Members

Director

Dr. Akkus
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Ozan Akkus, Ph.D
 

PhD Students

Anowarul Islam
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Anowarul Islam

Email: axi55@case.edu

Anowarul Islam was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After completing his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), he moved to the US. He worked as a graduate research assistant in the Hard Tissue Biomechanics lab at University of Texas at San Antonio with a completion of M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the same university. In fall 2011, he joined CASE in Dr. Akkus’ Lab as a PhD student. His research focuses on bone fatigue & a novel osteotendinous model for tendon tissue engineering. Outside his professional life, he likes cooking, traveling and photography.

Bolan Li
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Bolan Li

Email: bxl219@case.edu

Bolan Li got his B.E. degree in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering in Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST, China), in 2007. After that, he obtained his Master of Engineering degree in the School of Mechanical Engineering in Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU, China), in 2011. In 2011 summer, he joined Akkus Lab in the field of Bio-optics. His current research focuses on Raman microscopic analysis for diagnosis of arthritis.

Hyungjin Jung
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Hyungjin Jung

Email: hxj59@case.edu

Hyungjin Jung completed his undergrad and master degree in Yonsei University, in Korea. His current research includes intracellular calcium signaling triggered by mechanical stimuli, and downstream signaling pathway initiated and regulated by calcium signal.

Mousa Younesi
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Mousa Younesi

Email: mxy172@case.edu

Mousa Younesi got his B.Sc. degree materials science & engineering from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran at Jun. 2006. After that he continue his study in master degree in Shiraz University in materials science and engineering. He graduated in master degree in 2009. He began his Ph.D study in case orthopedic lab in CWRU from 2011 in the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering under supervision of Prof.Akkus. His interested research fields are: Tissue engineering, Bio-Polymers and Polymer based biocomposites and Nano composites.

Mustafa Unal
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Mustafa Unal

Email: mxu30@case.edu

Mustafa Unal received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Selcuk University, Turkey. Then, he completed his Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics) from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in May 2012. He was one of the lab members of Hard Tissue Biomechanics Lab at UTSA during his master education. In fall 2012, he joined Akkus lab in CWRU. His current research includes spectroscopic analysis of water compartments in bone, changes in mechanical properties of bone with age and disease, and computational analysis of collagen structures.

Abdullah Amin
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Abdullah Amin

Email: aaa196@case.edu

Abdullah Al Amin holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Akron. As a PhD student at CWRU, his focus is Biomedical instrumentation. Currently, he is researching the magnet design in a conduction cooled Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine with novel second generation MgB2 based superconducting wire.

Vickie Webster
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Vickie Webster

Email: vaw4@case.edu

Victoria Webster received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2012 and 2013 respectively. She performed her Master's research in the Biologically Inspired Robotics Lab and is currently working in both the BioRobotics Lab and the Tissue Fabrication and Mechanobiology Lab, focusing on the development and modeling of biohybrid devices.

Greg Learn
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Greg Learn

Email: gdl25@case.edu

Greg received his Bachelor's of Science in Bioengineering from Penn State in Spring 2014. In Fall 2014 he joined Akkus Lab and is pursuing his PhD through the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His current research is focused on incorporating elastin into electrochemically aligned collagen and on evaluating the ELAC platform as a tissue-engineered infraspinatus (rotator cuff) tendon replacement.

Master Students

Katherine Chapin
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Katherine Chapin

Email: kjc51@case.edu

Katherine Chapin received her Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve Univerity in 2014. Her Master's project involves adapting woven collagen meshes for management of stress urinary incontinence.

Yanxia Jiang
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Yanxia Jiang

Email: yxj192@case.edu

Yanxia has received her bachelor of science in Theoretical and applied mechanics from Lanzhou University,China. As a master student of mechanical engineering in CWRU, her master project is about using Digital Image Correlation method to study the fatigue resistance of ceramic tooth.

Visiting Scholar

Baris Ozgur Donmez
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Baris Ozgur Donmez

Email: bod3@case.edu

Baris Ozgur DONMEZ completed his PhD at Akdeniz University, School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy, in Turkey. He is currently working on bone biomechanics with animal models, osteocytes and calcium signaling system. He joined in Akkus Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2013.

Alumni

-Postdoctoral Fellows

Shan Yang, Ph.D.

Vipuil Kishore, Ph.D.

Xingguo Cheng, Ph.D.

Ji Hoon Jeong, Ph.D.

Ramazan Kayacan, Ph.D.

Aysegul Tepe, Ph.D.

Michael Reich, M.D.

-Doctoral Students

Umut Atakan Gurkan, Ph.D.

Jorge Alfredo Uquilas, Ph.D.

Xuanhao Sun, Ph.D.

Serife Agcaoglu, Ph.D.

Scott William VanDyke, Ph.D.

Janardhan Srinivas Yerramshetty, Ph.D.

-Master Students

Emily Moore, M.S.

Jared Diegmuller, M.S.

Audrey Djibo, M.S.

Jason Toler, M.S.

Ryan Belaney, M.S.

Nicholas Wasserman, M.S.

Katie L. Stammen, M.S.

Mark Shuster, M.S.

Vinay Korlepara, M.S.

Sujit Nandagawalli, M.S.

-Undergraduate Students

Samuel Cotey