In research that appeared in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Professor Samira Musah showed that a genetic mutation that causes congenital heart disease also contributes to kidney damage and developmental defects. Learn how this new discovery could help clinicians diagnose and address early kidney damage in children. 

Dear Colleagues,

The mission of our department has always been to use engineering to improve human health, and I believe that this mission is exemplified in the recent research successes of our faculty. 

I believe the stories linked in this newsletter convey the breadth of the work we do here in Duke BME, whether that's making inroads to treat long-standing issues like kidney disease, translating useful neural stimulation tools into the clinic, or navigating the ever-changing frontiers of biomedical data science and computational modeling. I'm always proud of the work produced by our community, and I hope you enjoy learning more about some of our recent successes. 

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

Professor Warren Grill and BME PhD alum Bradley Barth showed how bursts of electrical stimulation could help restore gut motion to treat constipation. Read more about their discovery. 

Professor Amanda Randles discusses her work to develop virtual replicas of a patient's vascular system with the goal of using them to predict and prevent disease, like heart attacks. Check out the full Q&A. 

Professor Jessilyn Dunn discusses the importance of privacy considerations as smartwatches and fitness trackers become more common clinical tools. Read the feature in Duke Engineering's I/O Magazine.

Professors Charles Gersbach and Junjie Yao were named in the 2025 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list. These experts rank in the top 1% of their field for publication citations. 

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