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Ken Berkery, Hailee Mayer, Thomas Palazzolo, and Rawan Shraim Win the 2025 BIOMED Student Best Paper Award

April 12, 2025

Ken Berkery, Hailee Mayer, Thomas Palazzolo, and Rawan Shraim, all PhD candidates in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems (Advisors: V. Graci, P. Lewin, S. Diskin/J. Maris/A. Sacan, and A. Throckmorton, respectively), won the 2025 BIOMED Student Best Paper Award for their outstanding work and publication as first authors of their respective papers.

Ken BerkeryKen's paper, titled "The Effect of Age and Bracing on Vehicle Occupant Responses During Sled-Simulated Evasive Swerving" (Co-authors: K. Berkery, T. Seacrist, S. Balasubramanian, K.B. Arbogast, V. Graci), was published in the November 2024 issue of the journal Traffic Injury Protection. With highly automated vehicles coming to fruition, children and adult passengers may be less aware of impending maneuvers and may not brace themselves or maintain an optimal position within the seat belt, which are important to reduce injury risk in crashes. Forty seatbelt restrained subjects (9-40 years old ) experienced simulated evasive swerving maneuvers in the laboratory (Sled Lab Drexel University) during a brace condition, where subjects actively brace before the maneuver onset, and an unbraced condition (relaxed condition). In the unbraced condition, children move less than teens and adults due to greater activation in the neck muscles. In the unbraced condition, teens showed the greatest motion, potentially due to their developing neuromotor control transitioning to a more mature stage. Across all age groups in the unbraced condition, occupants relied more heavily on the seat belt to maintain position rather than their muscles to brace, suggesting the importance of good seatbelt-torso interaction in unbraced occupants. This study highlight the importance of seatbelt and awareness also in self-driving vehicles. 

Hailee MayerHailee's paper, titled "Investigation Into the Subharmonic Response of Three Contrast Agents in Static and Dynamic Flow Environments Using a Commercially Available Diagnostic Ultrasound Scanner" (Co-authors: H. Mayer, G.W. Kim, P. Machado, J.R. Eisenbrey, T. Vu, K. Wallace, F. Forsberg), was published in the November 2024 issue of the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. The objective of this study was to investigate the subharmonic response of Lumason (also known as SonoVue; Bracco, Milan, Italy) to static and dynamic ambient pressures, with a direct comparison to Sonazoid (GE HealthCare, Oslo, Norway) and Definity (Lantheus Medical Imaging, MA, USA). The subharmonic responses of ultrasound contrast agents can be exploited to perform subharmonic-aided pressure estimation (SHAPE), which is a noninvasive technique for estimating blood pressure. Furthermore, the subharmonic response of Sonazoid and Definity have been well-established and translated for clinical SHAPE use. On the contrary, although many groups have reported on the subharmonic response of Lumason, results vary markedly from study to study. In this investigation, Sonazoid and Definity exhibited a consistent inverse linear trend between subharmonic amplitude and hydrostatic pressure, as expected and Lumason displayed a tri-phasic response, starting with an initial increase in subharmonic as hydrostatic pressure was increased, followed by a plateau, and then a decrease at higher pressures. This atypical behavior suggests further exploration is needed before clinical translation of Lumason for SHAPE. These findings help to contribute to the optimization of SHAPE for clinical use.

Thomas PalazzoloThomas' paper, titled "Series Multi-blood Pump Design With Dual Activation for Pediatric Patients With Heart Failure" (Co-authors: T.C. Palazzolo, H. Sarkisyan, G.C. Matlis, J. McGowan, V. Tchantchaleishvili, R.M. Stevens, A.L. Throckmorton), was published in the March 2025 issue of the journal American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO). This publication details the development of the first double-blood pump VAD specifically developed as a long-term solution for children with heart failure. Current mechanical circulatory support (MCS) options, which supplement or supplant patient circulation in cases of end-stage heart failure, are limited in the pediatric space; only two ventricular assist devices (VADs) are approved by the FDA, and the unique physiological and cardiovascular challenges of pediatric support lead to significantly worse clinical outcomes for children when compared to adults. The interdisciplinary team is addressing this gap in the standard of care and offering a single-device solution to pediatric care providers by developing a new pediatric VAD that combines two proven pump technologies (an axial pump and a centrifugal pump) into a single device. In this paper, they designed a double-pump VAD to meet strict size constraints, computationally evaluated the proposed device flow path using multiple turbulence models, improved the flow path geometry through a prioritized design improvement process, and validated computational models by testing the device through an in vitro shaft-drive test rig. Through non-dimensionalized regression analysis, Thomas quantitatively analyzed both computational and predictions and benchtop results and demonstrated a strong correlation; this is the first such validation of a double-blood pump cardiac assist device. This work represents promising translational development towards the clinical implementation of the first double-blood pump VAD, and has the potential to revolutionize the field of pediatric MCS by providing a one-stop solution that provides effective long-term support across the pediatric age range (infancy through adolescence).

Rawan ShraimRawan's paper, titled "ImmunoTar – Integrative Prioritization of Cell Surface Targets for Cancer Immunotherapy" (Co-authors: R. Shraim, B. Mooney, K.L. Conkrite, A.K. Weiner, G.B. Morin, P.H. Sorensen, J.M. Maris, S.J. Diskin, A. Sacan), was published in the March 2025 issue of the journal Bioinformatics. The development of effective cancer immunotherapies, such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-Ts), is hindered by the challenge of identifying ideal target antigens that are both, found on the surface of the cell, and are tumor-specific. Traditional approaches rely on labor-intensive, piecemeal assessments of multiple databases and datasets, making it difficult to systematically evaluate and prioritize potential candidate targets. ImmunoTar addresses this critical gap by providing a computational framework that consolidates multi-omic datasets, incorporates a quantitative scoring methodology, and systematically ranks potential immunotherapeutic candidates, streamlining the discovery process. Validated across three distinct cancer datasets, ImmunoTar has demonstrated effectiveness in identifying both known and novel targets across various cancer phenotypes. By compiling diverse data into a unified platform, ImmunoTar enables comprehensive evaluation of candidate targets, streamlining target identification and empowering researchers to efficiently allocate resources, thereby accelerating the discovery of effective cancer immunotherapies.