
Chao Zhou
CardS Program Director, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: chaozhou@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Developing novel bio-photonics technologies, including optical microscopes, and optical stimulation and pacing techniques, for fundamental research, disease diagnosis, and clinical translation
REU Project: Trojan vs Hand Drivers: Effectiveness in Optogenetic Pacing of Drosophila

Patricia Widder
CardS and CEMB Education Program Coordinator, Principal Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies
- Email: pwidder9876@wustl.edu
Contact Patricia for questions about the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) applications and overall program.

Katherine Schreiber
Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering
- Email: khschreiber@wustl.edu
Contact Katie for administrative questions about all CardS programming and the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program housing, travel, reimbursements, stipend payments and logistics.

Mimi Hilburg
Administrative Assistant, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: mhilburg@wustl.edu
Contact Mimi for administrative questions about all CardS programming and the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program housing, travel, reimbursements, stipend payments and logistics.
FACULTY MENTORS
Adam Bauer
Assistant Professor of Radiology, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: aqbauer@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Mapping functional brain network organization in mice, neurovascular coupling, plasticity mechanisms after stroke, developing novel optical neuroimaging methods
REU Project: Imaging functional recovery after stroke
Matthew Bersi
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
- Email: mbersi@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Development of experimental and computational approaches to better understand the relationship between biomechanics and inflammation in soft tissues
REU Project: Determining the biomechanics of perivascular tissues using an image-based system for in-situ arterial pressurization
Yao Chen
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
- Email: yaochen@wustl.edu
Research Interests: The Chen laboratory attempts to fill the gap between molecular neuroscience and animal behavior by elucidating the spatial and temporal dynamics of biological signals, because their dynamics carry critical information that explain subsequent modifications of cells, circuits, and behavior.
REU Project: Identifying biological signals that change between sleep and wakefulness
Abhinav Diwan
Professor, Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division
- Email: adiwan@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Lysosome biology in cellular stress and homeostasis
REU Project: Role of lysosomes in homeostasis and disease
Adam Eggebrecht
Assistant Professor of Radiology
- Email: aeggebre@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Novel brain function hardware, analysis pipelines and algorithms
REU Project: Mapping cerebral hemodynamics during pediatric critical care
Song Hu
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: songhu@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Development of cutting-edge optical and photoacoustic technologies for high-resolution structural, functional, metabolic and molecular imaging in vivo and their applications in neurovascular disorders, cardiovascular diseases, regenerative medicine, and cancer.
REU Project: Photoacoustic microscopy of the beating heart
Nathaniel Huebsch
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: nhuebsch@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology, with specific focus on hydrogels to control cell-mediated tissue repair, and 3-D iPSC-based heart-in-a-dish models to study the influence of mechanical loading and genetics on arrhythmia and contractility.
REU Project: Using image processing to study physiology in iPSC-derived micro-heart muscle arrays
Kory Lavine
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine
- Email: klavine@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Understanding the immunological mechanisms that govern cardiac recovery and the pathogenesis of heart failure, with a focus on the mechanisms that distinguish pediatric from adult cardiomyopathy
REU Project: Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Macrophages to Improve Tissue Integration
Jeanne Nerbonne
Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Departments of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, and Developmental Biology
- Email: jnerbonne@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Design and execution of experiments aimed at defining the molecular determinants and the physiological roles of the types of voltage-gated ion channels expressed in the cardiovascular and nervous systems
REU Project: Accessory Subunits in the Regulation and Dysregulation of Myocardial Sodium Channels
Colin G. Nichols
Carl Cori Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Director, Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases
- Email: cnichols@wustl.edu
Research Interests: The Nichols Lab develops, introduces and uses a wide range of molecular biological and biophysical approaches, as well as in vivo gene manipulation to address questions in proteins, cells and animals, and now in humans. These efforts are leading them to a detailed understanding of both molecular mechanisms of channel activity, and roles of ion channels in multiple disease processes including diabetes, heart failure, pulmonary disease and epilepsy.
REU Project: Drug development for Cantu Syndrome
Michelle Oyen
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: oyen@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Biomechanics-based tools and techniques to study preterm birth mechanisms and intervention
REU Project: Biomimetic Hydrogel Models of Early Development of the Placental Vasculature
Stacey Rentschler
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division
- Email: stacey.rentschler@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Programming and reprogramming cardiac conduction.
Jonathan Silva
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: jonsilva@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Cardiac Arrhythmia, Molecular Imaging, Engineered Cardiomyocytes, Computational Models, Extended Reality
REU Project: Predicting whether patients will respond to anti-arrhythmic drug therapies
Jessica Wagenseil
Vice Dean for Faculty Advancement & Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
- Email: jessica.wagenseil@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Cardiovascular mechanics, specifically focusing on cardiovascular development, extracellular matrix proteins, and microstructurally-based constitutive modeling
REU Project: Reagents to increase elastic fiber assembly and prevent elastic fiber degradation
Christian Zemlin
Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Lab
- Email: zemlinc@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Cardiac electrophysiology
REU Project: How sensitive hearts are to stimulation with ultrasound
Tiezhi Zhang
Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
- Email: tiezhizhang@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Development of multi-pixel x-ray source, tetrahedron x-ray imaging systems based on scanning x-ray sources
REU Project: Small animal ECG device for cardiac gated micro-CT
Jie Zheng
Associate Professor of Radiology
- Email: zhengj@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Cardiovascular imaging applications using MRI modality, cardiac MRI, Quantitative myocardial oxygen extraction imaging
REU Project: Cardiac OEF or PAD/diabetes study
Chao Zhou
CardS Program Director, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: chaozhou@wustl.edu
Research Interests: Developing novel bio-photonics technologies, including optical microscopes, and optical stimulation and pacing techniques, for fundamental research, disease diagnosis, and clinical translation
REU Project: Trojan vs Hand Drivers: Effectiveness in Optogenetic Pacing of Drosophila