Dr. Abigail Koppes-
Principal Investigator

Brent Buchinger

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, characterized by progressive losses in motor control and cognitive functioning. While recent work has hinted at a gut origin, research elucidating the mechanisms for this pathological pathway is lacking. Brent’s work aims to develop a novel microphysiological system mimicking the gut-brain axis with the goal of improving platforms for studying and understanding Parkinson’s disease.

Brent joined ABNEL in the summer of 2022 as a Chemical Engineering PhD student. Prior to his graduate studies at Northeastern University, Brent worked as an analytical chemist at Eurofins Food Integrity & Innovation. He obtained his BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in December of 2019. At his undergraduate institution, Brent’s research focused on catalysis. However, his passions switched to biomedical engineering after researching chondrogenic differentiation at Case Western Reserve University in the summer of 2018.

B.S. Chemical Engineering
University of Wisconsin–Madison ’19
Madison, WI

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David Successfully defends his Thesis!!

David Diaz successfully defended his these titled: A study of primary sensory neurons and Schwann cells sensitivity to visible light irradiation in vitro, and feasibility of a light inducible system in Schwann cells for neurite outgrowth enhancement in vitro. Congrats David!!

Dr. Koppes receives the 2020 Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award

Dr. Koppes was named the 2020 Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award recipient. “[The award] is offered each year to stimulate research careers in biomedical engineering. The recipient will present the 20-minute Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Lecture and publish the text of the lecture in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering.” Congrats Dr. Koppes!!! Award Notification: https://www.bmes.org/blog_home.asp?Display=324 […]