I am super proud to announce the achievement of Dr. Jawaher AlYammahi, post-doctoral researcher from The Vijay Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi. She was recently awarded the Emirati Women Achiever Award.

startAD, the innovation and entrepreneurship hub at NYUAD created a groundbreaking program identifying and spotlighting visionary Emirati Women steering innovation and entrepreneurship in the nation, under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the Mother of the Nation.

Jawaher was chosen as one of the Emirati Women Achievers this year for her innovative work in biomass valorization, 3D bioprinting, and sustainable food technologies.

I am incredibly proud of Jawaher for winning this award and all the exciting projects on biomass valorization and 3D Bioprinting that she is currently working on in our lab!

Hearty Congratulations, Dr. Jawaher! Many more to come!

Today marks an important milestone in my academic career.

It feels like I just interviewed Susheem and Jiarui for a PhD position at The Vijay Lab, New York University Abu Dhabi but it was early 2020. Little did we know that a pandemic was looming large at our doorsteps. They started their PhD journey with the unforeseen challenges caused by the pandemic – right from US visa delays, online classes, and social isolation while in New York doing their first-year coursework at Tandon School of Engineering, New York University.

Four years had passed since and today my first PhD students successfully defended their dissertation, graduating as Dr Susheem Kanwar and Dr Jiarui Zhou.

Susheem has a master’s degree from Delhi Technological University and bachelor’s from Manipal University Jaipur, both in Mechanical Engineering. He worked on novel scaffold designs for bone tissue engineering, magnetic nanocomposite multi-functional scaffolds for bone regeneration and cancer management for his PhD. Susheem graduates with four publications in peer-reviewed international journals, in three of which he is the first-author, two more in pipeline, and three international conference presentations in Singapore, UK, and US including TERMIS.

Jiarui has an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a special track in micro/nano area from Columbia University and B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nottingham. He worked on 3D-Printed conductive drug-eluting Nerve Guide Conduits for peripheral nerve regeneration in long nerve gap injuries. Jiarui graduates with four publications in peer-reviewed international journals, in two of which he is the first-author, three more in pipeline, one filed patent and two international conference presentations in Singapore and Hong Kong including TERMIS.

Despite all the challenges posed by the pandemic, the long lead-time of procuring research materials in Abu Dhabi, and the steep learning curve of diving into a new field, they did incredibly well! I am extremely proud of you!

As the first two PhD students graduating from my lab, this is a super proud and emotional moment for me. You guys are literally the first shoots of my academic family tree.

Looking forward to seeing you do great things! Congratulations and all the best, Dr Jiarui and Dr Susheem!

Susheem Kanwar, PhD candidate at the Vijay Lab and his team won second place in the Midwest Healthcare Case Competition (MHCC). MHCC is a joint effort between three consulting groups in the Midwest: the BALSA Group, miLEAD Consulting Group, and WiSolve Consulting Group. They are sponsored by Genentech, Eli Lilly, LEK, and Health Advances among others.

The case competition was on "Advancing Health Equity in Multiple Sclerosis (MS)". The team was asked to assume the role of an analyst working to understand the patient experience and journey in a neurological therapy area. The task was to identify opportunities where the organization can support uninsured and low-income/Medicaid populations within the US to advance equity and equitable access to care. 

We won the second place in this competition! Congratulations Susheem! 

20th October 2023

Jiarui Zhou, PhD candidate at the Vijay Lab presented a poster at TERMIS-AP 2023 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong. 

Congratulations Jiarui! 

17th October 2023

The joy of a mentor is to see their mentees succeed!

Congratulation to Dr Kamil ElKhoury for winning the NYUAD GradSlam 2023! GradSlam is a three-minute thesis competition where graduate students and postdoctoral candidates share their research in 3 minutes to intelligent but out-of-the-field audience.

I was so happy being there and seeing Kamil win! Kamil did an excellent job in communicating the bioprinting research in under 3 minutes in a language that is easily comprehendible to people from all walks of life. It’s not as easy as it sounds to communicate science effectively to laymen. It took weeks of workshops, trainings, and practice – and kudos to Kamil not only for winning but for all his diligent efforts in participating.

Thanks to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs Office at NYUAD for organizing this event.

Hearty Congratulations again, Kamil! I am proud of you! Wishing you a lot more laurels and successes! 

4th October 2023

The cover image is based on the Article Rapid and inexpensive process to fabricate paper-based microfluidic devices using cut and heat plastic lamination process by Kumawat et al., https://doi.org/10.1039/D2LC00452F.

Publication: 

Kumawat, N., Soman, S.S., Vijayavenkataraman, S., Kumar, S. (2022). Rapid and inexpensive process to fabricate paper-based microfluidic devices using cut and heat plastic lamination process. Lab on a Chip, 22, 3377-3389. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2LC00452F

*Featured on the front cover of Lab on Chip

Prof. Vijay was invited to present in the "e-Seminar Series on Translational Biomedical Engineering", organized by the University of Victoria and University of Montreal, Canada on 13th April 2022. 

The cover image is based on the Article 3D bioprinting and microscale organization of vascularized tissue constructs using collagen-based bioink by Senthilkumar Muthusamy et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.27838.

Publication: 

Muthusamy, S., Kannan, S., Lee, M., Vijayavenkataraman, S., Lu, W.F., Fuh, J. Y. H., Sriram, G., Cao, T. (2021). 3D Bioprinting and Microscale Organization of Vascularized Tissue Constructs using Collagen-based Bioink. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.27838 

Prof. Vijay delivered a keynote presentation to the faculties and researchers in India as part of the AICTE-ISTE sponsored Induction/Refresher Program on "Advanced Materials and Processes for Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing"