Dr. Abigail Koppes-
Principal Investigator

Erika Wheeler

Investigation and Characterization of Sex-Based differences in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Disease are both medical conditions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. IBS alone affects 60 to 70 million people in the United States and women are twice as likely to be diagnosed than men. Erika’s work focuses on investigating and characterizing sex-based differences in IBS and IBD patients.

Erika joined ABNEL as a bioengineering BS/MS student in January 2021. She began her master thesis in ABNEL in Fall 2021. Prior to this, she co-oped at Sanofi and Cygnal Therapeutics in their oncology department investigating and validating novel oncology targets.

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 […]