 #WomensHealth

👀🧬 When the big picture includes every cell.

Jie Luo (Purdue) pushes whole-body imaging to single-cell resolution.

Big picture. Tiny details.
#CMBE2026 #Imaging

Was disappointed to miss the conference. Thanks to the organizers, @bmes-cmbe.bsky.social, and everyone who made it out to #cmbe2026. A privilege to be invited and share my perspective on the future of bioengineering. ❤️

🧬⚡Healing isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Vision Speaker Jenny Robinson (University of Washington) challenges how we think - reDEFINING: Hormones, Healing, and the Future of Sports Medicine.

Science that changes the game.
#CMBE2026

🎯🧬 Adaptive immunity is programmable.

Michelle Teplensky (Boston University), Rising Star Awardee, reveals how intracellular antigen processing can be tuned to bias immune outcomes.

Precision immunoengineering. 🌟
#CMBE2026 #ImmunoEngineering

🧬📦If cells could schedule deliveries, this would be it.

Thunyapat Silpsamrit
@thunyasilps
engineer mammalian cells with synthetic control over secretory phenotypes—boosting bioproduction and enabling neuroendocrine-like regulated secretion.

#CMBE2026 #SyntheticBiology

🧠🧬 If you want to understand the brain, build one.

Congrats to Postdoc Travel Awardee Xun Wang (MIT/MGH)!

Xun engineers 3D human brain models to uncover the mechanical mechanisms driving Alzheimer’s disease.

Thinking about neurodegeneration in 3D.
#CMBE2026

🧬🖨️ From soft to stiff—printed without limits.

Yunzhi Peter Yang (Stanford) breaks boundaries with hybrid bioprinting across seven orders of mechanical magnitude.

When biology spans the full spectrum.
#CMBE2026 #Bioprinting

🧬💪 When metabolism changes, muscle gets the message.

Alis Balayan (UCSD) examine how obesity alters adipogenic regulation in human skeletal muscle.

Context matters—even for muscle identity.
#CMBE2026 #MetabolicBio

🧬🕵️ Nanoparticles in disguise.

Mark Kuei-Chun Wang (ASU), Rising Star Awardee, designs monocyte-mimetic nanoparticles that home to atherosclerotic plaques for targeted theranostics.

When delivery systems blend in, precision follows. 🌟
#CMBE2026 #RisingStar

Thanks to Dr. Kareem Azab, here with Cellatrix co-founder Dr. Pilar de la Puente (University of South Dakota), for leading the workshop From Idea to Industry: Navigating the Path from Lab to Market

#CMBE2026 #benchtobusiness 🧪🧫💸

Coming to #CMBE2026 is a great opportunity to learn about priorities of funding agencies - thanks to Dr. Beth Pruitt for a great overview of the Keck Foundation funding!