BME News

Meet Our New Faculty

In July 2024, the OHSU BME Department welcomed Drs. Sha Cao and Chi Zhang to the faculty. Prior to their arrival at OHSU, both were faculty members at Indiana University.

“I had the opportunity to collaborate with many outstanding researchers at Indiana, and those experiences helped shape my research direction. At this stage in my career, I was eager to deepen my focus on specific areas to maximize my impact. The work being done at OHSU, particularly at the Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care, aligned perfectly with my goals,” Dr. Cao said.

Her husband, Dr. Chi Zhang, also saw a lot of opportunity at OHSU. “I was attracted to the strong foundation of Systems Biology at OHSU that arose because of programs like the Cancer Systems Biology Center and the NCI Human Tumor Atlas Network. That, combined with strong computational biology program, seemed like a natural fit to expand my studies into the impact of the metabolome in disease. Finally, OHSU’s history of supporting startup companies for its research was also appealing,” he said.

With Brenden-Colson Center support, Dr. Cao has resumed her collaboration with Dr. Teresa Zimmers, using computational approaches to discover crosstalk between multiple organs that play a role in cachexia arising as a result of pancreatic cancer. She also initiated a new collaboration with Dr. Rosalie Sears to examine cellular interactions and evolution in bioprinted pancreatic tumors to try and understand the role of the microenvironment in this disease and to see how well bioprinting can mimic actual tumors.

Dr. Zhang has continued his work using computational analyses and artificial intelligence to study metabolic changes associated with disease and has established new collaborations with Dr. Young-Hwan Chang (BME) and Dr. Laura Heiser (BME) to link “omics” with spatial proteomic approaches to better understand how the microenvironment impacts disease. He is particularly excited about a new study that he has started with Dr. Sadik Esener (BME) and Dr. Shannon McWeeney to use quantum computing to study metabolic flux. “This project uses unique capabilities that started here at OHSU, and I hope it will be able to significantly benefit cancer research,” said Dr. Zhang.

Dr’s Cao and Zhang have already had a strong impact on research at OHSU in the short time that they have been here. We look forward to seeing their progress for years to come!

Stuart Ibsen, Ph.D., led the team that developed a new technique using an electronic jolt and nanoparticles to reveal the telltale signal of an insidious form of cancer. (OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks)

Featured: Promising new technique uses nanoparticles to detect pancreatic cancer: OHSU scientists develop sophisticated blood test that is 97% effective in revealing pancreatic cancer. With his team, Stuart Ibsen, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering in the OHSU School of Medicine and the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, has developed a new technique using an electronic jolt and nanoparticles to reveal the telltale signal of an insidious form of cancer. Ibsen estimates the technique, described in a study published in the journal Small, is probably five years away from clinical use.

More news:

After an incredible weekend at InventOR Bootcamp 2026, 20 finalist teams from colleges and universities across Oregon will receive $2,000 in grant funding to continue developing their ideas before presenting at the InventOR Finals this June. Joshua Vanderpool, BME Graduate Student, has developed EaziStep, which is developing offloading footwear technology to reduce discomfort and improve endurance for people living with chronic ankle pain.

Congratulations to our OHSU students at the 2026 Oregon Bioengineering Symposium, hosted by Oregon State University. OHSU winners were: Kevin Schilling, Best lightning talk; Marina Nimmo, Honorable mention lightning talk; Mady Tung, Honorable mention poster.

Luis Diaz was selected as co-winner of the 2026 John A. Resko Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. His thesis was titled, “Beyond the Central Dogma: Metastatic tumor suppressor Cxxc5 preserves the integrity of an active chromatin hub at the Cxxc5–Psd2 locus in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma”

Alireza Karimi, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology in the OHSU Casey Eye Institute, has been awarded a $750,000 grant through the OHSU Faculty Excellence and Innovation Awards, funded by the Silver Family Innovation Fund, which honors exceptionally creative research with the potential to significantly advance human health.

Owen McCarty blood vessel chip — Owen McCarty, Ph.D., standing, is developing lab-grown artificial blood vessels that closely mimic essential features of the human circulatory system, including blood flow, vessel structure, and clot formation.

Featured: BME Chair Owen McCarty, Ph.D., FAHA, will lead the work at OHSU in tandem with the Hull York Medical School in the U.K. to develop lab-grown, artificial blood vessels, replicating key aspects of the human circulatory system, such as blood flow, vessel structure and clot formation. The overall £15.9 million initiative — more than $18.4 million — is jointly funded by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome and Innovate UK. It is based in the United Kingdom, and includes arms of research covering the liver, brain, cancer, pain and blood vessels. Read the full press release here.

More news:

Wassana Yantasee, Ph.D., M.B.A. and Laura Heiser, Ph.D. were inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s College of Fellows

Luiz Bertassoni, D.D.S., Ph.D., has been awarded $3.5 million in federal funding to study the interactions of oral cancer with bone using advanced organ-on-a-chip models.

Summer Gibbs, Ph.D., and Melissa Wong, Ph.D., were awarded more than $1 million from the Kuni Foundation for their project on the early detection of colorectal cancer

BME students Jessica Keating, Sofia Vignolo, Haylie Helms, and Kenneth Riley earned awards at the 20th Annual Flame Awards ceremony, hosted by the OHSU All-Hill Student Council

Summer Gibbs, Ph.D., was awarded the John A. Resko Excellence in Research and Mentoring Award, recognizing a sustained career of outstanding research and outstanding mentorship

Zheng Xia, Ph.D., receives a $1 million Prostate Cancer Data Science Award from the Department of Defense

BME Ph.D. student Kenneth Riley selected as Early Career Innovator at the 2025 OHSU Innovation Awards

Sepsis breakthrough by BME scientists could lead to improved treatments for critically ill patients

Featured: Carolyn Schutt Ibsen recognized as a Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering by the journal Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE).

More news:

Laura Heiser participates in expert cancer panel hosted by The Portland Business Journal and Kuni Foundation

David Huang elected to National Academy of Medicine

Laura Heiser appointed CEDAR's new associate director of complex systems modeling

Laura Heiser and Young Hwan Chang awarded $1.6M grant by Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation for Health and Policy

Zheng Xia awarded OHSU Faculty Excellence and Innovation award

BME grad student Michael Henderson balances time as a researcher, student VP, and mentor