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Karin Wuertz-Kozak described her lab test equipment as a gym for cells. Stretching and compressions tests using bioreactors—her lab equipment—can make a difference in understanding how cells respond to mechanical cues and how that affects disease progression, specifically for spinal disc degeneration, common to millions of Americans.

More collagen in the human body is not always good, and Professor Karin Wuertz-Kozak is investigating how disease progresses because of the increase in this important protein.

RIT behavioral health researchers are providing remote mental health care and addiction therapy to rural communities in New York and New Hampshire and training for therapists to deploy the digital treatments at their clinics.

Assistant Professor Olalekan Babaniyi is developing new mathematical techniques that could lead to improvements in applications ranging from medical imaging to predicting how fast ice flows into the ocean.

IoT World Today reports on a team of engineers from RIT that created a robotic system that can teach Tai Chi. 

Zhi Zheng’s robot is skilled at Tai Chi, and her research team hopes it will soon lead a class of older adults at a local community center. Zheng, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in Kate Gleason College of Engineering, developed the humanoid robot as part of her assistive technology research.

After five years of collaboration and production, the neonatal transport ambulance designed by RIT’s Hope for Honduras team has hit the ground in Honduras. The ambulance will help save countless young lives by greatly enhancing medical access to neonatal care for those living in rural areas of the country.

Lishibanya Mohapatra, an assistant professor at RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy, hopes that a better understanding of how living cells maintain the size of their organelles can lead to therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. She earned a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how cells control the size of organelles.

Ph.D. student Jade Myers, who uses 3D print technology to develop upper and lower limb prostheses for amputees, was a top three winner of the nTopology-EOS 2022 Responsible Part Challenge, an international design competition.

RIT students participated in this summer’s Studio930 design consultancy, an interdisciplinary studio that focuses on the development of assistive healthcare solutions by leveraging the use of technology, art, and design. The 10-week long summer experience concluded with a student exhibition inside RIT’s LiveAbility Lab, a close partnership between RIT and the Al Sigl Community of Agencies. 

Cancer spreading from the primary tumor location to another is called metastasis and is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Research efforts today focus on discovering the guidance cues, or indicators, that promote movement of cancer cells toward blood vessels during early metastasis, and some of that work is taking place at RIT and the University of Rochester.

Risa Robinson was appointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. Robinson, department head of mechanical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, brings extensive research in the area of fluid dynamics, particle inhalation and toxicological effects of various tobacco products and nicotine delivery devices.