From restoring function after neural injury to engineering wearable technologies that monitor human health in extreme environments, four University of Miami College of Engineering graduate students have been awarded highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
Three of the awardees are biomedical engineering graduate students pursuing research at the intersection of engineering, biology, and medicine. Diane Balallo, a master’s student in neural engineering working under the mentorship of Courtney Dumont and Abhishek Prasad, conducts research at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, where she focuses on biomaterial‑based strategies to promote neural repair following injury. Her work explores how engineered materials can support nerve regeneration and improve functional recovery after traumatic damage to the nervous system.
Lucy Ho, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering working in Alice Tomei’s lab, focuses her research on Type 1 diabetes. Based at the Diabetes Research Institute, Ho studies specialized lymph node cells known as fibroblastic reticular cells and their role in regulating immune responses. By examining how these cells promote immune tolerance, her research aims to identify new approaches that could help prevent or slow the progression of Type 1 diabetes by protecting insulin‑producing cells.
Also recognized is Jasmine Murray, a biomedical engineering doctoral student whose research focuses on biomaterials and neural engineering. Working in Courtney Dumont’s lab, Murray studies how engineered biomaterials influence the neuroimmune environment following injury. Her work seeks to better understand how immune signaling affects healing and to design materials that modulate inflammation in ways that support tissue repair and recovery.
In mechanical engineering, Ethan Damiani was recognized for research focused on wearable health‑monitoring technologies for low‑gravity environments. Working under the mentorship of Chunlei Wang, Damiani is developing health sensors designed to provide astronauts with critical physiological data during long‑duration space missions. By engineering wearable systems that function reliably in space, his research seeks to address gaps in understanding how the human body responds to extended time in low‑gravity conditions.
In addition to the current students, several University of Miami engineering alumni also earned NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year, including Elissa Cimino, Isabella Grace Cozzone, Leanna Renee Pfeffer, and Giana Vitale, underscoring the College of Engineering’s continued impact on graduate research and engineering leadership nationwide.
