Xin Zhang, James Galagan Recognized for World-Changing Ideas
Engineering professors’ inventions make 2025 Fast Company list.
At the cutting-edge of technology and health, a pair of BU-bred inventions have been recognized by Fast Company in its 2025 World Changing Ideas Awards list. These innovations—biosensors that can better monitor fertility, and a low-cost technology to speed MRI scans—were part of the magazine’s annual celebration of “projects around the world that are pursuing innovation for good.”
BioSens8, a BU-founded start-up developing wearable technology to monitor hormone levels in real time, and the University’s Laboratory for Microsystems Technology (LMST)—which creates devices that boost the effectiveness of MRI scanners without needing more electrical power—were both honored in the academic excellence category.
BioSens8 was founded by Professor James Galagan (BME), and his student Uroš Kuzmanović (ENG’23), now the company’s CEO. Similar to a glucose monitoring patch, the platform measures hormone levels in real time. The biosensors could be used to continuously monitor hormone fluctuations, like estrogen and progesterone levels, at different phases of fertility to show the ideal timing of administering treatment for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Eventually, this could eliminate the need for time-consuming blood tests at a doctor’s office and simplify the process for those trying to conceive.
LMST creates material structures, called metamaterials, that improve one of modern medicine’s most powerful, but costly, machines—magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners—by using inexpensive parts, like widely available electrical cables and wires. When a metamaterial is placed on a body part before a scan, it can speed up the imaging process and boost image clarity, giving the technology the power to make MRI more accessible to patients around the world. The lab is led by Distinguished Professor of Engineering Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE).
To celebrate their pioneering work, The Brink caught up with Galagan and Zhang to learn what makes their inventions world-changing—and what else they hope to accomplish in the future.