2021 Research Projects

Projects are posted below; new projects will continue to be posted. To learn more about the type of research conducted by undergraduates, view the archived symposium booklets and search the past SURF projects.

This is a list of research projects that may have opportunities for undergraduate students. Please note that it is not a complete list of every SURF project. Undergraduates will discover other projects when talking directly to Purdue faculty.

You can browse all the projects on the list or view only projects in the following categories:


Biological Simulation and Technology (12)

 

Computational investigation of mechanosensitive behaviors of motile cells 

Description:
Cell migration plays an important role in physiology and pathophysiology. Migrating cells are able to sense surrounding mechanical environments. For example, a number of experiments have demonstrated that nano- and micro-patterns can guide migration of cells. This migratory behavior is called the contact guidance and is of great importance in various physiological processes, such as cancer metastasis. In this research project, we aim to use a rigorous computational model and collaborate with experimentalists in order to investigate intrinsic mechanisms of the contact guidance. A participating student will run computer simulations and analyze data from the simulations to perform the research. If necessary, everything for this project can be done remotely.
Research categories:
Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical, Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or Biophysics
Desired experience:
Intermediate/Proficient C coding skills Sufficient experiences in MATLAB coding Basic knowledge of cell biology (optional)
School/Dept.:
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Taeyoon Kim

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/mct

 

Dynamic contractile behaviors of active cytoskeletal networks 

Description:
The actin cytoskeleton is a dynamic structural scaffold used by eukaryotic cells to provide mechanical integrity and resistance to deformation while simultaneously remodeling itself and adapting to diverse extracellular stimuli. The actin cytoskeleton with molecular motors also generates tensile mechanical forces with contractile behaviors in various biological processes of cells such as migration, cytokinesis, and morphogenesis. Although microscopic properties of key constituents of the actin cytoskeleton have been well characterized, it still remains elusive how the actin cytoskeleton contracts and generates mechanical forces. In this research project, we aim to illuminate the mechanisms, using a well-established computational model. A participating student will run computer simulations and analyze data from the simulations to perform the research. If necessary, everything for this project can be done remotely.
Research categories:
Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical, Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or Biophysics
Desired experience:
Intermediate/Proficient C coding skills Sufficient experiences in MATLAB coding Basic knowledge of cell biology (optional)
School/Dept.:
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Taeyoon Kim

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/mct

 

Engineering human stem cells for targeted cancer therapy  

Description:
Cancer is a major threat for humans worldwide, with over 18 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer-related deaths in 2019. Although most common cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, unsatisfactory cure rates require new therapeutic approaches. Recently, adoptive cellular immunotherapies with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineered T and natural killer (NK) cells have shown impressive clinical responses in patients with various blood and solid cancers. However, current clinical practices are limited by the need of large numbers of healthy immune cells, resistance to gene editing, lack of in vivo persistence, and a burdensome manufacturing strategy that requires donor cell extraction, modulation, expansion, and re-introduction per each patient. The ability to generate universally histocompatible and
genetically-enhanced immune cells from continuously renewable human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines offers the potential to develop a true off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapy. While functional CAR-T and NK cells have been successfully derived from hPSCs, a significant gap remains in the scalability, time-consuming (5 or more weeks), purity and robustness of the differentiation methods due to the cumbersome use of serum, and/or feeder cells, which will incur potential risk for contamination and may cause batch-dependency in the treatment. This project thus aims to develop a novel, chemically-defined platform for robust production of CAR-T and CAR-NK cells from hPSCs.
Research categories:
Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology, Cellular Biology
Preferred major(s):
Chemical, Biological, Biochemistry or any related major
Desired experience:
Previous experience with cell culture and molecular biology is a bonus, but NOT required.
School/Dept.:
Chemical Engineering
Professor:
Xiaoping Bao

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/people/ptProfile?resource_id=210038

 

Evaluation of early changes in a non-surgical post-traumatic osteoarthritis model 

Description:
Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Knee osteoarthritis is most common among these, and approximately 1 in 8 cases of osteoarthritis are considered post-traumatic, meaning that degeneration of the tissues in the joint is precipitated from an injury, such as tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Unfortunately, about half of people who tear their ACLs go on to develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis, whether or they had ACL repair surgery. An understanding of the early biological response of the joint after an injury could help identify targets for treatment and rehabilitation to be prescribed in conjunction with ACL repair and physical therapy. In order to learn more about the early inflammation in the joint after an injury, we need to develop a non-surgical ACL tear model for mice that replicates key conditions of the human injury. This project involves development and testing of a new system to perform the single tibial compression model of ACL rupture. This model will enable the examination of the early inflammatory response in the mouse knee.
Research categories:
Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Desired experience:
Familiarity with orthopedics, mechanical design, biomechanics, and reading of scientific literature
School/Dept.:
Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Deva Chan

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

 

Image-based computational modeling of tissue interface mechanics 

Description:
Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Tissue trauma, such as focal cartilage defects, can lead to osteoarthritis if not properly treated. Although cartilage tissue engineering has potential to repair or regenerate tissues in the joint, long-term success of these strategies hinge on the ability of clinicians to monitor the repair process. Imaging techniques currently allow for assessment of structure and even some biochemical changes, but these measures poorly reflect the mechanical properties of the repair. The repair not only must match the depth-dependent mechanical behavior of the surrounding tissues but also needs to be securely integrated with the native tissue. Our lab has developed a magnetic resonance imaging-based method to measure tissue biomechanics. However, integration of these images into computational models is necessary to evaluate how forces are distributed to the repair tissue and how strong the interface between the repair and native tissues is. This project is an important step towards this goal and involves developing and imaging phantoms that mimic the repair interface. Then, the researcher will subsequently generate a computational biomechanics model based on the image data.
Research categories:
Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Desired experience:
Familiarity with finite element analysis, biomechanics, imaging, coding, and reading of scientific literature
School/Dept.:
Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Deva Chan

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

 

In vitro tissue engineering scaffold maturation and integration for longitudinal MRI 

Description:
Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Tissue trauma, such as focal cartilage defects, can lead to osteoarthritis if not properly treated. Although cartilage tissue engineering has potential to repair or regenerate tissues in the joint, long-term success of these strategies hinge on the ability of clinicians to monitor the repair process. Imaging techniques currently allow for assessment of structure and even some biochemical changes, but these measures poorly reflect the mechanical properties of the repair. The repair not only must match the depth-dependent mechanical behavior of the surrounding tissues but also needs to be securely integrated with the native tissue. Our lab has developed a magnetic resonance imaging-based method to measure tissue biomechanics, a technique that has potential for monitoring the longitudinal processes of tissue maturation and integration. In order to evaluate the ability of our imaging technique to measure these two factors, an in vitro model of cartilage tissue repair is needed. This project includes the development of a mechanobioreactor, in which a cartilage tissue repair model can be housed under standard culture conditions, as well as preliminary studies to image the maturing and integrating scaffolds.
Research categories:
Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical Engineering
Desired experience:
Familiarity with cell biology, mechanical design, biomechanics, and reading of scientific literature
School/Dept.:
Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Deva Chan

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

 

Low-cost user-friendly biosensors for animal health 

Description:
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of economic burden on food production from animals. For example, bovine respiratory diseases lead to a loss of ~$1 billion annually. Current methods for tackling these diseases includes the administration of antibiotics by trial-and-error. This approach leads to failure of treatment in up to one-third of the cases. In addition, it also leads to a proliferation of antibiotic resistance in pathogens.
Our research project focuses on developing a low-cost user-friendly biosensor based on paper that can detect which pathogen is causing the disease and whether it exhibits antibiotic resistance. Such a biosensor would provide a readout to the farmer or the veterinary physician and suggest which antibiotics are likely to be successful.
Lab members working in the team have three objectives: i) design, test, and optimize primers for detecting pathogens associated with bovine respiratory diseases, ii) build a paper-based device for conducting loop-mediated isothermal amplification, and iii) build a heating/imaging device for conducting the paper-based assay in the field.
The SURF student will work on the third objective to build a heater coupled to an imager for detecting colorimetric/fluorometric output from the biosensor.

Research categories:
Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biochemistry, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering
Desired experience:
Relevant skills for the project: • Autodesk Fusion 360 for 3D Modeling/Printing and Laser Cutting • Python Programming Language for image processing and graphical user-interface using Raspberry Pi (or any other single board computer) • Printed Circuit Board Design • Circuit Analysis/Design To be successful at this position, you should have a GPA>3.5, prior experience working in a lab, experience building electro-mechanical devices, and the ability to work in a team.
School/Dept.:
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Professor:
Mohit Verma

More information: https://www.vermalab.com/

 

Modeling of Wound Mechanobiology Following Lumpectomy  

Description:
The goal of this project is to model the coupled mechanics and mechanobiology of lumpectomy wounds. Lumpectomy, or breast conserving surgery, is becoming the first choice of treatment for breast cancer due to the advances in imaging and diagnosis which allow detection of early tumors. However, this surgical treatment creates a wound void in the breast upon resection of the tumor and a surrounding margin of healthy tissue. The wound heals in a process resembling the healing of other connective tissue organs like the skin. In particular, healing of lumpectomy wounds can lead to permanent contraction of the tissue and change in mechanical properties as the wound gets filled with scar tissue instead of the native breast tissue. Mechanics and mechanobiology of this process are key to understand how these wounds heal. To address this need, our groups (PI Buganza-Tepole from ME and PI VoytikHarbin from BME) are using a combination of experiments and mathematical modeling to improve scaffold design for lumpectomy wounds. The undergrad sought for this project will work in this interdisciplinary group, with a focus on the computational model. PI Buganza-Tepole has proposed a computational model of wound healing that combines large deformation tissue mechanics, reaction-diffusion for cells and cytokine dynamics, and permanent remodeling and growth processes that link the mechanics and mechanobiology. The undergraduate working in this project will learn about C++, finite elements, mechanics of soft materials, mechanobiology modeling, growth and remodeling.
Research categories:
Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Mechanical Engineering
Desired experience:
Some programming experience desirable, knowledge of finite elements and mechanics of materials is also desirable
School/Dept.:
Mechanical Engineering
Professor:
Adrian Buganza-Tepole

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/tepolelab/

 

Neural recording and stimulation using a wireless single-chip system 

Description:
In this project, we aim to implement an implant that can record and stimulate neural activities of a live mouse brain. We will take advantage of wireless powering and wireless data transfer to miniaturize the neural implant, such that it does not require battery or wires. Students will help develop the Reader for testing and collecting data from in-vitro and in-vivo experiments.
Research categories:
Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology, Internet of Things, Medical Science and Technology
Preferred major(s):
BME, ECE
Desired experience:
Some knowledge of pub design, circuits and biology
School/Dept.:
ECE
Professor:
Saeed Mohammadi
 

Real time analysis of viral particles for continuous processing approach 

Description:
The increasing worldwide demand for vaccines along with the intensifying economic pressure on health care systems underlines the need for further improvement of vaccine manufacturing. In addition, regulatory authorities are encouraging investment in the continuous manufacturing processes to ensure robust production, avoid shortages, and ultimately lower the cost of medications for patients. The limitations of in-line process analytical tools are a serious drawback of the efforts taken in place. In line analysis of viral particles are very limited, due to the large time required for the current techniques for detection, qualitative and quantitative analysis. Therefore, there is a need for new alternatives for viral detection.
Research categories:
Big Data/Machine Learning, Biological Characterization and Imaging, Biological Simulation and Technology, Biotechnology Data Insights, Cellular Biology
Preferred major(s):
Chemical Eng, Biological Eng, Biomedical Eng, Physics, Mechanical Eng
Desired experience:
This project requires lab work and presence on campus, however, an online version can be offered to focus on coarse-grained modeling of proteins/cells.
School/Dept.:
Mechanical Engineering
Professor:
Arezoo Ardekani

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ComplexFlowLab/

 

Temperature-Dependent Ion Channel Conductance in Neurons 

Description:
Degradation or loss of the fatty, myelin sheath about a neurons axon has been observed to cause severe loss of function and cognition in human patients with demyelinating disease or traumatic nervous system injuries. It has further been observed that these symptoms tend to increase in severity when the afflicted patient is suffering from a fever due to infection. In this project we are studying the biophysical mechanisms that underlie this symptomatic variation. Our hypothesis is that the severity of demyelination complications are strongly influenced by the distribution and temperature-dependent kinetics of the ion-channels responsible for action potential propagation. To investigate this, we will develop a computational model of a myelinated axon and simulate myelin degradation, changes in ion channel localization, and temperature fluctuations as might be observed in a patient. We expect to quantify the relationship between degree of demyelination and change in the neuron conductivity in response to changes in temperature. We expect these results will help inform targeted therapeutic treatment for patients with demyelination disease.
Research categories:
Biological Simulation and Technology
Preferred major(s):
Biomedical, Electrical, or Chemical Engineering
Desired experience:
A strong interest in using computational models to solve biomedical problems is required. Some programing experience and familiarity with solving systems of differential equations is strongly desired. Familiarity with the cell biology of neurons is recommended, but not required.
School/Dept.:
Biomedical Engineering
Professor:
Tamara Kinzer-Ursem
 

Virtual Reality animations of blood flow in a vessel network 

Description:
The recently developed Paraview Immersive toolkit provides a simple way to produce virtual reality animations compatible with the Oculus Rift application using data from 3D simulations. This is a unique opportunity to better analyze the data by literally walking around inside them. In this project, the undergraduate students will produce a virtual reality animation using our 3D simulations of blood flow in capillaries.
Research categories:
Big Data/Machine Learning, Biological Simulation and Technology
Desired experience:
Knowledge about computer graphics and programming would be a plus.
School/Dept.:
Mechanical Engineering
Professor:
Hector Gomez

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/gomez/