The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has named two new fellows from WashU. This year’s fellows include Hong Chen, a professor of biomedical engineering at McKelvey Engineering and of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine, and Jennifer Heemstra, chair and the Charles Allen Thomas Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is highly competitive; membership is composed of the top 2% of engineers in medicine and biology who have made outstanding contributions to their fields.
Chen was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows “for innovations in noninvasive focused ultrasound techniques to revolutionize brain disease diagnosis, therapy and fundamental understanding of brain function.”
Since joining WashU in 2015, Chen has been at the forefront of innovation in developing this bold new field, known as “NeuroSonics.”
Heemstra, known for her advocacy for students and early-career scientists as well as for her groundbreaking research into proteins and nucleic acids, was elected for her “leadership in research in chemical biology and advocacy for excellence in research mentorship and career advancement in STEM.”
Heemstra and her lab harness nucleic acid molecular recognition and self-assembly to create functional architectures for biosensing and bioimaging. Among other advances, her team is developing new ways to track and visualize natural RNA edits and other modified RNA structures in cells.
