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PhD student William Frantz is developing microscopic droplets designed to help doctors track radiation therapy in real time. His finalist pitch at the 2025 LVC competition highlighted how the technology could one day make cancer treatment more precise and less harmful, particularly for pediatric patients.

BME professor Won Park is co-advising a research project building high performing optical microresonators to open the door for new sensor technologies. In the future, the microresonators could be used for compact microlasers, advanced chemical and biological sensors and even tools for quantum metrology and networking.

Researchers, including BME faculty member Wyatt Shields at CU Â鶹ӰԺ have created tiny, microorganism-inspired particles that can change their shape and self-propel, much like living things, in response to electrical fields.One day, these shape-

Roughly 6.8 million people donate blood in the United States alone, helping save millions of lives, according to the American Red Cross. But just like groceries sitting on store shelves, red blood cells age over time. That's why Associate Professor Xiaoyun Ding and medical collaborators at CU Anschutz have created a new chip device to help give blood centers and hospitals a reliable way to monitor the quality of red blood cells after they sit for weeks in storage.

Six students and researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Program (BME) presented their work on joint damage, arthritis, heart problems, and tissue defects at this year’s Biomedical Engineering Society 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Jacob Segil, a research professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Â鶹ӰԺ, collaborated with Dr. Omer Mei Dan from the Department of Orthopedics at University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine to create a redesigned surgical instrument called the CAP-LIFT cannula. The technology completely transforms arthroscopic procedures in the hip region, making them safer and more efficient than ever before.

Darwin Quiroz is exploring new frontiers in miniature lasers with major biomedical applications.

Quiroz, a physics PhD student in the lab of BME Professor Juliet Gopinath in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, and also co-advised by Professor Victor Bright from Paul M. Rady in Mechanical Engineering, is co-first author of a new study that demonstrates how a fluid-based optical device known as an electrowetting prism can be used to steer lasers at high speeds for advanced imaging applications.

Burn your hand on a hot stove and, almost instantly, immune cells within the wound begin producing inflammatory compounds to help clear out dead tissue and fight off infection. But for those who suffer serious burns, the immune response can cause prolonged inflammation, increasing risk of scarring, disfigurement and disability. A team of CU Â鶹ӰԺ scientists hopes to minimize such long-term damage by suspending that cellular immune response until the body, or care providers, are better equipped to deal with it. 

The project, like something straight out of a health sci-fi movie, combines RNA-based gene therapy with tiny microrobots for drug transport to help treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

CU Â鶹ӰԺ postdoc Catherine Saladrigas is helping bring high-resolution imaging into miniature microscopes for neuroscience research. Collaborators on this project include Juliet Gopinath, BME faculty member.