Abstract:

We all talk about the importance of multidisciplinary teams for tackling our greatest health challenges. Yet, I have found that as someone rooted in a technical discipline (mechanical engineering), this is often defined as bringing together an electrical engineer with say a physicist and chemist. For this talk, I will share with you my journey as an engineer in a clinically driven environment. As part of this talk, I will share vignettes of my research, spanning from the development of microfluidic technologies to isolate the rarest particles in blood, to seeking ways to extend the life of human organs. I will highlight voices that I now see as critical to my own research, including ethicists, regulatory specialists and patients themselves, while sharing areas of opportunity for early career scientists.