>750

total talented students

across all levels

$50M

research expenditures

in FY25

top 5

graduate and undergraduate programs

U.S. News & World Report

26

AIMBE Fellows

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering

9

NAI Members

National Academy of Inventors

22

startups created

Discover all of the exciting activity happening across Duke BME throughout 2025.

Dear Colleagues,

It has been another productive year for the Duke BME community!

From increasing the department’s research expenditures to a long list of faculty accolades and impactful discoveries, Duke BME continues to build on its historical strengths while opening new frontiers in emerging technologies. Patient-specific models of brain activity to guide the hands of neurosurgeons. Repurposing the powerful CRISPR gene-targeting system to explore and manipulate the epigenome. Harnessing the abilities of large language models to design and build new proteins and nanoparticles for life-changing therapies.

Please join me in celebrating our many accomplishments from the past year and exploring the exciting potential of our newest faculty and research and education programs.

Sharon Gerecht, PhD
Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Paul M. Gross Distinguished Professor

NSF CAREER Award to identify how and why cells in the same environment develop different characteristics.

Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Fulbright Global Scholar Award to explore how active learning programs can be more successfully expanded to universities in Africa and Asia.

Society of Biomaterials Technology Innovation and Development Award for pioneering work in protein-resistant polymer coatings.

AIMBE College of Fellows and SPIE Fellow for research and advancements in biophotonics, photoacoustic imaging and ultrasound printing.

IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award for research to use wearable technologies to identify digital biomarkers for disease.

Cameron McIntyre received $9.4 million to use patient-specific models to better understand how electrodes can record and stimulate the human brain.

Ophelia Venturelli received $5 million over multiple grants to explore how the human gut can respond to internal and external influences.

John Hickey received $1.2 million from the Human Frontier Science Program to John Hickey to investigate how different molecules direct cellular behavior.

A new approach to autonomously designing nanoparticles will allow researchers to identify and optimize material recipes to more effectively encapsulate difficult-to-deliver drugs. See how it works.

Biomedical engineers have successfully conducted experiments to treat damage caused by heart attacks in non-human primates using gene therapy. Find out how.

A new platform is using AI to identify and map social interactions, unlocking new ways to study behavioral disorders like autism. Find out why precisely tracking movements is a huge step for the field.

Researchers have found a master epigenetic switch that activates silenced genes to compensate for their missing counterparts in a rare genetic disease called Prader-Willi syndrome. Discover how the approach works.

Led by Charles Gersbach, CAGT published a paper in Science explaining how cells sense their mechanical environment, opening new paths for treating disease. The center also launched Tune Therapeutics, a startup focused on modulating the epigenome to treat disease that recently raised $175M in Series B financing.

Launched this year by Amanda Randles, CDHI applies data-driven approaches to enhance diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. One of its main focuses is using patient-specific digital twins to inform clinical decision-making.

Co-led by Jessilyn Dunn, this new center will expand community partnerships and co-create research in support of rural North Carolinians, including rural-specific chronic disease epidemiology, implementation science to improve the uptake of screening and treatment in rural clinics, and community-guided intervention studies that reflect local values and realities.

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