2025 Symposium

Registration

Registration for the 2025 ENG4WH Symposium is now closed.

Agenda

Invited Speakers

Dr. Samantha Zambuto

"Female Reproductive Tissue Engineering"

Dr. Samantha Zambuto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the University of Kentucky, Dr. Zambuto was a T32 postdoctoral fellow in the Clinical Outcomes Research Training Program in Female Lower Urinary Tract Disorders at Washington University in St. Louis and was co-advised by Dr. Michelle Oyen PhD and Dr. Jerry Lowder MD. She received her PhD from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Dr. Brendan Harley (Dissertation: ‘Biomaterial-based Models of the Endometrium and Trophoblast Invasion to Investigate Early Pregnancy’). She received her bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from Cornell University, her master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Brown University, and her Master of Population Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine. She is deeply committed to improving health equity in science and seeks to use engineering techniques to understand pregnancy, child birth, and the female reproductive system by creating sophisticated tissue engineered models of the endometrium, vagina, and female lower urinary tract.

 

Dr. Juan Gnecco

"Tissue Engineering the Endometriosis Microenvironment"

Juan S. Gnecco, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University and associate Principal Investigator at the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Medical Center. His work lies at the interface of tissue engineering and reproductive biology to understand the immune-endocrine mechanisms driving uterine physiology and disease pathogenesis. Dr. Gnecco obtained his B.S. in Biotechnology from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) where he developed the first organ-on-chip (OoC) model of the perivascular endometrium to study the effects exerted by environmental toxicants on the female reproductive tract. Dr. Gnecco conducted his post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Biological Engineering where he led efforts to transform the human clinical relevance of 3-dimensional (3D) reproductive tract models by defining the interplay between biophysical and cellular cues using organoid technologies and high-content 3D imaging approaches. He has been awarded three rounds of funding from Gates Foundation (2018-present) for his work building phenotypic 3D models of the endometrial microenvironment. He is the project lead in the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF) Experimental Organoid Model  Unification imitative, was selected as a Rising Star in Engineering and Health by Columbia University, and serves on the editorial board for Frontiers in Reproductive Health. He is committed to advance women’s health through inclusive educational engineering strategies.

 

Dr. Christine N. Metz

"Menstrual Effluent Analysis: Insights into Endometriosis Diagnosis and Treatment"

Dr. Christine N Metz is a Professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health and the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Her research primarily focuses on identifying mechanisms that underlie dysfunctional inflammatory responses. Most of this work centers on women’s health – and specifically endometriosis. She is the Co-Director of the ROSE (Research OutSmarts Endometriosis) study. Dr. Metz is the author of more than 180 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. She has been recognized as one of the top 100,000 scientists in the world (among 7 million) based on her productivity and the impact of her work (PLoS Biology, 2019). In 2024, she received the Women’s Reproductive Health & Endometriosis Industry Award from the Endometriosis Foundation of America.

 

 

Dr. Kristin Myers

"Engineering Innovation in Maternal and Fetal Health: The Biomechanics of High-Risk Pregnancies"

Kristin is an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. She runs a soft tissue biomechanics laboratory on the campus of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Kristin’s work focuses on the biomechanics of pregnancy and the female reproductive system. Hers is one of only a few engineering teams in the world creating computational models of pregnancy to uncover structural mechanisms of preterm birth and to design functional biomedical devices in pregnancy. To understand preterm birth biological pathways, her work has also revealed how hormonal action orchestrates the cervix to remodel itself from a mechanical barrier to protect the fetus to a compliant passageway to allow for safe delivery. She received her mechanical engineering doctorate and masters degree from MIT and her bachelors degree from the University of Michigan. In 2019 Kristin was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House for her work in understanding tissue growth and remodeling in pregnancy.

 

 

Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam

"Translating Health Care Technologies From Concept to Impact: Challenges and Opportunities in Global Cervical Cancer Prevention" 

Nirmala (Nimmi) Ramanujam is recognized for creating globally accessible technologies for women’s health related to cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. She is currently the Robert W. Carr Professor of Engineering and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Global Health at Duke University. She founded the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) in 2013 to catalyze impactful research, educational, and community outreach activities that promote women’s health. In 2023, she won the IEEE  Biomedical Engineering Technical Field Award given annually for outstanding contributions to the field of Biomedical Engineering.  In 2019, she received the Social Impact Abie Award from the AnitaB organization for making a positive impact on women, technology, and society.She was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2017.[1]   She has created Calla Health to commercialize her technologies. Further, she has created a number of initiatives and consortia including WISH, (In)visible Organ, and IGNITE to have far-reaching impact on cervical cancer, reproductive health, and engineering design education, respectively.

 

Dr. Carrie Baker 

"US History and Politics of Abortion Pills"

Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D., is the Bauman professor of American Studies, Chair of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Smith College and co-founder of the Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice. Her research and teaching focus on gender, law and public policy. She recently published the book, Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics, open access with Amherst College Press). Baker writes extensively for the public. She is a regular writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine.

 

 

Panelists

Meg Wirth

President and Founder of Maternova

Meg Wirth is an expert in maternal and neonatal health innovation. She is the Founder of Maternova, a B2B commercialization platform for femtech and neonatal health devices and diagnostics.  The company curates, licenses and sells a portfolio of 50 products to 700 enterprise level customers globally, including the USA.  Maternova is providing a path to market for biotech innovations that directly support SDG3, reducing morbidity and mortality in pregnancy and childbirth and for newborns as well. Meg advised dozens of startups as a Senior Director at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse Accelerator.  Meg has also worked as a member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Health Equity team and co-edited a major volume called Challenging Inequities in Health: From Ethics to Action. She was a co-author of the UN Millennium Project’s final report on child and maternal health. She has a BA from Harvard University and an MPA in international development from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and has worked in clinics and hospitals ranging from Appalachia to Borneo, Indonesia.

Dr. Jane Zhang

Founder & CEO of Remmie Health

Jane Zhang, PhD, MBA, is the Founder and CEO of Remmie Health, an AI-powered ear-nose-throat health platform. She is a 4-time NIH, FDA consortia, and foundation grant winner and was on the scientific panel for 4 NIH SBIR sections, Jane is an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in Mechanical Engineering specialized in medical diagnostics. She started in product R&D as postdoctoral senior scientist in Becton Dickinson. She then joined ZS Associates as the engagement lead in patient level data analytics, sales operations, commercial strategy, forecast and insights for major healthcare clients, such as Genentech, AstraZeneca, UCB, and Abbott Labs, to launch 4 major biotech products into the market. In Amgen, she oversaw forecasting and sales performance for a $2B oncology portfolio. Her experiences dealing with her young son’s recurring ear infections and dad’s hearing loss prompted the idea of Remmie Health. She majored in Engineering Science from University of Toronto, PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, with MBA from UCLA.

Dr. Uroš Kuzmanović

Founder & CEO of BioSens8

Uroš Kuzmanović, PhD, as a result of his childhood experiences, is passionate about breaking healthcare inequalities and power imbalances existing in the US healthcare system. To do so he translated technical work developed during his Biomedical Engineering PhD at Boston University into technology which addresses dire unmet needs. He has raised $2M entirely in non-dilutive funding, grown a team of 9, interviewed over 100 potential customers, worked directly with lawyers on 6 patents (4 of which are granted), gathered support from Fortune 500 companies, amassed a large network of advisors and mentors, and moved the company into a premiere incubator space in Cambridge, MA. His successes led him to be recognized as ‘Rising Entrepreneur of the Year' by TiE Boston in 2022. He’s first focused on developing a wearable which will revolutionize IVF by allowing for at-home and continuous hormone monitoring.

Summer Jasinski

Research Scientist II at WHOOP

Summer Jasinski is a Research Scientist at WHOOP, where her work connects data science with wearable technology to tackle critical women's health challenges. At WHOOP, Summer’s projects have included analyzing biometric fluctuations for menstrual cycle detection and advancing studies on early detection of premature birth and maternal complications through wearable-derived insights. A graduate of Northeastern University with a BS in Mathematics, Summer is passionate about harnessing innovative technologies to enhance health outcomes for women globally. Her contributions have resulted in numerous publications and presentations, highlighting applications of wearable technology in menstrual cycle tracking and real time stress monitoring.

Liz Powell

Founder & President of G2G Consulting

Liz is the Founder of G2G Consulting, which creates and implements policy, funding and advocacy Government to Growth (G2G) strategies for clients—securing $544 million in funding since 2007. She serves on the Steering Committee for the Innovation Equity Forum led by the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and created G2G's Women's Health Advocates program. She previously served as Legislative Director in Congress where she staffed the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, Armed Services Committee and Small Business Committee, as a Policy Analyst for UK Parliament’s Health Committee and worked on congressional and presidential campaigns. She earned her MPH from Harvard, JD from George Washington, and BA from Colgate.

Cara Tenenbaum

Founder of Strathmore Health Strategy

Cara is a seasoned health policy expert, advocate, and writer with almost two decades of health policy experience. That includes experience in the patient advocacy field, having been the head of policy for a small non-profit focusing on women's health. There, she handled all advocacy, including appropriations, authorizing legislation, drafting testimony, presenting testimony, preparing regulatory comment letters and working with all operating divisions of HHS, as needed. She holds a JD and MBA from Case Western Reserve University and a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

 

Dr. Carla Reimold

Executive Vice President of Scientific Innovation and Strategic Investments at Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

In her role, Carla develops and manages the investment strategy for several initiatives with the life sciences industry, including private, public, and nonprofit stakeholders, in order to support the needs of the Commonwealth’s life sciences ecosystem. Most recently, as Principal, Technology Development Fund (TDF) at Boston Children’s Hospital, Carla coordinated the TDF funding cycles and proposal evaluations, served as a project manager for funded technologies, and negotiated agreements with contract research organizations and external collaborators. Carla received her Bachelor of Science in biological and agricultural engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. She earned a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carla has authored and co-authored 16 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of tissue engineering and wound repair.

Venue

Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering (CILSE)

610 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215

Registration tables will be located by the main entrance of CILSE.

Public Transportation

We strongly encourage attendees to utilize public transit to get the the symposium.

The MBTA Green Line

Take the MBTA Green Line (B) to BU East or Blandford Street and then walk 3 minutes to CILSE. Alternatively, you may choose to take the MBTA Green Line (B), (C), or (D) to Kenmore and then walk 8 minutes to CILSE.

The MBTA Commuter Rail

Take the MBTA Commuter Rail to Lansdowne and then walk 5 minute to CILSE.

The MBTA Bus and BU Shuttle

The MBTA 57 Bus Route and BU Shuttle stop at Blandford Street and are both within a 3 minute walk to CILSE.

Parking

Accessible Accommodations

If you require accessible parking accommodations due to disability or mobility concerns, please email Katalina (kbusta@bu.edu).

Guest Parking Lots

The maximum daily rate for guest parking is a flat rate of $25. You can find more information about guest parking and rates here.  The following lots offer guest parking:

  • Kenmore Lot (O) – 549 Commonwealth Avenue, 0.2 miles from CILSE
  • Agganis Arena Lot/Garage (A) – 925 Commonwealth Avenue, 0.9 miles from CILSE
  • Langsam Garage (B) –142 Gardner Street, 1.2 miles from CILSE

Metered Street Parking

Metered street parking is strictly enforced.