Biomedical engineering students push boundaries of discovery

One of the biggest discoveries Jacob Kennard made this summer wasn’t about the nanoparticles he was studying. The biomedical engineering (BME) undergrad had just started studying how to move drugs through cells faster when he had a question, and his supervisor told him to go figure it out.

“It was a really eye-opening moment for me,” says Kennard. “I am learning so much — and not just from a textbook. In school, you learn a lot but I find with research, there is such a broadening of your horizons and your knowledge base.”

For Kennard, that knowledge includes exploring which coatings on nanoparticles get drugs where they need to go faster. “A lot of times, the drugs get hung up in the interface, the wall of the extra-cellular matrix; they just get stuck there and they don’t go all the way through,” says Kennard. “But we found certain formulations that penetrate very, very well.”

• Above, from left: student winners Myles Borthwick (University of Saskatchewan); Breanna Borys; Walter Herzog, professor; Craig Martis, graduate student; Kenneth Fuh and David Garrett, symposium organizers.

Students share ideas on biomechanics, imaging and engineering 

Kennard shared the findings at the Biomedical Engineering and NSERC CREATE Summer Research Symposium on Aug. 18. The event was organized by Kenneth Fuh and other students in the BME graduate program and sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) CREATE Program for Biomedical Engineers for the 21st Century.

More than two dozen undergraduate students from faculties across campus and universities across the country presented their work in a wide range of topics covering biomechanics, imaging and cell and tissue engineering. Many of the students had received awards from NSERC CREATE or other organizations to conduct research over the summer at the University of Calgary. The research falls under the umbrella of Engineering Solutions for Health: Biomedical Engineering, one of six research priorities where the University of Calgary is uniquely positioned to find solutions for key global challenges.

Symposium gives student researchers opportunity to learn from one another  

Emma Barbour, a master's student from the University of Glasgow, was the lone graduate student. She is working on a six-month research project on the role of fluid flow in cell and tissue function. “It’s really worthwhile,” she says of the symposium. “It gives students an opportunity to learn about research from different researchers and build their work.”

After the presentations, four winners were announced. One of them was Craig Martis, a third-year mechanical engineering, BME specialization student in the Schulich School of Engineering. He spent the summer studying how a protein “acts like a spring” in muscle fibres.

“The symposium gave me a definite flavour for what it’s like to be at a conference or at a research gathering to discuss and share your ideas,” says Martis.

“The calibre of presentations was fantastic,” says Tina Rinker, director of the Centre for Bioengineering Research and Education. “It’s amazing these students have only been working on these projects for a short time. It can be a really motivating event because they can see how much they’ve actually done.”

Kennard is now entering his fourth year after his summer in the lab and says, “I’d recommend to every student to do research. I’ve learned so much — and this has persuaded me to do grad school.”

Biomedical Engineering and NSERC CREATE Summer Research Symposium winners:

• Myles Borthwick - Biomedical Engineering and Research session
• Craig Martis - Biomechanics session
• David Garrett - Biomechanics and Imaging session 
• Breanna Borys - Cell & Tissue Engineering session