Staff
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Wendy E. BrownSenior Administrative Assistant Wendy Brown has been at MIT since 2006 in various support positions. In 2017, she became the administrative assistant to Professor Michael Cima. Wendy provides support to the Cima lab team—including lab technicians, postdocs, and research assistants at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She also provides support for Professor Cima’s teaching activities and his responsibilities as co-director of the MIT Innovation Initiative and the associate dean of innovation of the School of Engineering. Wendy additionally offers some administrative and financial support to the Lemelson-MIT Program and MIT's Glass Lab, both of which Professor Cima serves as faculty director. |
Postdocs
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Won-Seok 'Hush' Heo, PhDPostdoctoral research associate
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Hongik University
M.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University (transferred from Johns Hopkins University)
Project: NMR Sensor Won-Seok “Hush” is a postdoctoral research associate at the Cima lab in the Koch Institute at MIT. In Cima Lab, Hush focuses on the design, development, and application of a magnetic resonance-based sensor. This project, NMR-Based Rapid Fluid Assessment Device Design and Signal Processing, includes computational and experimental design in addition to phantom and human subjects testing which take place at the Cima lab and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) under the direct supervision of Prof. Michael J. Cima. Previously, Hush as a fluid dynamicist has worked on aerodynamics of turbomachinery such as air compressors and gas turbines and biofluid dynamics of electromagnetic particle transport under an electromagnetic field. Hush grew up in Seoul, Republic of Korea and earned a B.S. in ME from Hongik University and his M.S. in MAE from Seoul National University. He then completed Ph.D. coursework in ME from the Johns Hopkins University, transferred to Purdue University with his academic interest, and earned his Ph.D. in ME from Purdue University. When not in the lab, Hush enjoys playing soccer, golf, and tennis. |
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Qun Cao, PhDPostdoctoral Fellow
B.S., Physical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China
Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Virginia
Project: Injectrode Qun is a postdoctoral scholar in the Cima lab. In Cima Lab, Qun focuses on micro sampling of brain interstitial fluid and cerebrospinal fluid for the determination of soluble and membrane bound protein. He also works on sampling directly from the interstitial fluid of GBM tissue using a novel sampling platform. Qun grew up in Northeast China, he received his B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. When not in the lab, Qun enjoys playing Guqin (a Chinese musical instrument with long history), reading classical Chinese literatures, and listening to classical music. |
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Venkat Ramakrishnan, M.D., Ph.D.Visting Scientist
B.S., Biology, University of Louisville.
M.S., Physiology and Biophysics, University of Louisville.
Ph.D., Physiology and Biophysics, University of Louisville.
M.D., University of Louisville.
Project: Urinary Bladder Therapeutics
Venkat is a clinical fellow in urology at the Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), a clinical fellow in surgery at Harvard Medical School, and a visiting scientist in the Cima Lab at MIT. He is working to develop a therapeutic drug delivery system for neurogenic bladder as part of a joint effort with the Rosalyn Adam lab at BCH. Venkat’s prior research spans urologic tissue engineering as a
Fulbright Scholar at the University Hospital Zürich (Switzerland), urologic oncology at The Genome Institute (Washington University) and Brady Urological Institute (Johns Hopkins), and vascular tissue engineering at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (University of Louisville). Venkat grew up in Lexington, KY, studied at the University of Louisville as a member of its Guaranteed Entrance to Medical School and Physician-Scientist Training Programs, and completed a surgery internship and urology residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In his free time, he enjoys automobiles, aviation, technology, writing, and spending time with his wife.
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Graduate Students
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Sydney ShermanPhD Candidate, Health Sciences and Technology
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas
Project: NMR Sensor
Sydney is an NSF Fellow and PhD student studying medical engineering and medical physics with a focus on electrical engineering at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program. She is currently developing a nuclear magnetic resonance-based sensor for use as a clinical diagnostic tool. The goal of this work is to allow for rapid, point-of-care quantification of volemic status, a measurement critical for care in many disease states including kidney disease and CHF. Previously, Sydney has worked on projects including the development of softening spinal cord stimulators and elucidation of the mechanisms of motor recovery with spinal cord stimulation. While originally from Pennsylvania, she holds a B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. When not in the lab, Sydney enjoys hiking, training for triathlons, playing the violin, and volunteering.
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Hannah JacksonPhD Candidate, Health Sciences and Technology B.S., Bioengineering, Rice University Project: Injectrode Hannah is a PhD student studying medical engineering and medical physics with a focus on mechanical engineering at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program. She is currently developing minimally invasive neural probes that can deliver drugs and enable chemical sampling of distinct brain regions. The goal of this work is to allow for long-term monitoring and drug-delivery to both understand and treat neurological diseases. The two disease states she is currently focusing on are substance abuse disorder and drug-refractory epilepsy. Hannah grew up in Louisiana and received her B.S. and M.S. in bioengineering from Rice University. When not in the lab, Hannah enjoys running, hiking, cooking, reading, and spending time with her cat Rosie.
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Masters Students |
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Haley HiggenbothamMS Student, Mechanical Engineering
B.S., Bioengineering, MIT Projects: Nanopump/Injectrode Haley is an NSF Fellow and first year Masters student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She grew up in Florida and graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Bioengineering. During her undergraduate years, she worked in the intersection of mechanical engineering and human biology, particularly in neural rehabilitation with the Bioelectronics Group and in medical device design. In the Cima lab, she is currently working on optimizing the mechanical infrastructure for a peristaltic pump with bi-directional nanofluidic flow for minimally invasive monitoring of neural peptide landscapes. Outside of the lab, Haley enjoys rowing on or running along the Charles, jamming out on the ukulele, and tooling around in makerspaces.
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Alexa ZammitMS Student, Materials Science and Engineering
B.S., Chemical Engineering, United States Military Academy Projects: NMR Sensor Alexa is an NSF Fellow and master’s student studying materials science and engineering. She is characterizing oil-water emulsions for use as device phantoms for the NMR-Based Rapid Fluid Assessment Device. The goal of this work is to use the emulsions as a baseline for fluid status determination to confirm functionality in the NMR device. This will further enable device use for rapid, point-of-care quantification of volemic status, a measurement critical for care in many disease states including kidney disease and CHF. Previously, Alexa has worked on projects including the synthesis and characterization of salt-templated transition metal and cellulose composite electrodes for pseudocapacitor applications. While originally from New Jersey, she received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the United States Military Academy. When not in the lab, Alexa enjoys working out, cooking, skiing, and flying small airplanes. |
