The 2nd Annual NIH T32 Symposium at UCSB

by Anchal Sharma

Ella Evensen, a bioengineering PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara, studies how the mechanical environment around a tumor affects its growth and spread, with the goal of building realistic, lab-grown tumor models that can be used to better understand cancer mechanobiology and pave the way for more precise, patient-specific cancer therapies. Ahmed Al Kindi, a mechanical engineering PhD candidate, aims to engineer protective layers for medical devices and synthetic tissues, inspired by the body’s own strategies for reducing damage and inflammation — particularly in delicate and sensitive areas such as the eye, lungs, and gut where mechanical stress is unavoidable. His work could lead to better treatments for a variety of eye conditions, including the dry eye disease, which affects millions of people worldwide.

Al Kindi and Evenson were among the seven graduate students who presented their research at the 2nd Annual T32 Symposium, organized by the Bioengineering Department. The speakers also included Marley Dewey, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, who discussed her study on designing mechanically tunable, shape-fitting implants for large-scale bone regeneration, and Ryan Stowers, a mechanical engineering assistant professor, who talked about his work on engineering extracellular matrix viscoelasticity to probe cellular responses, which include cell growth and the development of cancer.

The event showcased the diversity of research supported by a T32 training grant provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The T32 grant funds training programs that, according to the NIH, "enable institutions to recruit individuals selected by them for predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in specified shortage areas. The goal of this program is to prepare qualified predoctoral and/or postdoctoral trainees for careers that have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the Nation." The NIH only funds about one in every six T32 proposals.

“These training grants are recognized nationally as flagship training programs for bioengineers and biomedical researchers,” said Beth L. Pruitt, director of the NIH T32 Training Program in Quantitative Mechanobiology, and a professor in the department of bioengineering. “Our T32 training grant helped set the stage for our new PhD program and department, and helped us leverage UCSB’s unique interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment to level up formal graduate research training, faculty mentor training, and student professional development opportunities.”

Now entering its fifth year, UCSB’s T32 grant focuses on Quantitative Mechanobiology which relates to the relationship between molecular events and mechanical forces in living systems. Each year the grant funds six trainees with interest in mechanobiology, who are recruited from seven PhD programs at UCSB: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology; Mechanical Engineering; Bioengineering, Biomolecular Science and Engineering; Physics; Chemical Engineering; and Materials. Besides offering tailored professional opportunities to graduate students, the grant also provides mentoring workshops to faculty.

Noting how the NIH T32 Training Grant has been an enormous asset to the Bioengineering Department, Michelle O’ Malley, a professor of chemical engineering and the interim chair of bioengineering, said, “The T32 training grant has allowed trainees the freedom to explore different research labs through 10-week rotations, and provided a unique set of courses and access to professional development opportunities for our graduate students, helping attract top talent to UCSB.”

For Al Kindi, the chance to rotate through different labs helped his research evolve organically, “one experiment and one unexpected result at a time”. His work, focused on mucins — sugar-coated proteins that form the body’s natural friction-reducing barrier, investigates how the density and structure of mucin gel networks influence friction and mechanical stress in the body, and could lead to better medical solutions for eye irritation, safer contact lenses, and coatings for medical devices aimed at reducing inflammation.

“It’s more than a scientific challenge. It’s something that could actually make a difference in people’s lives,” Al Kindi commented. “The project is a great match for my skillset, and lets me apply what I’ve learned from mechanical engineering, while pushing me to grow in areas like cell biology and microscopy.”

Funding programs, such as the NIH T32, also play a vital role in attracting and supporting top-tier graduate students to UCSB’s growing research community in mechanobiology. For example, PhD candidate Jane Baude, who is advised by Stowers, presented her work to develop a novel 3D cell culture system that will help explain why breast cells — both healthy and cancerous — behave the way they do. She emphasized that the T32 grant provided more than just financial support — it expanded her scientific network and opened doors to new interdisciplinary collaborations.

“UCSB is already very collaborative,” she noted, “but this grant helped me connect with engineering labs and other research areas I wasn’t exposed to before.”

The dynamic lineup of speakers, faculty researchers, and emerging scholars in bioengineering who showcased cutting-edge research, contributed to the success of the symposium. The event also provided an opportunity for participants to network and receive suggestions for their research projects. The keynote speakers at the symposium were Valerie M. Weaver, professor in the departments of surgery and bioengineering and therapeutic sciences from UC San Francisco, and Martin Schwartz, professor in the departments of biomedical engineering and cell biology, from Yale School of Medicine.