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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Gregory EkchianPhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Boston University Project: MR Contrast Agents and Devices Greg is a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He graduated from Boston University with a BS in Biomedical Engineering (2009) and from MIT with an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering (2010). In the Cima Lab Greg focuses on the development of novel injectable materials for long-term in vivo monitoring of oxygen and pH. These sensors provide clinicians with critical information necessary to enable more efficacious treatments tailored to individual patients for many indications including cancer and traumatic limb injuries. Greg is also passionate about transitioning new technologies from the lab to the clinic to improve patient outcome, achieve wider access to healthcare, and make the delivery of healthcare more efficient. |
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Ritu Raman, PhDPostdoctoral Fellow B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University Project: Injectrode Ritu is a L’Oréal USA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Langer and Cima Labs. Her research interests focus on developing smart responsive implantable devices for sensing and drug delivery in the body. She is passionate about understanding and utilizing the dynamically adaptive nature of biological systems, and aims to establish an academic research lab focused on biohybrid design in the future. Ritu grew up in India, Kenya, and the United States and this inspires her to help democratize and diversify STEM research and education around the world. She is deeply interested in science communication and science policy, and enjoys speaking, writing, and planning outreach events advancing opportunities for underrepresented minorities in STEM. |
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Graduate Students
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Erin RousseauPhD Student, Health Sciences and Technology B.S., Nanoscale Science, University of Albany Project: Injectrode Erin is an NSF Fellow and PhD candidate at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program. She is currently developing minimally invasive neural probes that enable chemical sampling of distinct brain regions. The goal of this work is to allow for long-term monitoring of the neural peptide landscape across disease states. She is particularly interested in diseases impacting motivation such as substance use disorder, major depression, and Parkinson’s. Erin has worked on projects ranging from patch-clamp reuse for automated neural recording to three-dimensional stem cell culture for maintained pluripotency. Erin is deeply committed to science advocacy and works to ensure federal support for research. She holds a B.S. degree in Nanoscale Science from the University at Albany |
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Sydney ShermanPhD Student, 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 Student, 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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