Research

Kate Seymour

Susan Glairon — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:23:36 +0000

Kate Seymour Susan Glairon Fri, 04/10/2026 - 09:23

Double Major

Chemical Engineering (BS) and Chemistry (BA)

Award

College of Engineering and Applied Science Research Award

Future Plans

Pursuing a Material Science and Engineering PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder

Why were you were selected for this award?

In the Bowman Research Group, I develop computer models that predict how light-activated plastics, called photopolymers, form and harden during manufacturing. My work addresses a critical gap in existing models, a chemical reaction unique to a major class of these materials, that has long forced researchers to rely on costly trial and error. By filling this gap, my models will enable scientists to design better photopolymers from the outset, rather than relying on guesswork.

Photopolymers are widely used in everyday applications from dental fillings and crowns, to 3D-printed medical devices, contact lenses and protective coatings. Improving predictive modeling can lead to more durable dental restorations (reducing repeat procedures, especially valuable for communities with limited access to dental care), while accelerating the development of customized medical implants and reducing material waste in manufacturing. Ultimately, my work helps researchers and engineers design these essential materials more efficiently, lowering costs and bringing new healthcare technologies to patients sooner.

What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

Growing up, Saturday mornings meant watching College GameDay with my parents and cheering for our respective programs. So getting swept up in that experience at my own alma mater during Coach Prime's first season was pure joy. I traveled to Fort Worth for the opener and waved a giant С�� flag on Big Noon Kickoff as Colorado shocked Texas Christian University. The following week, I was back at Folsom Field for the Nebraska game, where I won best sign on Big Noon. Then came the Rocky Mountain Showdown, and College GameDay's first visit to Boulder since 1996, where I got a photo with Desmond Howard, a former professional football player and current sports analyst. It's a fall I'll never forget.

What is your best piece of advice for other students?

Say "yes" to the opportunity you feel underqualified for. Email the professor whose research sounds intimidating. Apply for the internship you assume you won't get. Volunteer for the project that pushes you outside your comfort zone. Most of the meaningful opportunities I've had at С�� started with me deciding to try. The worst thing that happens is someone says "no," which is exactly where you started. The people who seem to have it all figured out aren't more qualified than you; they just took the first step and asked.

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Jessica Connell

Susan Glairon — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:32:18 +0000

Jessica Connell Susan Glairon Wed, 04/08/2026 - 14:32

Major

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Awards

CEAS Academic Engagement Award
CEAS Culture Impact Award
CEAS Research Award

Post-graduation plans

Research at the Institute of Future Fuels at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Cologne, Germany

Why were you selected for these awards?

Culture Impact
I’ve been a member of oSTEM for four years and board member for three of those years. oSTEM, an LGBTQ+ STEM student organization, played an integral role in my time at С��. I was able to find community, gain professional experience, and leave a lasting impact on campus. As a board member, I helped take oSTEM to our first three National Conferences, displayed an AIDS memorial in the Pride Office, started our Alumni Network, and established ongoing connections with LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Groups in industry. oSTEM represents a deeply personal and important cause to me, and I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to give back to the community that has supported me through some of my hardest times and darkest moments.

Research
I’ve participated in research with three different groups in my time at С��. I started by working in the Nabity group in Aerospace Engineering, working on ways to improve carbon dioxide capture and filtering for life support systems (such as on the International Space Station).

From there, I then joined the Weimer lab, working on utilizing concentrated sunlight to produce sustainable fuels. This work functions by taking water, heating it up to 1500C, and then flowing over an active material. This material has special properties that allows it to separate the oxygen out of water, leaving hydrogen which can then be captured. This hydrogen can then be combined with carbon monoxide to make syngas, a precursor to hydrocarbon fuels, or ammonia, which is used in fertilizer production necessary to feed over half the world’s population. While this work is not a perfect solution, it provides a step toward a more sustainable energy future and can be used with current energy infrastructure, making implementation much more feasible.

Lastly, I joined the Shields lab this year to complete my senior thesis. In this lab, I’ve worked on improving quantitative biodistribution measures to aid in cancer treatment research. One of the major challenges with cancer treatments is targeting, or getting the treatment to the desired part of the body. One way to study where treatments end up is a biodistribution study, or looking at the treatment concentration in different organs in the body. However, this process is typically labor intensive and destructive. My work has been developing quantitative calibrations of fluorescent images so that researchers can determine treatment concentration in each organ without destroying it. This will help determine which treatments have the highest targeting ability and thus should be studied more.

Academic Engagement
I have been a chemical engineering course assistant for the past year and a half. I have helped with Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Kinetics and Reactor Design, and was the head course assistant for a Mass Transfer bridge course. Though I love the concepts and challenging problems, my favorite part of being a CA has been my interactions with students. I love watching my students understand a concept for the first time or do really well on an exam they were worried about. I also love being able to provide support and advice about classes, professors, research, internships or even just to listen when someone has a bad day. Chemical engineering is difficult, and I want to make sure that the other students in the program have the community and support they need to do well.

What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

My favorite memory from my time at С�� has been hanging out with my friends on the front patio area of the biotech building. Whenever we need a break from being engineers, we all sit in the sun and nap, chat, play volleyball, stretch, do handstands and generally just enjoy a moment to ourselves. Chemical engineering is difficult, and as much as I love the hard work, I also cherish the moments of calm and community.

What is your best piece of advice for other students?

My best piece of advice for other students is to ask for help. There are so many people here at С�� who are in your corner and will support you if you ask them. I would not be where I am today without the support of my family, friends, professors, mentors, and peers, and I'm incredibly grateful for their support and advice throughout my time at С��.

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Major osteoarthritis research featured in The New York Times

Susan Glairon — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:35:41 +0000

Major osteoarthritis research featured in The New York Times Susan Glairon Wed, 04/08/2026 - 09:35

Professor Stephanie Bryant is leading a $33.57 million federal grant to reverse osteoarthritis, and the New York Times is taking notice.

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Arianna McCarty

Susan Glairon — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:19:34 +0000

Arianna McCarty Susan Glairon Wed, 04/08/2026 - 05:19

Major

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Awards

Outstanding Undergraduate of the College
CEAS Academic Engagement Award
CEAS Research Award

Why do you think you were selected for these awards?

What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

What is your best piece of advice for other students?

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A simple shot shows promise to reverse osteoarthritis within weeks

Susan Glairon — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:58:40 +0000

A simple shot shows promise to reverse osteoarthritis within weeks Susan Glairon Mon, 04/06/2026 - 15:58

A С�� Boulder-led team has developed a suite of new therapies aimed at reversing osteoarthritis in a single injection. With animal studies showing promise and funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health extended, the team could be ready for human trials by 2028. Professor Stephanie Bryant is the principal investigator of the project.

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Kristi Anseth receives the Biomaterials Global Impact Award

Susan Glairon — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:12:51 +0000

Kristi Anseth receives the Biomaterials Global Impact Award Susan Glairon Tue, 03/31/2026 - 07:12

Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth has received the Biomaterials Global Impact Award, which recognizes distinguished research and development accomplishments in the field of biomaterials.

The award will be presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials in Antwerp, Belgium, from September 7-11, 2026.

Anseth, also the associate faculty director of С�� Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute, designs biomaterials that interact with living tissues to promote repair and regeneration, aiding in healing injuries and diseases. Her lab works with hydrogels—a degradable biomaterial—to deliver molecules at the right time and sequence to accelerate the healing process. Her team is also growing miniaturized versions of heart cells and tissues, known as organoids, to better understand disease mechanisms and explore new types of heart disease treatments, such as to repair heart muscles after heart attacks.

Anseth is also among the select few innovators elected to all three National Academies: Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Beyond her scientific contributions, she has been recognized with more than 50 major awards and delivered over 60 honorary lectureships worldwide.

Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth has received the Biomaterials Global Impact Award, which recognizes distinguished research and development accomplishments in the field of biomaterials. Anseth is known for developing tissue substitutes that improve treatments for conditions like broken bones and heart valve disease.

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Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past?

Susan Glairon — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:30:09 +0000

Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past? Susan Glairon Tue, 03/24/2026 - 08:30

С�� Boulder researchers and partners at MIT, Harvard and Columbia are working to recreate the human liver’s complex structure in the lab. With support from a $25 million ARPA-H grant, the team aims to develop 3D-printed, transplantable liver tissue made from human cells that the body won’t reject. Professor Jason Burdick's lab at С��’s BioFrontiers Institute will lead the 3D printing component of the project.

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Scientists develop hydrogel platform that mimics human tissue

Susan Glairon — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 22:55:27 +0000

Scientists develop hydrogel platform that mimics human tissue Susan Glairon Thu, 03/12/2026 - 16:55

Susan Glairon

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (purple) interact with a hydrogel matrix (green). In viscoelastic materials, the cells can spread and reshape the matrix.

For decades, lab-grown cells have been studied in materials that don’t reflect the softness and flexibility of human tissue.

Bruce Kirkpatrick

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a water-rich, Jell-O-like material that more closely mimics how real tissues move, stretch and relax and whose liquid or solid state can be precisely controlled by light.

The work was recently published in the journal Matter and was directed by Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth.

These new hydrogels will help scientists understand how mechanical cues from tissues affect cells, said Bruce Kirkpatrick, (PhDBioEngr'25), the paper’s first author and a third-year medical student. These insights could help improve our understanding of disease and how cells respond to drugs. It could also shed light on cell development—how stem cells mature into specialized cell types.

“The convention of growing cells on plastic for drug testing is problematic because plastic is stiff, while human tissue is flexible,” Kirkpatrick said. “Unless you're studying bone or other cells adapted to rigid environments, it’s not an appropriate mechanical setting for studying how cells respond to drugs.”

Kirkpatrick added that a key advantage of the hydrogel-based cell culture platform is its three-dimensional structure, which better reflects the environment cells experience in the body.

“The material we developed will help researchers better understand how mechanical environments influence cell behavior, not just the biochemical cues cells receive through surrounding liquid and nearby cells,” he said.

Shaped by light

Lea Hibbard

Most hydrogels form spontaneously when two liquids are mixed, but these gels provide less control and precision than the newly developed materials, Kirkpatrick said. In addition, researchers traditionally have shaped hydrogels using extrusion printing, a process similar to squeezing Play-Doh through a tube.

Instead, Kirkpatrick and the research team combined the new hydrogel’s dynamic properties with photopolymerization, using light to transform liquids into solids and encapsulate cells during three-dimensional printing. The new approach is faster and provides precise control over shape and material properties, Kirkpatrick said.

“With photopolymerization, we can control exactly how much light is applied, where it goes and when the hydrogel forms,” Kirkpatrick added. “The amount of light determines how much the material gels and its resulting mechanical properties. It gives researchers control over the shape, timing of cell encapsulation and spatial variation in properties.”

For example, if cells are encapsulated in a droplet and one side is exposed to light for only a few seconds while the other receives a longer or stronger dose, researchers can study what happens at the boundary between those regions, observing how cells migrate between them and how differences in mechanical properties influence their behavior.

Abhishek Dhand

The researchers also studied intestinal organoids—tiny lab-grown versions of the intestine—to see how they behaved in different environments. In the body, these cells exist in a soft, viscoelastic environment, where tissues stretch or deform under stress.

When the team placed the organoids in a hydrogel with similar properties, the cells took on natural shapes and expressed the right proteins. In other words, they behaved like they do inside the body.

“These findings suggest that viscoelasticity is essential for proper cell function and organization,” Kirkpatrick said.

Next steps

The researchers’ long-term goal is to use three-dimensional printing to produce large, cell-laden arrays of the new material for drug testing or disease modeling. This approach allows them to quickly create identical samples with high quality control and study how cells respond to gene mutations—such as removing a disease-linked gene—or to varying drug concentrations in the hydrogel environment.

The material could also help scientists study fundamental processes, such as how embryos organize cells to form correctly shaped organs, and investigate diseases like fibrosis, in which the body overproduces scar tissue in response to injury or chronic inflammation.

Co-first authors Abhishek Dhand, (PhDBioMedEngr’25), and PhD student Lea Hibbard (ChemBioEngr’24) contributed equally to this study. С�� Boulder faculty involved in the project included Professor Jason Burdick, Distinguished Professor Christopher Bowman and Professor Tim White.

A new light-controlled hydrogel developed at С�� Boulder mimics the movement and flexibility of real tissue, giving scientists a more realistic way to study cells and disease. The work was recently published in the journal Matter and was directed by Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth.

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New study shows how certain immune cells slow the body’s response to infection

Susan Glairon — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:52:08 +0000

New study shows how certain immune cells slow the body’s response to infection Susan Glairon Tue, 03/10/2026 - 11:52

Hannah Weppner

Research led by Hannah Weppner, a graduate student in the lab of Assistant Professor Laurel Hind, highlighting how a population of immune cells can weaken the body’s response to infection, was recently published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology and featured in the newsletter of the International Society for Lymphatic Biology (ISLB).

Using an infection-on-a-chip model with human cells, Hind and her team found that a population of immune cells called M-MDSCs can slow the recruitment of neutrophils—the body’s first responders—to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. The researchers also identified a signaling molecule, IL-10, that plays a key role in this process. When IL-10 was blocked, neutrophils were able to move normally again.

The findings reveal a new way infections can weaken the immune response and show how advanced human cell models help researchers study immune cell interactions.

Read the ISLB Q&A Read the journal paper

Assistant Professor Laurel Hind’s lab discovered how certain immune cells can suppress the body’s response to infection, using advanced human cell models.

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In America science-sceptics are now in charge

Susan Glairon — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:44:57 +0000

In America science-sceptics are now in charge Susan Glairon Wed, 02/11/2026 - 10:44

Professor Michael D. McGehee and his team are advancing tandem solar cells—pairing silicon with a high-efficiency material called perovskite—that could significantly improve the economics of renewable energy. While the technology shows great promise, making perovskites durable enough for commercial use remains a key challenge. In October 2025, just as the research was gaining momentum, the Trump administration abruptly terminated the team’s federal grant.

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Research

Kate Seymour

Double Major

Award

Future Plans

Why were you were selected for this award?

What is your favorite С���� Boulder memory?

What is your best piece of advice for other students?

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Jessica Connell

Major

Awards

Post-graduation plans

Why were you selected for these awards?

What is your favorite С���� Boulder memory?

What is your best piece of advice for other students?

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Major osteoarthritis research featured in The New York Times

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Arianna McCarty

Major

Awards

Why do you think you were selected for these awards?What is your favorite С���� Boulder memory?What is your best piece of advice for other students?

Related News

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A simple shot shows promise to reverse osteoarthritis within weeks

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Kristi Anseth receives the Biomaterials Global Impact Award

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Could 3D-printed livers make transplant lists a thing of the past?

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Scientists develop hydrogel platform that mimics human tissue

Shaped by light

Next steps

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New study shows how certain immune cells slow the body’s response to infection

Off

In America science-sceptics are now in charge

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What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

Why do you think you were selected for these awards?

What is your favorite С�� Boulder memory?

What is your best piece of advice for other students?