George Mason’s bioengineering research centers and laboratories are well equipped to lead the development of new medical treatments and technology that could revolutionize health care.
Research Centers
Center for MedTech Innovation
Researchers at the Center for MedTech Innovation (CMI) focus on transdisciplinary research questions of major public health and societal significance such as chronic pain, substance misuse and addiction, autism spectrum disorders, and mobility impairments. The CMI's goal is to develop improved clinical interventions and improved clinical outcomes for these conditions.
Center for Neural Informatics, Neural Structures, and Neural Plasticity
Researchers at the Center for Neural Informatics, Neural Structures, and Neural Plasticity (CN3) pursue fundamental breakthroughs in neuroscience by integrating computational and experimental approaches to neuroplasticity and neuroanatomy. Researchers investigate the relationship between brain structure, activity, and function from the subcellular to the network level, with a specific focus on the biophysical mechanisms of learning and memory.
Research Labs
Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall
Applied Biosensing Lab
The Applied Biosensing Lab conducts translational research using imaging to investigate pathophysiology and function. Our overarching focus is the investigation of brain-body interactions through imaging. In particular, we study the interactions between the central and peripheral nervous system and the musculoskeletal system in a number of clinical conditions of major public health significance, such as chronic pain, stroke, spinal cord injury, and amputation.
Computational Biomedicine Laboratory
The Computational Biomedicine Laboratory focuses on the development and application of computational models and techniques primarily in the areas of biofluids and biomechanics. We combine in silico models, clinical observations, biological and mechanical tissue data to understand mechanisms of cerebral aneurysm disease, to enhance risk assessment and patient evaluation through data-based statistical modeling, and to evaluate devices and minimally invasive procedures to treat brain aneurysms and ischemic strokes.
EMPOWER Lab
The Enabling Mobility through Patient Oriented Wearables and Robotics (EMPOWER) Lab is dedicated to developing the next generation of rehabilitation and assistive technologies that restore mobility and independence for individuals with neurological injuries or limb loss. Our goal is to translate cutting-edge robotics from the lab into the real world—bridging the gap between innovation and everyday impact. We combine engineering and user-centered design approaches to create devices that are personalized to the needs of the user.
Neural Engineering Laboratory
The Neural Engineering Laboratory's main goal is to develop prosthetic devices or parts of devices to help people with disabilities, in particular with pathologies of the nervous system. The second area we work on is neuronal cell cultures and biosensors.
Sensorimotor Integration and Human-Machine Interfaces Laboratory
As part of the CMI, this lab's research methods are broadly applicable to assistive technologies where physical systems, computational frameworks, and low-power embedded computing serve to augment human activities or to replace lost functionality. Investigators examine experience-dependent changes that occur in both the intact and disordered sensory-motor system.
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies
Computational Neuroanatomy Group
The Computational Neuroanatomy Group in the CN3 aims to create a real-scale, biologically realistic computer simulation of an entire functional portion of the mammalian brain at the detailed level of individual cellular connections. We are especially interested in neuronal architecture and the circuit underlying associative memory.
Spatial Cognition Lab
The Spatial Cognition Lab uses a combination of experimental techniques including multiple single unit recordings, optogenetics, and fiber photometry in freely behaving mice to investigate the neural mechanisms underpinning spatial cognition, memory, and navigation. The lab records neurons in the brain’s spatial cognition and memory system, including grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex, and investigates the functions and mechanisms of network rhythms as well as cholinergic neuromodulation in the context of memory-guided navigation.
Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research
Biomaterials and Nanomedicine
This lab is equipped for biomaterials development in the areas of tissue regeneration and the delivery of novel nucleic acid therapeutics. Degradable polymers are being designed that interact in a specific manner with cells of the immune system and with blood to control inflammation and promote tissue regeneration. Bioactivities are evaluated using proteomics, in vitro cell culture assays and animal model systems. Novel cationic lipid libraries are synthesized to produce messenger RNA carrying lipid nanoparticles for vaccines, cancer treatments and protein replacement therapies.
Laboratory for Bio-Inspired Nanoarchitectures
This lab is used to design and synthesize new composite nanomaterials, combining structured DNA nanoparticles with macromolecular assemblies of proteins, peptides, and lipids. We use these constructs to investigate fundamental questions about nanoscale organization of macromolecules with a focus on cell membrane molecular events, such as pathogen entry into cells and antigen recognition in B-cell activation.