Biomedical Engineering Department celebrates fall 2026 successes
Binghamton University is well into the fall semester, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering is looking back on its achievements for the second half of 2026.
New chair
After acting as interim BME Department chair since fall 2025, Professor Gretchen Mahler was elevated to chair in September.
A faculty member at Binghamton since 2011, Mahler received her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Cornell University.
Mahler is the director of Binghamton University's Center of Biomanufacturing for Regenerative Medicine. She also served as interim vice provost and dean of the Graduate School from 2021-24 and as program director for the Engineering of Biomedical Systems (EBMS) Program at the National Science Foundation from 2024-25.
Her research uses microfluidics and 3D scaffolds to create physiologically realistic cell culture models of organs and tissues. Applications include therapies for cardiovascular disease and cancer, focused on how disruptions in a tissue's local mechanical environment can lead to changes in cell phenotype and disease initiation and progression.
Research news
Assistant Professor Daniel S. Reynolds received $50,000 from the Breast Cancer Coalition’s Sylvia Cappellino Breast Cancer Research Faculty Grant, named in memory of the group’s founder. He will work with Assistant Professor John Fetse from Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences to develop better therapies for triple-negative breast cancer cells, which are to blame for aggressive tumors that do not respond to common hormone therapies.
Associate Professor Yuan Wan was among the top 2% of scientists worldwide in 2025, according to Stanford University. To collate the rankings, the study analyzes the work of more than 6 million scientists and ranks them based on their career-long or single-year output (as of 2025) within their field of study.
Student news
Two doctoral students have received prestigious fellowships that will fund their research into spinal-cord injuries. Chen Lin ’24 won the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, and Zuer Wu ’24 was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the New York State Department of Health. Both majored in biological sciences as undergraduates and are now third-year doctoral students at Assistant Professor Siyuan Rao’s Neurobiological Interfaces Lab.
Manar Mabrouk ’26 was profiled as part of the Class of 2026 in May. While at Binghamton, she served as vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society and worked in Professor and BME Chair Gretchen Mahler’s lab studying the heart’s aortic valve, which regulates blood flow.
Deen Kaakour ’26 was featured in this year’s Watson Review magazine in a story highlighting undergraduates who do hands-on research projects at Watson College. His work on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in Associate Professor Fake “Frank” Lu’s lab focused on a lesser-known phenomenon observed in TNBC tumors: ossification, or the formation of bone-like deposits.
Faculty news
Professor Sha Jin was honored at the third annual Innovation to Impact Symposium, which recognized Binghamton faculty who received patents in 2025 and celebrated success stories in faculty and student researcher innovation. SUNY Distinguished Professor and former BME Chair Kaiming Ye was also honored posthumously.
In June, Jin received the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. She was honored at a dinner for all recipients this fall.
Associate Professor Guy German offered his expertise as a skin researcher about a chemical called bemotrizinol being added to sunscreen formulas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bemotrizinol in June, but consumers in Europe and Asia have used it for decades.
Alumni news
Melissa Mendoza-Seale, PhD ’22, works as a technical consultant blending scientific research with expert client support. She helps medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers as they navigate Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, performs failure analysis of products, and conducts testing according to ASTM standards and International Organization for Standardization guidelines.