Rene is an undergraduate biomedical engineering student planning to specialize in bioinstrumentation. Her research involves the development and testing of assays for an implantable glucose biosensor.
Rachel Kurian
Rachel Kurian is an undergraduate electrical engineering student at Texas A&M. She joined the Optical Biosensing Laboratory (OBSL) in October of 2022. Her research in this lab focuses on the development and testing of wearable technologies used to diagnose peripheral arterial disease and hypoglycemic events.
Jun Ma
Justin McMurray
Justin McMurray is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering who joined the lab in 2020. He develops wearable and point-of-care biomedical devices that noninvasively monitor physiological parameters and has filed seven patents for new wearable technologies that monitor biomarkers continuously day and night using multimodal sensing consisting of bioimpedance, photoplethysmography, contact pressure, temperature, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. Additionally, he is developing electrochemical sensors and supporting hardware and software to continuously monitor ions, enzymes, proteins, and other target molecules of interest. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he worked for 16 years in a diverse range of jobs around the globe, including as an A&P aircraft mechanic, engineer, consultant, and business management. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M. Justin is also a member of the United States Air Force, where he has served both as an enlisted member and a commissioned officer where he is currently a Medical Service Corps officer involved with leading and managing one of the nation’s largest, most diverse health care systems.
Luke Oaks
Luke joined the OBSL at the conclusion of his freshman year after receiving a fellowship from the Beckman Foundation. He has worked on the oral cancer assay project and presently collaborates with Dr. Farzan Sasangohar (ISEN) on community engagement research that supports Thrust 4 of the PATHS-UP ERC: “Addressing remote bio-behavioral inference and patient response”. Outside of the lab, Luke serves as Texas A&M’s undergraduate representative for the PATHS-UP ERC student leadership council, is heavily involved in our university’s Student Government Association, and remains a practice partner for the Texas A&M Women’s Varsity tennis team.
Monika Schechinger
Monika Schechinger is a third year Ph.D. student working on developing a low cost diagnostic test for preeclampsia. Her current research interests are nanotechnology, Raman spectroscopy, and paper fluidics. Monika received her bachelors in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Florida in 2015.
Bailey Sizemore
Bailey is a Mechanical Engineering Student who joined the lab as an Undergraduate Researcher in June 2023. She is working on research for wearable technologies to monitor cardiovascular health, specifically implementing PPG(Photoplethysmography) and pressure sensors into wearable devices. She is also improving her technical skills in Solid Works, Cura (3D printing), and Soldering PCB boards.
Cyril Soliman
Project:
Multi-modal Spectroscopic Platform for Use at the Point-of-Care
The overall goal of this project is to develop a Lab in your Palm (LiyP) platform composed of a handheld, multi-modal spectroscopic platform coupled with a complimentary bioassay for cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) detection. The low-cost optical platform in combination with the bioassay can improve the overall sensitivity and specificity of biomarker detection when compared to the performance of either optical modality on its own. The flexibility of the developed spectroscopic platform enables its application to the detection of different biomarkers.
Previous Education:
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California Irvine (UCI).
Future Career Goals:
Research and development engineer within the biomedical engineering industrial sector.
Other Hobbies and Interests:
Music and hiking
Year Joined:
Fall 2017
Amanda Trevino
Amanda Trevino is an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering student also minoring in Computer Science Engineering. Her research primarily involves the design and analysis of assays to forward the development of an implantable continuous glucose monitoring biosensor.
Dandan Tu
Dandan’s work focuses on designing biosensor to detect biomarkers or presence of environmental toxins in human body using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Currently, she is designing nanoparticles to facilitate specific assay, and utilizing microfluidic method to develop assay platform. Outside of lab, she enjoys music, movie, jogging, hiking, and trying new restaurants and recipes.