ENTCHEVA LAB NEWS
Summer 2025
Olivia Chesla & Jillian O’Kean win SUPER awards to conduct research in the lab.
May 2025
Maria Pozo’s paper on controlling cardiac waves with a magnetic Halbach array gets on the cover of Biophysical Journal.
December 2024
Prof. Entcheva wins a new grant from HFSP (Human Frontiers in Science Program) in collaboration with Japan and the UK.
May 2024
Prof. Emilia Entcheva elected Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society.
June 2024
Prof. Emilia Entcheva elected Senior Member of SPIE.
April 2024
Postdoc Dr. Yuli Heinson gives birth to Ada!
Fall 2023
Morgan Pettebone joins the lab as a new PhD student.
June 2023
PhD student Maria R. Pozo wins a predoctoral NRSA Award from NIH!
Summer 2023
Visiting PhD scholar from McGill Khady Diagne conducted experiments in the lab.
April 2023
Senior design team supervised by Prof. Entcheva wins the Innovation pitch prize
May 2023
Graduation on the Potomac – with Sarah Antonevich, Isabelle Eskay, Julie L. Han, Weizhen Li and Yuli Heinson
April 2023
PhD student Julie L. Han defends her dissertation.
April 2023
PhD student Weizhen Li defends her dissertation.
February 2023
Yuli and Julie’s paper on developing a portable low-cost all-optical electrophysiology system gets on the cover of JBO.
Summer 2022
Undergraduates Sarah Antonevich and Isabelle Eskay win SUPER fellowships for the summer.
April 2022
Dr. Yuli Heinson wins first place in the GW Postdoctoral Research Day.
April 2022
PhD students Julie L. Han and Weizhen Li win prizes at the university research day.
May 2021
Graduation time for Michael Pressler and Christianne Chua!
Fall 2020
We welcome a new postdoc Dr. Yuli Heinson!
Summer 2020
Pandemic time. We say goodbye to Dr. Wei Liu, who takes a faculty position at Harbin Institute of Technology in China.
Summer 2019
Maria R. Pozo joins the lab as a PhD student.
June 2019
Undergraduate Christianne Chua becomes the fourth student from the lab to win the Barry Goldwater scholarship for excellence in STEM. Christianne swept also multiple other awards, including Clare Boothe Luce fellowship, SUPER etc.
January 2019
Prof. Entcheva wins a new collaborative grant from NIH on developing high-throughput all-optical platforms for human iPSC-CMs.
May 2018
Prof. Entcheva wins a new collaborative grant from NIH NIBIB on ultrasound effects on cardiomyocytes.
June 2018
Prof. Entcheva wins a new NSF award for translational instrumentation development.
Fall 2018
Dr. Wei Liu joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
June 2018
Prof. Entcheva wins a new collaborative EFRI (Emerging Frontiers) grant from NSF on optoepigenetics.
Fall 2018
Weizhen Li joins the lab as a PhD student. Christianne Chua and Michael Degaga join as undergraduate researchers.
Fall 2018
Physics undergraduate Sarah Schrup becomes the third student from the lab to win the Barry Goldwater scholarship for excellence in STEM.
March 2018
Our developments on cardiac optogenetics are featured on the cover of Biophotonics International.
December 2017
Aleks Klimas defends her PhD dissertation.
Summer 2017
Island of Ven, Sweden – Summer Biophotonics workshop: Aleks Klimas wins First Place.
Summer 2017
We welcome new PhD student Julie L. Han.
May 2017
Prof. Entcheva wins a new NSF grant to develop CRISPRi tools for cardiomyocytes for high-throughput assays.
Fall 2016
Physics undergraduate Sarah Schrup joins the lab.
September 2016
Prof. Entcheva wins a new grant from NIH-NIBIB on optogenetics.
May 2016
Our Nature Communications paper on high-throughput all-optical electrophysiology comes out and draws attention. The article on Science Daily can be found here.
May 2016
A review/perspective on all-optical electrophysiology comes in the Journal of Physiology, using images from our Nature Photonics paper with Gil Bub on the cover.
April 2016
Prof. Entcheva is inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for "pioneering work in cardiac optogenetics & spearheading the development and biophysical characterization of new bioengineering tools towards all-optical electrophysiology"
January 2016
Our lab relocated to The George Washington University into a brand new space in the Science and Engineering Hall.
October 2015
Collaborative work between my lab and Dr. Gil Bub's lab at Oxford appeared today in Nature Photonics.
Unlike any application of optogenetics to date (neural or cardiac), beyond triggering or suppressing electrical activity, we demonstrate the first fine "excitation wave steering" using computer-generated dynamic light patterns (movies), while simultaneously tracking the waves with a novel high-resolution interferometric dye-free imaging. It literally involves twisting cardiac spiral waves around by light - a bit of a science fiction. :). The paper can be found here.
Media coverage: Phys.org: Researchers learn how to steer the heart with light; Science Daily: Researchers learn how to steer the heart with light Stony Brook University Press Release: Researchers learn how to steer the heart with light Oxford University Press Release: Researchers learn how to steer the heart with light
September 2013
Press/media coverage of our recent work on cardiac optogenetics - some shown below: Science Daily: Researchers Aim to Use Light Not Electric Jolts To Restore Healthy Heartbeats BioOptics World: Optogenetics Could Correct Life-threatening Arrhythmias; Scientific Computing: Using Light Not Jolts To Restore Healthy Heartbeats CNET: Scientists shine light on irregular heartbeats
May 2012
Congratulations to Dr. Zhiheng Jia, PhD for completing his PhD! He has been invaluable to the success of the lab and in our first steps into cardiac optogenetics – he will be missed. Jia joins Motorola as an Optical Engineer. Also graduating this May is Dr. Ujas Shah, MD, a veteran lab member since his first stint with us in 2004 as a high school student – time to leave the Stony Brook nest. He will be starting his residency at Montefiore in NYC. Finally, congratulations to Cookie Yu, BS, who was chosen to carry the BME banner as an outstanding undergraduate! Cookie will be staying in our lab as a PhD student.
May 2012
Some Awards for old and new lab members:
Congratulations to Dr. Christina Ambrosi, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellows, whose paper from prior work was selected as one of top 4 for 2011 in the Heart Rhythm journal Christina was invited to give a talk at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting in Boston this month.
Congratulations to John Williams, who will continue working on our computational optogenetics project this summer with an URECA award. Joining him will be Xuxin Chen pursuing MD with scholarly concentration. We are expecting our newest member Mathew Epstein, BME from Binghamton, winner of one of the NYSTEM awards for undergraduates.
January 2012
Prof. Entcheva has been awarded a five-year $2.43M grant from the National Institutes of Health "Cardiac Optogenetics: A Cell Delivery Approach" - the first grant by NIH to specifically expand the new field of optogenetics to the heart. Dr. Entcheva's team has pioneered the application of light-sensitive ion channels to mammalian cardiac tissue and the integration of optogenetics with high-speed, high-resolution optical imaging of excitation. This grant, a collaborative work with Drs. Ira Cohen and Peter Brink, draws on expertise in optical mapping, mathematical modeling, and genetic modification of stem cells for use in cardiac electrophysiology. It aims to develop a quantitative framework for cardiac optogenetics in silico, in vitro and in vivo and to allow imaging and actuation of heart tissue by light with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution for the better understanding, prevention and termination of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.
August 2011
Press/media coverage of our recent work on cardiac optogenetics - some shown below: American Heart Association MIT's Technology Review; Photonics.com Science Daily Stony Brook University News
August 2009
Wedding bells for current and former lab members this August! Former lab member Rupinder gets married to lovely Ayesa – an Indian wedding in New York! Marcel Hoernung (our German-in-Japan visiting scientist) ties the knot with lovely Marina – a Japanese wedding! Kwan (new lab member) gets married – a wedding in Taiwan! Good luck to all!!!
June 2009
New grants: Ujas Shah (now medical student) was awarded the highly competitive Glorney-Raisbeck fellowship in cardiovascular disease from the New York Academy of Medicine to perform research in the lab. Jackie won a summer URECA fellowship, and Sandy Hernandez will spend the summer at NIH supported by a bioengineering fellowship.
May 2009
Congratulations to multiple graduates affiliated with the lab! Harold obtains his MD; Steven Leigh, Aashay Tattu, Michael Budassi, Hala, and Syed get their B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Mitch graduates from high school!
January 2008
Mitch deservingly becomes a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent competition 2008-2009 for his research project in the lab!
May 2008
Our lab congratulates multiple graduates!
CY Chung and Pei Ye get their PhD degrees in BME and Computer Science, respectively; Ujas, Ravi and Salmon get their BME Bachelors degrees!
April 2008
Former lab member Lihong Yin gives birth to sweet baby Cyndi!
January 2008
Our pioneering deployment of new CMOS cameras for optical mapping was featured on the cover of Biophotonics International!
October 2007
Our lab is part of a newly NIH-funded grant to establish a Systems Biology Center in New York State (SBCNY). This is a collaborative large-scale effort involving Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), Columbia University College of Physicians, Stony Brook University, Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences at NYU, City College CUNY and IBM TJ Watson Research Lab.
May 2007
After an impressive PhD work in the lab, our superstar - Harold Bien - obtained his PhD degree and got back to finish up medical school (for his MD/PhD). He was recognized as one of the top five PhD students this year to receive the President's Award for Distinguished Doctoral Students. Well deserved, and science needs you, Harold!
May 2007
Ujas Shah becomes the second Goldwater scholar from our lab!
This competitive scholarship program recognizes the best undergraduates in science and engineering nationwide.
Congratulations!
December 2006
Our review article on optical mapping, which appeared in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology this year, was featured in Biophotonics International, p.61, under a heading "Toward Ideal Imaging Equipment".
July 2006
Rupinder Singh becomes the second private pilot from the lab!
May 2006
Congratulations to Rupinder Singh, selected as the outstanding BME senior for the 2006 graduating class! And off he goes to Cornell! Good luck!
April 2006
Ujas Shah got the academic year (2006/07) Howard Hughes award (despite the fact that he is just a freshman)! LAB UNDERGRADS SWEEP MORE AWARDS: Lenny and Rupinder received recognition awards for excellence in research. A hat-trick: Lenny, Ujas, and Ravi got the URECA award to conduct research in the Summer of 2006.
March 2006
Lenny Varghese is awarded a fellowship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in STEM Education Program.
July 2005
Prof. Entcheva has been awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation - an experimental grant on bioelectricity and cell signaling and a computational grant on applying hybrid automata to biological problems in collaboration with the Computer Science Department.
May 2005
Congratulations to Melissa Farrell and Hui-Jing Yu, graduating with B.S. in BME! For her academic and research excellence, Hui-Jing has been selected as the outstanding BME senior for the 2005 graduating class
March 2005
Lenny Varghese has been selected Howard Hughes Scholar for Summer 2005
December 2004
Our "acoustic micromachining" article in Lab-on-a-Chip has been selected as a "hot article" by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and featured here: "Microchips killed the radio star"
August 2004
PhD student Harold Bien becomes officially a private pilot!
July 2004
PhD student Harold Bien is awarded an NRSA from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Fellowship entitled "Myocardial Response to Particulate Matter Air Pollution"
May 2004
Lihong Yin is awarded the Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering (Thesis: "Intracellular Calcium Dynamics in Engineered Cardiomyocyte Networks")
April 2004
Vikram Dasari admitted to Albert Einstein Medical College for graduate school. Melissa Farrell wins Undergraduate Recognition Award.
November 2003
Prof. Entcheva was awarded a 4 year grant by the American Heart Association to study the hypertropy arrhythmias connection in an engineered model of heart tissue.
July 2003
Prof. Entcheva was awarded a 3 year Research Grant by the Whitaker Foundation: "Electromechanical performance of engineered cardiac syncytia on complex surfaces"
May 2003
Graduate student Lihong Yin was the only Stony Brook student to receive a Sigma Xi Research Grant and Hui Jing Yu received a summer fellowship through IBRP (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Program)
April 2003
Cover illustration in April 2003 issue of Journal of Cell Science, accompanying D. Ingber's "Commentary on Tensegrity"; Entcheva E, Bien H, and Yin L. "Mechanical and spatial determinants of cytoskeletal geodesic dome formation in cardiac fibroblasts"
March 2003
Melissa Farrell was awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer fellowship
October 2002
PhD student Harold Bien won 1st Place in the Annual IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Conference Student Paper Competition at the Second Joined BMES and IEEE EMBS Meeting in Houston, TX