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Smith Research Group

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Barbara Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Dr. Barbara Smith joined Arizona State University’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering as an assistant faculty in January 2015.  Dr. Smith’s career began in industry, with the initiation of a company and the design of commercial products.  After completing her Ph.D. in tissue engineering and nanotechnology, Dr. Smith joined the Whitesides’ Lab at Harvard University where she developed point-of-care diagnostics.  She formed connections across India to translate diagnostic devices, designed on the bench top, into the hands of user in India.  At ASU, Dr. Smith’s laboratory is actively working to develop biomedical imaging tools and identifying multiomic biomarkers for early stage diagnostics. Dr. Smith’s innovative approach is aimed towards driving (inter)national exposure and product translation; connecting ASU students to relevant problems that exist across the globe.

Graduate Students – Ph.D.

Joel Lusk
PhD Candidate

Joel is a PhD candidate in the Biodesign Program. He has a background specialization in molecular biology and chemical synthesis. He is currently working on developing a novel method for targeted deep brain imaging.

Jarrett Eshima
PhD Candidate

Jarrett is a second-year PhD candidate in biomedical engineering. His research focuses on integrating multi-omics and bioinformatics for the discovery of novel disease subtypes and biomarkers related to human neurodegenerative disorders. He is currently working in collaboration with Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix to accelerate the impact of his work.

Ethan Marschall
PhD Candidate

Ethan is a second-year PhD candidate in biomedical engineering. He is a 2018 Fulton IMPACT Awardee and has previous research experience from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI) and the Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP). His current work is in the field of photoacoustics.

Undergraduate Researchers

Joshua Burgett
Undergraduate Researcher

Josh is a fourth year undergraduate student in mechanical engineering. His work focuses on the combination of schlieren optics with photoacoustic microscopy in order to speed up imaging time. He is a FURI scholar and is currently working towards completing a thesis on this research. Outside of the Smith Lab, he is involved with the ASU CKI club and the Sun Devil Robotics club.

Taylor Pennington
Undergraduate Researcher

Taylor is a fourth year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering. Her research and thesis focus on the interaction between the gut microbiome and drug metabolism in order to identify unique metabolites that confirm clinical treatment and improve outcomes. She is currently interning for a health technology company, Mindset Medical, and holds a leadership position within her sorority chapter.


Derek Smetanick
Undergraduate Researcher

Derek is a third year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering and minoring in biological sciences. His research and future thesis focus on photoacoustic imaging with schlieren optics to provide real-time imaging. He is a Barrett honors student, FURI scholar, Grand Challenge scholar, Fulton Ambassador, and a C2 for E2. He currently works on bioinformatics research on metabolomics at TGen.

Benjamin Ambrose
Undergraduate Researcher

Ben is a third year undergraduate student in biophysics with an emphasis in pre-med. Through his research in systems biology, metabolomics, and proteomics, he is focused on bettering disease diagnosis and patient outcomes. He is currently working on developing a flow system for the capture and analysis of volatile metabolites.

Christina Aridi
Undergraduate Researcher

Christina is a third year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering. She is a Barrett honors student and has research experience from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI). She is working on cell labeling to help expand the depth of targeted imaging in tissues.

Youssef Abdellatif
Undergraduate Researcher

Youssef is a third year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering and minoring in biochemistry. His research is on OMICS and collecting volatile organic compounds (VOC) from specific cells of living organisms for potential biomarkers of diseases or their relative progression. He is currently interning for Cleveland Clinic and Case Western University to develop COVID-19 face masks for students.

Favian Rios
Undergraduate Researcher

Favian is a third year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering. He works with Ethan on designing and developing 3D models through SolidWorks for various experiments and aims to expand his knowledge in this research. He is also the Fulton Representative of Biomedical Engineering Society.

Paula Phan
Undergraduate Researcher

Paula is a third year undergraduate student in biomedical engineering with an emphasis in pre-med. Her research is on collecting and analyzing VOCs of cells as potential biomarkers for different types of bacterial lung diseases. Outside of the Smith Lab, she is the Co-President of Sun Devils Supporting Brain Tumor Research and the Social Chair Intern for SASE.

Alumni

Doctoral (PhD) Students Alumni

Christopher Miranda
PhD

Dr. Christopher Miranda received his PhD in biomedical engineering in Spring 2021. His dissertation titled, “Imaging and Targeting with Optics and Acoustics”, focuses on the development, characterization, and application of new biomedical technologies developed around the photoacoustic effect.

MS Students Alumni

Matthew Chrest
Alumnus

Matt is a master’s degree alumnus in biomedical engineering. In the lab, his research focused on photoacoustic microscopy, which involved using a laser to generate an In-Vivo image while being non-invasive to the body. He was a FURI scholar, MORE scholar, and an author of two manuscripts and four presentations. He is now a technical service engineer at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

  1. Nilesh Padhi (M.S. Applied Project, Computer Science, Spring 2019)
  2. Justin Mieth (M.S. Applied Project, BME, MORE Scholar, Fall 2018, Present – Industry Position)
  3. Samantha Brenna (M.S. Applied Project, BME, FURI Scholar, Fall 2017, Present – Industry Position at Gore)
  4. Stephanie Ong (M.S. Thesis, BME, Fall 2016, 1 Journal 3 Abstract Conferences)
  5. David Probst (M.S., BME, Fall 2016, Present – Industry Position at Medtronic)
  6. Saba Safdar (M.S. Applied Project, BME, Spring 2015, Present – PhD position in KU Leuven, Belgium)
  7. Devika Krishnamurthy (M.S. Applied Project, BME, Spring 2015, Present – Industry Position at Medtronic)
  8. Badrinath Jaganath (M.S. Applied Project, BME, Spring 2015, Present – PhD position in BME at UT Dallas)

Undergraduate Researcher Alumni

Madeleine Howell
Alumna

Maddie is an alumna in chemistry with a minor in materials science engineering and mathematics. Her research in the lab spanned across medical photoacoustic imaging, fluorescence, and nanoparticle synthesis. She was a Barrett honors student, FURI scholar, Goldwater Scholarship awardee, NSF GRFP awardee, and Dean’s Medalist. She is now a PhD student at Harvard to continue her future research career.

  1. Hanna Smith (BME, Spring 2020)
  2. Kaitlyn Janssen (BME, Spring 2020)
  3. Esther Sim (BME, Fall 2019, 2 Conference Abstracts)
  4. Emily Hanzlick (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2017)
  5. Connor Phillips (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2017)
  6. Blake Browning (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2017, Manuscript Author)
  7. Victoria Tai (BME, Fall 2017)
  8. Jake Turner (BME, Spring 2017, 1 Conference Abstract, Present – MS Student)
  9. Erin Sussex (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2016)
  10. Amar Joshi (BME, Spring 2016, Summer Research)
  11. Hannah Switzer (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2015, Present – Quality Control Specialist at Molded Devices, Inc.)
  12. Framarz Alam (FURI Scholar, BME, Fall 2015)
  13. Christina Salas (FURI Scholar, BME, Spring 2015, 1 Conference Abstract)