Engineering Health
Join us at the SBME Symposium on June 2nd. Explore the latest cutting-edge biomedical research that transforms health. Engage with research from molecular and cellular realms to the macro level of human physiology. This community event invites students, researchers, industry, and other biomedical engineering enthusiasts to participate in an exciting day of research presentations and networking.
Registration is now closed for the Symposium.
This year’s symposium
2026
This inclusive event welcomes students, researchers, industry professionals, and biomedical engineering enthusiasts alike to a day filled with insightful presentations and valuable networking opportunities. Researchers from SBME and beyond are invited to showcase their work during our afternoon poster session, or submit an abstract to be considered for a rapid talk. More information regarding submission deadlines can be found below.
Opportunities to Engage
POSTER PRESENTATION
Present your research during the lunchtime poster session and engage with a broad audience across the SBME community. Only the first 100 posters submitted will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Submit your poster submission by May 7.
RAPID TALK ABSTRACTS
Share your work through a short, engaging presentation (5 min) as part of the Symposium’s Rapid Talk sessions.
Submit your rapid talk abstract here by April 24, top 5 abstracts part of each of SBME’s 3 research themes will be selected to give a rapid talk.
Symposium Agenda
Time | Session | Location |
|---|---|---|
8:30 am | Registration Coffee and pastries | Main Floor Lower Level Atrium |
9:00 am | Welcome, Land Acknowledgement, & Opening Remarks | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
9:15 am | Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Student Award | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
9:30 am | Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Lectureship | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
10:10 am | Researcher Rapid Talks | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
10:45 am | Coffee Break | Lower Level Atrium |
11:00 am | Keynote #1: Dr. Krystal Tsosie | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
11:40 am | Panel #1: Engineering the Connected Patient (Sensors, Implantable, and Bioelectronic Medicine) Technological innovation in health and safety often disproportionately benefits those already well served by existing systems. This panel will explore how biomedical engineering—from diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health to injury prevention and safety design—can help ensure that advances reduce, rather than exacerbate, both global and local health inequities. Bringing together perspectives from engineering, public health, medicine, and industry, the discussion will highlight how interdisciplinary approaches can drive more inclusive and globally responsive health technologies. | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
12:30 pm | Lunch & Networking | Lower Level Atrium |
1:15 pm | Keynote #2: Dr. Amin Emad | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
2:00 pm | Panel #2: Engineering Health for Everyone: Technology, Equity, and Global Health Technological innovation in health and safety often disproportionately benefits those already well served by existing systems. This panel will explore how biomedical engineering, from diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health to injury prevention and safety design, can help ensure that advances reduce, rather than exacerbate, both global and local health inequities. Bringing together perspectives from engineering, public health, medicine, and industry, the discussion will highlight how interdisciplinary approaches can drive more inclusive and globally responsive health technologies. | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
2:50 pm | SBME Trainee Papers Recognition | B1001 Lecture Theatre |
3:00 pm | Poster Session + Reception | Second Floor Atrium |
5:00 pm | End |
DR. CONNIE EAVES MEMORIAL LECTURESHIP & AWARD
DR. CONNIE EAVES MEMORIAL LECTURESHIP: Dr. Lola Eniola-Adefeso
The Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Lectureship for Women in Biomedical Engineering celebrates distinguished researchers who have made significant contributions to the BME field. This year’s recipient is Dr. Lola Eniola-Adefeso, Dean of the UIC College of Engineering. Don’t miss Dr. Eniola-Adefeso’s lecture at this year’s Symposium.
Leveraging the Natural Cellular and Biomolecular Interactions in Blood for the Design of Targeted, Anti-Inflammatory Particle Therapeutics
Lecture Abstract:
Vascular-targeted particle therapeutics offer the possibility of increased drug effectiveness while minimizing side effects often associated with systemic drug administration. Factors that influence the likelihood of targeted particle therapeutics reaching the vascular wall are the ability to identify 1) a disease-specific target, 2) the appropriate drug carrier type and geometry for efficient interaction with the vascular wall, and 3) a drug-carrier combination that allows for the desired release of the targeted therapeutics. Dr. Eniola Adefeso’s work focuses on probing the role of particle geometry, material chemistry, and blood rheology/dynamics on the ability of vascular-targeted drug carriers to interact with the blood vessel wall – an important consideration that will control the effectiveness of drug targeting regardless of the targeted disease or delivered therapeutically. This presentation will highlight the carrier-blood cell interactions that affect drug carrier binding to the vascular wall and alter critical neutrophil functions in disease. In this talk, Dr. Eniola-Adefeso will present the material design parameters for optimal drug carriers’ design for active and passive use in treating acute lung injury and other inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Lola Eniola-Adefeso’s Biography:
Lola Eniola-Adefeso is the 10th dean of the University of Illinois Chicago College of Engineering. A distinguished chemical and biomedical engineer, she brings over 25 years of experience advancing interdisciplinary research and inclusive excellence. She has published 70+ peer-reviewed papers, secured significant federal funding, and holds three patents, one of which is licensed to a biotech firm.
Dean Eniola-Adefeso serves as president of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and holds leadership roles with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the National Academies. She is a passionate advocate for diversity in engineering, having led the NextProf program and co-founded BME Women Faculty UNITE. She also helped organize the 2024 Forging Futures Together summit, connecting HBCU and Big 10+ engineering deans.
Before joining UIC, she was a professor at the University of Michigan, where she held the Vennema Endowed Professorship and was named a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. She earned her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Meyerhoff Scholar alumna of UMBC.
The Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Student Award
Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Student Award in Biomedical Engineering recognizes an outstanding SBME PhD student (in Yr3+) who demonstrates exceptional potential for leadership in science, reflecting Dr. Connie Eaves’ commitment to research excellence, mentorship, and societal impact. This year’s recipient is Jiyoung Yun, PhD Candidate from the Zandstra lab. Don’t miss Jiyoung’s talk at this year’s Symposium.
Engineering Intracellular Signaling Domains to Drive CAR-T Cell Differentiation from Pluripotent Stem Cell
Talk Abstract:
Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment by harnessing the immune system to eliminate malignant cells, with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy demonstrating remarkable success against B cell malignancies. While conventional CAR-T therapies rely on autologous patient-derived cells, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived CAR T cells offer a scalable, off-the-shelf alternative that reduces cost and patient-to-patient variability. However, differentiation of iPSCs into CAR-T cells is hindered by skewing toward innate-like phenotypes, largely driven by tonic signaling from the CAR during early development. To address this, we are engineering CAR intracellular signaling domains (ICDs) to modulate tonic signaling and guide iPSC differentiation toward functional CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ CAR T cells. Through a signaling domain library screen, we identified a novel ICD combination that reduced tonic signaling index by 2.5-fold compared to the conventional CD28-based CAR. Moreover, iPSC-derived hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) transduced with this construct exhibited a fivefold increase in CD4⁺CD8⁺ double-positive T cells—precursors of mature T cells—indicating reduced innate skewing. Importantly, these cells further differentiated into both functional CD8⁺ cytotoxic T cells and CD4⁺ helper T cells. This work advances our understanding of CAR-driven signaling in lymphoid development and identifies ICD configurations that promote robust T cell differentiation from iPSCs under feeder- and serum-free conditions, contributing to the development of standardized, universal CAR T cell therapies.
Jiyoung Yun’s Biography:
Jiyoung Yun is the 2026 recipient of the Dr. Connie Eaves Memorial Student Award in Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, recognized for her outstanding research achievements and commitment to community impact. A PhD candidate in the School of Biomedical Engineering, she is an emerging leader in immunoengineering whose work integrates stem cell biology, synthetic biology, and cancer immunotherapy to address key challenges in scalable cell therapy. Her research has advanced the generation of functional CAR-T cells from induced pluripotent stem cells by identifying receptor signaling strategies that improve T cell differentiation, and she has contributed to pioneering work on gene regulatory circuit design published in Science. In addition to her scientific accomplishments, Jiyoung is a dedicated mentor and leader, having trained undergraduate and graduate students, received the UBC Co-op Supervisor Award, and supported inclusive training through programs such as the Biology Undergraduate Diversity in Research initiative, the Association of Korean Canadian Scientists and Engineers, and StemCellTalks Vancouver. A former member of the Korean Women’s National Lacrosse Team, she brings exceptional discipline and teamwork to all aspects of her work, exemplifying the leadership, innovation, and community engagement recognized by this award.
Invited Speakers
Dr. Krystal Tsosie, Arizona State University
Beyond Bench to Bedside: Why Biomedical Translation Requires Community, Power, and Partnership
Translational research in biomedical engineering is often framed as a linear pathway from bench to bedside. Yet this model overlooks a critical dimension: the communities who are ultimately meant to benefit from scientific innovation.
Without meaningful engagement, equitable study design, and attention to power, translational efforts risk reproducing the very inequities they aim to address.
Drawing from my work in Indigenous genomics and bioethics, this talk argues that translation does not occur without community. I will explore how positionality, lived experience, and cultural context shape not only how research is conducted, but which questions are asked, how studies are designed, and how outcomes are interpreted.
I will highlight Indigenous approaches to data governance and community-engaged research as models for rethinking biomedical innovation—where participants are partners, not subjects, and where ethical responsibility extends beyond compliance to accountability and relationship.
Ultimately, this talk challenges the biomedical engineering community to move beyond narrow definitions of translation and to consider how integrating community from the outset can lead to more just, effective, and meaningful scientific outcomes.
Dr. Krystal Tsosie’s Biography
Dr. Krystal Tsosie (Diné/Navajo Nation), PhD, MPH, MA, is an Indigenous geneticist-bioethicist and Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. She is also a genomic data systems architect whose work focuses on building the infrastructure that shapes the future of precision medicine and genomics.
Trained in genetic epidemiology and applied ethics, her research spans human genomics, paleogenomics, and biodiversity genomics, integrating bioethics and data science to develop scalable, community-engaged data systems. She leads the development of Indigenous-led platforms—including biobanks and tribal data repositories—that advance representation, governance, and equity in genomic research.
Dr. Tsosie is a co-founder of the Native BioData Consortium, the first Indigenous-led biobank in the United States, and her work advances Indigenous data sovereignty and community-driven approaches to biomedical research.
Her scholarship examines how research design, data practices, and lived experience shape the quality, relevance, and impact of biomedical knowledge. She advocates for more equitable and community-embedded approaches to translational research, where participants are partners in shaping research questions, study design, and pathways to real-world health outcomes.
Dr. Amin Emad, McGill University
Generative deep learning for modeling single-cell differentiation dynamics: from prediction to interpretation
Abstract: Inferring the governing dynamics of differentiation that capture cell state evolution remains a central challenge in single-cell biology. Single-cell omics technologies resolve cellular heterogeneity at high resolution, but provide only static snapshots of continuous developmental processes. In this talk, I will describe two recent generative deep learning approaches to model continuous differentiation dynamics from static snapshot measurements.
First focusing on temporal predictions, I will describe CellPace, a model that learns developmental dynamics by leveraging a transformer-based temporal diffusion backbone. Across diverse mouse developmental lineages, CellPace achieves state-of-the-art performance in simulation, interpolation, and temporal forecasting of single-cell transcriptomic profiles. Beyond global statistics, CellPace learns and preserves fine-grained biological structure such as gene regulatory mechanisms, marker activation patterns, and spatial fidelity. Finally, I will show how this model can be generalized to multimodal data, jointly modeling transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility information.
Next focusing on model interpretability, I will describe Latent Space Dynamics (LSD). Inspired by thermodynamics and Waddington’s epigenetic landscape, LSD leverages a Neural ODE to jointly infer a compact cell state, a differentiable potential function governing developmental flow, and a local entropy term that quantifies cellular plasticity. Across diverse developmental systems, LSD accurately recovers lineage hierarchies, predicts fate commitment for unseen cell types, and outperforms existing trajectory inference approaches in directional accuracy. Moreover, in silico gene perturbations reveal how individual regulators reshape the landscape.
Together, these models showcase how recent advances in generative deep learning can be leveraged to learn single cell dynamics and provide models that enable temporal predictions and biological interpretations.
Dr. Amin Emad’s Biography
Dr. Emad is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University and is affiliated with Mila (Quebec AI Institute), the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute, and the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine. Before joining McGill, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the NIH KnowEnG Center of Excellence in Big Data Computing associated with the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Genomic Biology at UIUC. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Dr. Emad’s research focuses on developing novel computational methods to study diverse biological systems. He develops computational approaches to model cellular dynamics and disease progression, to predict responses to perturbations, to infer gene regulatory networks, and to decipher protein-protein interactions, with applications in developmental biology and cancer precision medicine. In recent years, his work has centered on foundation models, geometric deep learning, generative AI, physics-informed neural networks, and causal AI for modeling complex biological systems.
Invited Panelists
Panel #1: Engineering the Connected Patient (Sensors, Implantable, and Bioelectronic Medicine)
Technological innovation in health and safety often disproportionately benefits those already well served by existing systems. This panel will explore how biomedical engineering—from diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health to injury prevention and safety design—can help ensure that advances reduce, rather than exacerbate, both global and local health inequities. Bringing together perspectives from engineering, public health, medicine, and industry, the discussion will highlight how interdisciplinary approaches can drive more inclusive and globally responsive health technologies.
Moderator
Dr. Calvin Kuo – Dr. Kuo leads the Human Motion Biomechanics Laboratory (HuMBL), where his research focuses on the development and real-world deployment of wearable sensing technologies for healthcare applications. His work spans biomechanics, machine learning, and clinical translation, with a focus on measuring and interpreting human movement in complex, real-world environments. His lab combines sensor design, error modeling, and data-driven algorithms to generate clinically meaningful insights, enabling improved monitoring, diagnostics, and decision-making in areas such as injury prevention, rehabilitation, and remote health assessment.
Panelists
Ella Tate – Data Scientist, Clarius: Ella Tate is a data scientist at Clarius Mobile Health, working at the intersection of biomedical engineering and data-driven medical technologies. She completed her BASc in biomedical engineering at UBC with experience in bioinformatics and hands-on research in areas such as microscopy systems, firmware, and quantitative data analysis.
Dr. Naghmeh Ghafari – VP, Product Quality Engineering, Kardium: Dr. Ghafari leads product quality engineering at Kardium, overseeing quality across the full product lifecycle—from design and manufacturing to post-market support. She has played a key role in scaling quality, risk management, and manufacturing systems within the company. She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, with research in software formal verification.
Dr. Rob Rohling – Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, UBC: Dr. Rohling’s research is in biomedical engineering, with a specialization in medical ultrasound. He is also the Director of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS), where he supports interdisciplinary research across computing and engineering.
Scott Phillips – CEO, StarFish Medical: Scott Phillips is the founder and CEO of StarFish Medical, one of Canada’s largest medical device development firms. A UBC Engineering Physics graduate, he has led the company’s growth into a global medical technology organization focused on innovation and human-centered design. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and an active leader in the life sciences community.
Panel #2: Engineering Health for Everyone: Technology, Equity, and Global Health
Technological innovation in health and safety often disproportionately benefits those already well served by existing systems. This panel will explore how biomedical engineering, from diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health to injury prevention and safety design, can help ensure that advances reduce, rather than exacerbate, both global and local health inequities. Bringing together perspectives from engineering, public health, medicine, and industry, the discussion will highlight how interdisciplinary approaches can drive more inclusive and globally responsive health technologies.
Moderator
Dr. Stefanie Blain-Moraes – Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy and School of Biomedical Engineering, UBC
Dr. Blain-Moraes is a biomedical engineer whose research focuses on developing technologies to assess human consciousness and support interaction with minimally communicative individuals. She leads the Biosignal Interaction and Personhood Technology (BIAPT) Lab, where her work integrates engineering, neuroscience, and rehabilitation to better understand and support individuals across altered states of consciousness.
Panelists
Dr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai – Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, UBC
Dr. Abdulai’s research spans health informatics, human-computer interaction, and digital health. His work focuses on the design of trauma-informed technologies to improve access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for marginalized populations, with an emphasis on equity and inclusive system design
Chelsey Perry – PhD Candidate, Department of Medicine, UBC
Chelsey Perry is a researcher at the Indigenous Equity Lab whose work focuses on Indigenous health, gender equity, and culturally safe healthcare systems. Their research explores how systemic and structural factors influence healthcare access and outcomes for Indigenous and marginalized communities, with a focus on advancing equity in policy and practice.
Dr. Gina Ogilvie – Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC
Dr. Ogilvie is a globally recognized leader in women’s health, public health, and prevention science, and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV-Related Disease and Cancer. Her research spans reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, and the implementation of HPV screening and vaccination programs, with a strong focus on translating evidence into policy and practice. She currently serves as interim Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute and Senior Research Advisor at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. Her work has significantly influenced public health policy and programming in Canada and internationally, contributing to improved health outcomes at population and systems levels.
Vivian Chung – Research Engineer, Orthopaedic & Injury Biomechanics Group, Blusson Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Centre for Aging SMART, Vancouver Coastal Health
Vivian Chung is a biomedical engineer with research interests in traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, sports biomechanics and surgical technologies. Vivian oversees lab activities and trains research personnel at the Centre for Aging SMART. She also conducts research with Dr. Peter Cripton’s team at the Orthopaedic and Injury Biomechanics Group. Vivian completed her Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering as an Engineers-in-Scrubs fellow under Dr. Antony Hodgson and Dr. Bassam Masri, and now applies her expertise to a wide range of academic and industry research projects.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Interested in sponsoring a session at this year’s Symposium? We’d be happy to discuss sponsorship opportunities with you!
Strategic Partnerships Manager,
School of Biomedical Engineering
partnerships@sbme.ubc.ca