Team

Dr. Harris is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University with a joint appointment in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Harris received her B.S. from Purdue University in 2006 and her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 2011, both in Biomedical Engineering. She then pursued her postdoctoral research at the Seattle Children's Research Institute in 2014. Dr. Harris is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in hydrocephalus due to her comprehension of the pathophysiology and her investigation into shunt obstruction and shunt infection utilizing unique in vitro model systems. In addition to her academic activities, Dr. Harris is deeply committed to improving public education and cultivating sincere connections between researchers and patients.

Prashant is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Biomedical Engineering department at Wayne State. He earned his Bachelors of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Mumbai in 2013 and went on to complete a Masters of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2015 and a Masters of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University in 2016. After graduating, he worked as a technician for Dr. Harris's lab in the Neurosurgery department at Wayne State. Prashant joined the Harris Lab as a PhD student in the Fall of 2018. His work involves using confocal fluorescence microscopy in combination with image analysis software to quantitatively understand roles of different cell types in the foreign body response to ventricular catheters collected from patients with hydrocephalus. His PhD project is focused on using organ-on-chip technology to understand the process of CSF production. When he isn’t in the lab, Prashant enjoys road-biking.

Ahmad is a 3rd year PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering department at Wayne State. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Western Michigan University, in 2019. At Western, he was actively involved with teaching and mentoring his peers. He joined the Harris Lab in August of 2019. Ahmad has a fascination for rapid prototyping using 3D printers which he wants to apply towards his PhD. When Ahmad isn't working he's on a quest to find the country’s best burger; so far he has tested and ranked over 400 burgers across 11 states in the country!

Chris is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science. He completed his bachelors in Chemical Engineering at Wayne State University. Chris specializes in computational fluid dynamics. He uses his skillsets to model the highly complex flow patterns within the ventricles to aid in the understanding of the dynamic environment of catheters. Information gathered from his work will be used to optimize shunt design and implantation. In his free time, Chris enjoys playing video games.

Aaron is a 2nd year PhD student in the department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science. He earned his bachelors degree in chemical engineering at California State Polytechnic University in 2017. He then moved to Michigan to work as a Product Engineer for a specialty chemicals and adhesive company. He left his position in 2021 to pursue his passion for research and teaching. His focus is primarily geared towards the material characteristics of catheters with an emphasis in nanotechnology. He enjoys being outdoors, snowboarding, playing board games, and petting dogs.

Gwen is a 1st year PhD student at Wayne State University in the department of Chemical Engineering. Her research is primarily focused on chiari but is beginning to explore the use of hydrogels of to simulate the ventricular wall. In addition to improving the field of hydrocephalus and chiari, Gwen is currently pursuing her goal of becoming the worlds greatest rock climber. She also enjoys baking and playing with her one-eyed cat.

Jeffrey is in his junior year of the Bachelor’s of Engineering program in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University. He joined the Harris lab as a volunteer research assistant during his High School education. Jeffrey is part of a team in the Harris Lab that is working towards modifying biomaterial surfaces to impede foreign body responses; his role is to test the effects of pressure on modified biomaterial surfaces. His independent project is focused on developing an automated, electronic pressure and flow rate controlling bioreactor system that can be used to study foreign body responses to ventricular catheters. In his spare time Jeff enjoys baking and skeet shooting.

Rune is in his senior year of his bachelors in biomedical engineering. With a previous bachelors of arts in music composition, Rune is pivoting his creative energy into his research as a tissue engineer. His focus is centered on biomaterials and 3D tissue engineering. When not in the lab, Rune spends his time enjoying the outdoors and petting his many cats.

Mira is in her junior year of the Bachelor’s of Engineering program in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University. She joined the Harris lab in Spring of 2018 as a research assistant. Mira is part of a team in the Harris Lab that is working towards modifying biomaterial surfaces to impede foreign body responses; her role is to quantify the degradation of modified biomaterial surfaces using spectrophotometric techniques. Independently, Mira is using in vitro models to understand the contribution of specific blood components in driving the foreign body response to ventricular catheters. When she isn’t in the lab or in class, Mira coaches her high school track and field team.

Kevin is a premed in his sophomore year of the Bachelor's of Engineering program in Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University and hopes to pursue a minor in chemistry. He recently joined the Harris lab in the summer of 2020. Kevin is currently working on finding the relationship between ventricular size and shunt obstruction through the analysis of patient brain scans. Outside of lab, Kevin volunteers as a Crisis Counselor for the Crisis Text Line.

Jacob is a 3rd year medical student at Wayne State. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan in 2016. He then completed 2 years at the NIH as part of the prestigious Postbac IRTA program. Jacob joined the Wayne State University Medical School in 2018 and subsequently joined the Harris Lab. His role in the lab is focused on clinical coordination, extraction of data from medical records and organization into databases for analysis.

Simran is in her junior year, majoring in Biological Sciences at Wayne State University. She joined the Harris lab in Winter of 2018. Simran is part of a team in the Harris Lab that is working to test proprietary surface modifications to impede foreign body responses, for the company ‘FreeFlow Medical’. Her role is to process tissue samples using immunofluorescence techniques to assess the cytotoxicity of an implanted biomaterial on surrounding tissue.

Pranav is in his senior year of the Bachelor’s of Engineering program in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University. He joined the Harris lab in Spring of 2018. Pranav is part of a team in the Harris Lab that is working towards modifying biomaterial surfaces to impede foreign body responses; his role is to use SEM to qualitatively analyze and confirm biomaterial surface modification. Pranav is also on Wayne State’s competitive fencing team.

Kylie is in her sophomore year as a Computer Science major at Wayne State Univeristy, and joined the Harris Lab in January 2020. Currently, she is part of a team that is working towards enhancing the development of a flow rate bioreactor system through the use of the Arduino and C++ programming languages. In her free time, Kylie enjoys coding graphic designs with HTML/CSS and is currently learning Javascript to take her personal projects on another level.

Rooshan earned his Bachelor of Biological Sciences, from the University of Windsor and Wayne State University in 2016. Between 2015 and 2017 Rooshan worked as a research assistant at the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at WSU under Dr. Lawrence Grossman, Dr. Felix Fernandez-Madrid, and Dr. Russell Finley. He also worked as a research assistant for Dr. Harris at Wayne State’s Department of Neurosurgery. He then went on to complete an M.E.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario in 2019. Rooshan joined the Harris Lab as a research technician in July of 2019. His role is focused on assessing foreign body response to proprietary ventricular shunt modifications made by collaborators at FreeFlow Medical Devices and Microbot Medical using in vitro 3D culture systems. His independent project focusses on using in vitro simulations of catheters to study the influence of repeat revisions and of specific cytokines on the aggressiveness of gliosis.