Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) faculty Dr. Jessica Ramella-Roman has been elected to join the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Dr. Ramella-Roman is an Associate Professor for the BME department, and her work and research interests involve biophotonic devices for pre-mature labor and the development of point-of-care devices for underserved communities.
The election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is a formal acknowledgement for professionals who have made significant contributions to medical and biological engineering in academia, industry, government, and education that have led to advancements in the field and is comprised of over 2,000 inductees across the country.
“It’s really nice to be part of a group that is working towards a common goal in technological and medical outcomes,” says Dr. Ramella-Roman. “It will help to be recognized beyond my circle of biomedical optics and more towards a bigger group of investigators that are looking at biomedical research, but in a broader sense.” With this recognition, Dr. Ramella-Roman says it will also open the door not only for her but for her students, so that they can access the network of professionals and reach out to researchers, experts and policy makers with different expertises.
Dr. Ramella-Roman and her group of students are currently developing NSF-funded point-of-care wearable devices that can quantify changes that skin of individuals with obesity undergoes to develop wearable devices that can adapt to all. They are also developing low-cost and non-invasive devices that use light to determine women’s risks of going into pre-term labor and working with pregnant women with this technology, which is another understudied phenomenon in the U.S. that they plan to pursue further.