Priya Premnath, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has received the 2026 Shaw Early Career Research Award to study a dual approach to bone cancer treatment and recovery. With $200,000 in seed funding, she will explore how stem cells can be directed to heal bone after surgery without triggering new cancer growth.

The annual award, established by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, supports research in biochemistry, biological sciences, and cancer by early career scientists at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The award is made possible by the late James D. and Dorothy Shaw, donors to the foundation.

How to stop stems cells from turning cancerous

Stem cells are the body’s shapeshifters. In a healthy environment, they begin as generic cells and mature into specific kinds, such as bone, liver or kidney cells. But in a cancer-promoting environment, the same process might reignite the disease instead.

Premnath has a novel idea to guide stem cells to become committed bone cells instead of new cancer cells.

She will study whether a certain drug designed to kill cancer could also help rebuild bone after removal of tumors. For it to work, stem cells in the location would have to be commissioned to mature into bone cells in a cancer-primed environment.

What is UC2288?

A compound used by researchers to kill cancer cells, UC2288 works by inhibiting a gene known as p21. Premnath suspects the gene causes stem cells to mature differently depending on what environment they are surrounded by.

Even before Premnath became aware of the drug, she and her lab members had already found that inhibiting p21 had an effect on stem cells in healthy tissue. It seemed to help bone fractures heal because the stem cells in the location of injury were being nudged into becoming bone cells.

In searching for a non-invasive treatment for bone fractures, Premnath looked for existing drugs that blocked the gene – and uncovered UC2288.

Potential for patients

Now she wants to see if UC2288 can accomplish both staving off cancer expansion while also fostering healing after bone surgery.

The approach has shown potential.

In lab studies, Premnath found that she didn’t need high, cancer-killing doses of the drug to see an effect on stem cells. At much lower concentrations, UC2288 still changed how the cells behaved – even in environments designed to mimic cancer conditions.

For patients, especially young people with bone cancers like osteosarcoma, the implications could be significant. These cancers often strike near growth plates – areas where bones are actively lengthening during puberty.

New insight into bone regeneration

The project could also verify a new idea about bone regeneration.

Evidence from other recent research suggests that stem cells have a middle stage in the transformation to bone cells. They first become cartilage cells. The cartilage serves as a kind of template that is later replaced by bone.

Premnath hopes to uncover what is happening during this process.

Along with chemical signals, Premnath’s team suspects that mechanical forces also help trigger cartilage cells to become bone cells. That insight has inspired her team to investigate a second question.

“Why not just go straight to using cartilage cells and use our mechanical methods to prompt them into bone cells?” she asked. “This would make it much safer to use stem cells, opening the door for their increased use in cancer treatment.”

It would mark a shift in thinking, from trying to control stem cells that have a high propensity to revert to cancer, to working with more stable, committed cells, she said.

“I’m delighted to be chosen for this award and grateful to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation for its support of research that can lead to life-changing cures,” Premnath said.

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One of the arms the lab built mounts to a wheelchair, allowing the user to safely reach and retrieve objects and perform more daily living tasks without help. The other robotic arm is designed for patients who need hand and arm physical therapy. Rahman aims to commercialize the device for home use so that patients can make progress on regaining their range of motion without traveling to a clinic.

In addition to Rahman, PhD students Md Samiul Haque Sunny (bioinformatics); Md Mahafuzer Rahman Khan (mechanical engineering), and master’s student Motakabbir Hossain (computer science) showed the robots in action.

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Brooke Slavens, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, has received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health to examine how the mechanics and strength of the arms affect the median nerve, which controls movement and feeling in parts of the hand and fingers, in adults who use manual wheelchairs.

The $3.25 million, five-year award is co-led with a collaborator at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.

Early warning system for risk

When the median nerve becomes compressed or irritated, it can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) with symptoms such as pain, numbness, or weakness in the hand. Studies estimate that between 49% and 73% of wheelchair users experience CTS, far higher than in the general population.

“Our goal is to better understand how the physical demands of wheelchair propulsion interact with arm and hand strength,” Slavens explained. “If the muscles don’t have enough strength to meet those demands, it could potentially lead to chronic nerve injury.”

This research will involve a large, cross-sectional study of manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries. By identifying the point where physical demand outweighs the user’s strength, the researchers hope to determine who might be at highest risk for median nerve compression – before symptoms appear.

Affects millions of users

The long-term goal is prevention: giving clinicians the tools to help wheelchair users maintain mobility without developing painful secondary conditions. This could involve training strategies, strength-building, or redesigned wheelchair use techniques.

“Millions of adults in the U.S. use a wheelchair,” Slavens said. “If we can reduce the risk of nerve injury and improve comfort and function, we can make daily life better for many people, while also protecting their long-term health.”

The project is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health.

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In Associate Professor Mahsa Dabagh’s lab, artificial intelligence is reshaping how researchers predict and treat disease. Dabagh, a biomedical engineering faculty member, studies how blood flows through and feeds tumors and how subtle biological and environmental cues can signal cancer’s next move. 

“AI helps us spend less time exploring the data and more time using it to design solutions,” Dabagh said. 

Her team is creating a deep-learning system that doesn’t just scan for tumors – it builds a virtual model of them. By analyzing MRI and biopsy images alongside detailed patient data such as protein activity, family medical history, and lifestyle factors, the tool can recognize not only what a tumor looks like, but how it might behave. 

“Research in the last decade shows that one data source is rarely enough for accurate prediction,” Dabagh said. “AI’s strength is in pulling together all those layers of information to create a more complete picture.” 

Undergraduate contributions 

Biomedical engineering senior Miles Wehner’s summer role in Dabagh’s lab was to work on the first step of the project, labeling tumors in MRI scans, a process that can take an hour per patient. Going slice by slice through hundreds of 3D images, Wehner had to carefully trace and label the tumor areas pixel by pixel.  

He soon saw the potential for AI to speed things up. Now he’s building a platform that uses both his own segmented scans and publicly available datasets to automate the entire process, bringing AI into the process earlier than the final predictions. 

“It’s still a lot of work to train our models,” Dabagh said, “but it’s worth it. It can improve clinicians’ predictions and give them personalized guidance for each patient’s treatment. That means saving more lives.” 

For Wehner, who only started coding through a summer program at 51���� that introduces students to AI and programming, the research opened new doors. The program, Cyberinfrastructure Comprehensive, Applied and Tangible Summer School, or CIberCATSS, is funded by the National Science Foundation through 2026 and students with a faculty mentor can be admitted. 

“They say AI is the future. Learning these methods will be useful no matter where I end up,” he said. “Doing this research helped me see what’s possible.”

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The Catalyst Grants are supported by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and Invenergy through the 51���� Research Foundation and are designed to support research in areas where 51���� has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.��

Each team is using the funding to advance early-stage solutions that address urgent societal needs and position their innovations for real-world deployment. The CEAS projects include:

Next-generation power conversion for energy storage
Feng Guo, electrical engineering

Guo is prototyping a novel power converter to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of battery storage systems, enabling better integration of renewable energy.

Precision cancer diagnostics
Ashwin Narasimhan and Priya Premnath, biomedical engineering

The researchers are developing a liquid biopsy platform to isolate rare circulating tumor cells with greater accuracy, improving early cancer detection and personalized treatment planning.

Rehabilitation robotics for bedridden patients
Habib Rahman, mechanical engineering

Rahman is creating a portable, bed-attachable robotic exoskeleton to deliver early-stage lower-limb therapy, reducing caregiver burden and improving recovery outcomes.

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That scrappy effort eventually blossomed into a powerful partnership. Thanks to a connection with a post-doctoral researcher from the Philippines, Rammer and his advisor formed ties with clinicians at the University of the Philippines-Manila and the Philippine General Hospital.

The impact has been significant.

The Philippines stretches across 2,000 inhabited islands; Philippine General in Manila is the only place in the nation where children with mobility issues – caused by conditions like cerebral palsy, brittle bone disease, and cancer – can receive specialized orthopedic care.

What is human motion analysis? “Think of a room fitted with cameras around the perimeter,” explained Rammer, now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering. “We place reflective markers on the patient’s body, and a computer translates their movement into precise data that shows us how they walk or move.”

What began as a low-cost lab experiment has a service record of 4,000 patients. Today, the collaboration also includes research, offering Rammer’s lab a rare opportunity to study diverse, often underrepresented conditions.

What engineering researchers offer

“Most of our patients have cerebral palsy, a disease that can vary significantly from child to child,” Rammer said. “This kind of technology really helps clinicians figure out what’s working, and what’s not.”

The exacting data the lab provides is vital for pediatric patients, especially those going into or recovering from surgery. Many use braces, orthotics, or wheelchairs and it’s crucial for doctors to know how they’re progressing after they go home.

“After surgery, parents naturally want to be protective,” Rammer said. “But for bones to heal and grow properly, kids need physical stress. The challenge is striking a balance – encouraging safe activity without putting them at risk.”

To help maintain that balance, Rammer and his students developed a smartphone app that tracks patients’ movement and activity levels. It allows clinicians to stay connected between visits – and gives them insight into how recovery is going at home.

From Milwaukee to Manila: student involvement

The app supports comprehensive gait analysis and collects daily movement data – offering a fuller picture of long-term mobility during rehabilitation. Eventually, Rammer hopes to automate the system using AI, giving doctors a dashboard view of any issues in real time.
“Right now, we’re pulling the data manually and recording it on Excel sheets,” he said. “But soon, clinicians could get immediate updates and alerts about mobility problems without having to dig through files.”

Rammer hasn’t yet taken students with him to the Philippines (though a study abroad course is in the works). Still, they’re deeply involved. Undergraduate students in his lab help process the data and learn how to draw conclusions. They’re also collaborating with master’s students in bioinformatics to develop the app’s backend and data tools.

And because the work often requires custom solutions, students are involved in building both software and physical devices. “Every research project leads us to invent something – whether it’s a tool, a sensor, or a program,” he said

For Rammer, the partnership fills a major research gap.

“Milwaukee isn’t a huge city, and it’s really difficult to find large patient populations with the specific conditions I study,” he said. “But in Manila, I have access to every child with brittle bone disease in a country of more than 100 million people. It’s a truly unique opportunity.”

See more photos .

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Slavens was nominated by the National Institutes of Health for her pioneering research on shoulder pain experienced by both pediatric and adult manual wheelchair users. In addition to wheelchair mobility, Slavens’ expertise includes upper extremity modeling and rehabilitation engineering. Read more.

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(’20 PhD, Mechanical Engineering) is an associate professor whose research interests include bio-robotics, intelligent systems and control, and automation.

(’24 PhD, and ’17 MS, Mechanical Engineering) is an assistant professor who researches robotics, control robot motion planning, industrial automation, and sensor fusion.

Habib Rahman, Richard and Joanne Grigg Professor, mechanical engineering, was 51���� advisor for both graduates.

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Habib Rahman, Richard and Joanne Grigg Professor and mechanical engineering chair, is working on a platform that dramatically reimagines how physical therapy is delivered, improving convenience and results for patients.

Rahman, whose lab has been developing a portable, assistive robotic arm, the iTbot, is now taking the research to the next level by putting the assistive arm at the center of a system that therapists can use to assess and treat patients when they are not in the same location.

With the platform that Rahman is building, patients’ physical abilities are evaluated on their home-based robotic arm, providing all the information that clinic-based equipment can offer.

Their performance data is streamed in real-time and appears on the physical therapist’s computer screen. But it’s more than just a dashboard.

“We are essentially creating a digital twin of the patient’s evaluation – a virtual model of the physical robotic arm as the patient uses it appears on the therapist’s screen,” Rahman said. “All the data the robotic arm collects in the real environment you can see on the digital twin.”

Games make it work

Patients play computer- or tablet-based games designed with input from therapists. These games will push the home user to build muscle strength and a greater range of motion by moving the arm’s handle with their impaired hand.

In one game, for example, the patient sees an array of closely spaced balls and uses the robotic arm to touch each one in succession. Once they can do that, the balls appearing on the screen are spaced out wider, so the reach is further.

The games approach makes it more appealing for patients to complete their therapy. Patients often have trouble sticking with their exercises if they don’t feel like they’re progressing.

“They are improving in clinical visits, but they may not perceive it,” Rahman said. “When they see their game scores go up however, that gives them more satisfying proof. They can see that progress when they get to the next game level.”

Benefits for the therapist too

Therapists, meanwhile, have complete control of the robotic arms, remotely calibrating or adjusting it in response to the patient’s abilities, said Inga Wang, 51���� professor, occupational therapy, science & technology, who partnered with Rahman to test the platform with patients.

With VR/AR goggles and an internet connection, a remote therapist can even see actual interaction between the patient and their robotic arm in the patient’s environment.

In traditional clinic setting, the robotic arm benefits the therapist as much as the patient by reducing their physical strain and automating repetitive exercises so that patients’ time is spent more efficiently.

“This kind of technological innovation is needed,” Wang said, “because one-third of physical and occupational therapists themselves experience musculoskeletal injuries due to the physical demands of conventional therapy.”

A closer look at what is happening

When a person experiences a stroke, the nerve damage that occurs prevents the patient’s muscles from receiving appropriate signals from the brain. The extent of debilitation varies. The purpose of rehabilitation therapy is to help the brain re-learn motor functions, Wang said.

The iTbot assistive robotic arm offers three distinct therapy modules.

• With passive therapy, the device gently moves the participant’s limb without their own effort. This stretches muscles without pain and reinforces correct movement patterns.

• Active-assisted therapy enables people to complete prescribed exercises with just enough support to gain full therapeutic benefits.

• Resistive exercise therapy involves the same tasks as active-assisted therapy but adds varying resistance levels to challenge the user further and build endurance.

Competitive grant funding

To fund this work, Rahman was awarded a one-year Switzer Research Distinguished Fellowship Grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The fellowship’s goal is to support development of technology that can improve rehabilitation or foster independent living for people with disabilities.

Rahman wanted to answer these critical questions in the research project:

• Can the system offer passive, active-assisted and resistive therapy, as effectively as in-office-delivered therapy?
• Can the system cost the same or less than traditional therapy?

While those questions require further research, Rahman and his lab have observed potential for the system to achieve both aims. They are solving all the technical hurdles encountered by patients who are testing the system and making improvements based on their feedback.

While the project is specifically focused on hand functioning, the lab is validating the system’s proof of concept.

“Because the robotic arm is portable, we’ve created a framework that could be adapted to deliver other kinds of therapy too,” he said. “For example, if someone with a leg fracture is immobile in the hospital, that person could receive therapy by bringing in the arm – even if the therapist is somewhere else.”

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Narasimhan comes to 51���� from Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada, where he was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

Narasimhan holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras, where he focused on the development of multimodal theranostic nanoparticles for biomedical imaging used to determine cancer staging.

His research interests include nano-theranostics, cancer diagnostics, and microfluidics, with a strong focus on developing affordable healthcare solutions.

Narasimhan has secured several research grants from both public and private funding agencies like the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Indian Council of Medical Research and BIG-Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, India. He has published 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored multiple book chapters and holds four patents.

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