Friday, December 12, 2025
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Boston University Photonics Center
Colloquium Room 906, 9th Floor
8 St. Mary’s Street, Boston, MA 02215
AGENDA
9:00 a.m. – Breakfast Reception
9:30 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions – Dr. Katherine Zhang, Director of CMTM and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science & Engineering, Boston University
9:45 a.m. – Dr. Yingze Yang, Professor of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
10:30 a.m. – Dr. Hadi Nia, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
11:15 a.m. – Dr. Denis Wirtz, Vice Provost for Research and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Pathology, and Oncology, Director of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
12:00 p.m. – Lunch Break
1:00 p.m. – Trainee Poster Session
2:30 p.m. – Dr. Sandra Shefelbine, Associate Dean of Space and Special Initiatives, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and of Bioengineering, Northeastern University
3:15 p.m. – Dr. Bob Varelas, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Advisian School of Medicine
4:00 p.m. – Dr. Jude M. Phillip, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
4:45 p.m. – Closing Remarks: Dr. Katherine Yanhang Zhang
REGISTER TODAYAll members members of the scientific and academic communities are welcome to join us for this free event.
Please contact us if you have any questions or require reasonable accommodations for the event.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Dr. Yingze Yang, Professor of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Yap-mediated mechanotransduction in disease and development
Dr. Yang focuses on understanding how cells communicate with each other and their environment in development and diseases. Her research bridges discoveries of fundamental mechanisms with better molecular and cellular understanding of human diseases in the bone and liver. Dr. Yang initiated her career as a developmental biologist while a graduate student at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, where she was awarded Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. Dr. Yang completed her postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics and Developmental Biology at Harvard University. She joined the Genetic Disease Research Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) as an investigator in 2000 and was chief of the Developmental Genetics Section and a senior investigator since 2006. She moved to Harvard School of Dental Medicine as Professor of Developmental Biology in 2015. Her research has been funded by NIAMS, NIDCR, NCI and DoD.
Dr. Hadi Nia, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Crystal ribcage and paracorporeal cross-circulation platforms to dissect how aging reshapes lung function in health and disease
Hadi T. Nia is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He received his B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology and did his doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Drs. Alan Grodzinsky and Christine Ortiz. He then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Rakesh Jain where he studied the tumor microenvironment with a focus on the physical hallmarks of cancer. Hadi’s current research includes developing novel models and tools for imaging the lung in real-time and at the cellular resolution to probe the links between the lung physics, biology, and immunity in health, aging, and disease. Hadi has received multiple awards for his research including NIH Director’s New Innovator (DP2), Sloan Research Fellowship, NSF CAREER, Beckman Young Investigator, DoD Idea Award, and NIBIB Trailblazer awards.
Dr. Denis Wirtz, Vice Provost for Research and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Pathology, and Oncology, Director of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
3D maps of solid tumors and new CAR T therapies to resolve them
Denis Wirtz is the Theophilius H. Smoot Professor of Engineering and Science Wirtz received a physics engineering degree from the Free University of Brussels in 1988, and MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1993. Wirtz has been the Vice Provost for Research of Johns Hopkins University since 2014.Through research at the interface of physics, engineering, and oncology, Wirtz has made seminal contributions in cancer cell migration, mechanobiology, 3D imaging, and immuno-oncology. He has developed quantitative methods, including particle-tracking microrheology, multi-compartment organoids and high-throughput cell migration assays. He has introduced CAR T technology to enhance solid tumor infiltration. Recently, he has developed CODA, a, AI-based method to image large volumes of tissues and tumors in 3D dimensions. Denis Wirtz has founded the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoaBioTechnology (INBT). He is the Director of the NCI-funded postdoctoral training program in nanotechnology for oncology and. Director of the NCI-funded Physical Sciences-Oncology Center (PS-OC) and the Johns Hopkins Cellular Cancer Biology Imaging Cancer (CCBIR) Center. Wirtz is author and co-author of 275 peer-reviewed articles published in journals such as Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Reviews Cancer, and Nature Cell Biology. Wirtz received the NSF Career award in 1995; he is fellow of the Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Physical Society (APS), and member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.
Dr. Sandra Shefelbine, Associate Dean of Space and Special Initiatives, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and of Bioengineering, Northeastern University
Skeletal mechanoadaption
Dr. Sandra J. Shefelbine is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University. She received her BSE from Princeton University in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, an MPhil in Engineering Design from Cambridge University, and a PhD from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering. After a post-doctoral positions at the Institute for Orthopedic Research (Ulm, Germany) and in the Department of Radiology at UCSF, she joined the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London (2005-2013) before moving to Northeastern. Her lab examines biomechanics and mechanobiology of the skeletal system.
Dr. Bob Varelas, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Advisian School of Medicine
Contributions of Aging Tissue Mechanics to Head and Neck Cancer
Dr. Xaralabos (Bob) Varelas is a Professor of Biochemistry & Cell Biology at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine investigating. His laboratory has focused on how YAP/TAZ signaling integrates mechanical, transcriptional, and microenvironmental cues to regulate cell fate decisions in development, regeneration, and cancer. Dr. Varelas has made foundational contributions to understanding how YAP/TAZ govern epithelial and stromal biology, with his work spanning basic mechanistic discoveries to disease-focused research in fibrosis and tumorigenesis.
Dr. Jude M. Phillip, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Bio-Engineering a future for Aging and Longevity—a focus on Senescence and mechano-immunology
Dr. Jude Phillip is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, with secondary appointments in the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Oncology. He is also a core member of the Institute for Nanobiotechnology (INBT) and is an associate member of the Translational Therapeutics and Regenerative Engineering Center (TTREC). Dr. Phillip obtained a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York, his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and he completed his postdoctoral studies in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Currently, his lab is developing new ways to tackle challenges in aging by employing principles from Engineering. Specifically, he is interested in understanding why individuals age differently and how cells can provide a window into aging. Dr. Phillip is the recent recipient of a R35 MIRA grant from NIGMS, a Junior Faculty Award from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), and a longevity Catalyst award from the National Academy of Medicine. In 2025, he was awarded the Salisbury Family and Center for Innovative Medicine Human Aging Project (HAP) Scholar.
*Banner image courtesy of Dr. Denis Wirtz, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.