Elise F. Morgan, Ph.D.

Professor Elise Morgan (ME, BME, MSE) was selected as a recipient of INSIGHT Into Diversitymagazine’s 100 Inspiring Women in STEM Award. INSIGHT Into Diversity is the oldest and largest diversity magazine and website in higher education.

This award recognizes 100 women whose work and achievements as researchers, teachers and mentors encourages women currently engaged in science, technology, engineering and math fields, and inspires a new generation of young women to consider STEM careers. Boston University recipients Morgan and Cynthia Brossman, director of the Learning Resource Network, will be profiled in the magazine’s September issue along with 98 other Women in Stem honorees.

The College of Engineering has funded four new projects through the Dean’s Catalyst Award (DCA) grant program, each focused on technologies that promise to make a significant impact on society. ENG and collaborating faculty will receive $40,000 per project to develop novel techniques to advance these technologies.

Established by Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen in 2007 and organized by a faculty committee, the annual DCA program encourages early-stage, innovative, interdisciplinary projects that could spark new advances in a variety of engineering fields. By providing each project with seed funding, the awards give full-time faculty the opportunity to develop collaborations and generate initial proof-of-concept results that could help secure external funding.

This year’s DCA-winning projects could yield new applications in healthcare and energy.

Professors Elise Morgan (ME, BME, MSE), Katya Ravid (MED) and Louis Gerstenfeld (MED) will test whether blocking a metabolic receptor associated with the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) can help mitigate the destructive progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a debilitating disease characterized by joint pain and stiffness. In patients with RA, angiogenesis occurs in the membrane surrounding the joint in an uncontrolled way, thus advancing the destruction of joint tissues. If blocking this receptor proves successful, this research could lead to the development of a new class of pharmacological therapies for RA patients that, unlike current treatments, do not lose their effectiveness over time.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Elise F. Morgan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Morgan was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For outstanding advances in orthopedic biomechanics and mechanobiology which combine imaging, and patient-specific modeling to guide bone and tissue engineering.

Since joining the College of Engineering faculty in 2003, Associate Professor Elise Morgan (ME, BME) has worked to advance understanding of the role of the mechanical function of tissues and organs in skeletal health, repair and development, with the ultimate goal of pinpointing causes and treatments for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and poor bone healing.

As director of the Orthopaedic and Developmental Biomechanics Laboratory, Morgan studies the interplay among the mechanical behavior, structure and biological function of tissues. Drawing on methods from engineering mechanics, materials science, and cell and molecular biology, and combining experimentation and computational modeling, Morgan’s lab investigates how mechanical factors contribute to the development, adaptation, failure and regeneration of bone and cartilage. Current projects include the use of mechanical stimulation to promote bone regeneration, the biomechanics of spine fractures and bone healing, non-invasive diagnostics of bone healing, and inflammatory bone loss. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, private foundations and industry sponsors.