Faculty & Research
Faculty & research are integral components of BME. With a strong focus on research, BME is located in the heart of Canada’s largest health-care research hub. Our graduate students receive their training from 14 departments at U of T, 10 partner hospitals, and 7 research institutes & commercialization centres.
At BME, our cross-disciplinary approach in biomedical and clinical engineering enables our researchers to cover a diverse set of topics. Find out what our research publication are saying about our research focus.
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Faculty directory
Core Faculty
We have 30+ core faculty members that span across cell & tissue engineering, clinical engineering, and molecular engineering disciplines.
Cross-Appointed Faculty
BME currently hosts cross-appointed faculty members across more than 30 academic units, partner hospitals, research institutes, and commercialization centres.
Emeriti
Learn about some of our retired faculty members
Research streams
Clinical
BME’s clinical engineers design technologies, devices and strategies for people with chronic disease, traumatic injury, disabilities and mobility limitations to help them integrate more fully with their environment.
Cell & Tissue
Research that has the potential to change how we think about disease and aging is happening at BME. Regenerative medicine uses stem cells and biomaterials to repair, replace or regenerate damaged tissue, organ structures and function.
Molecular
BME researchers are advancing disease detection, customizing drug delivery and improving health-care outcomes with faster and more precise technologies and systems.
Latest news
BME Basics: How to extract extracellular vesicles
In this episode of BME Basics, MEng student Claire walks through the process of isolating extracellular vesicles from cultured cells. Learn how researchers collect cell culture media, remove unwanted debris through centrifugation, isolate vesicles using exosome precipitation reagents, and visualize the final sample using transmission electron microscopy.
Engineering New Cell Therapies for Osteoarthritis | Sowmya Viswanathan Lab
Professor Sowmya Viswanathan her team’s research at the Schroeder Arthritis Institute at UHN are studying how immune cells contribute to inflammation and cartilage breakdown in osteoarthritis. By uncovering the molecular and metabolic signals that drive disease progression, the lab aims to better understand osteoarthritis at the cellular level.
BME Basics: How to isolate T cells from spleen
In this BME Basics video, Augusta walks through the process of isolating T cells from a mouse spleen. From tissue dissociation and centrifugation to flow cytometry and magnetic cell separation, you’ll see how a common immunology workflow is performed in the lab.
BME Basics: How to make nanoparticles using nanoprecipitation
In the latest episode of BME Basics, Angela, a fourth-year Engineering Science student, demonstrates nanoprecipitation, a technique commonly used to create polymer nanoparticles. The video explains how polymers self-assemble into nanoparticles when transferred from a solvent into water, creating structures that can be used for controlled drug delivery and other biomedical applications.
Meet Professor Dawn Kilkenny: ‘Experience is the best teacher’
Prof. Dawn Kilkenny is a teaching stream faculty member at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering with a background in physiology and engineering education. Her teaching emphasizes experiential learning, giving students opportunities to apply scientific and engineering concepts through hands-on laboratory, research, and outreach experiences. By leading initiatives such as the Discovery Program, Dr. Kilkenny helps students develop confidence, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of biomedical engineering and healthcare.
BME Basics: Cell transfection
In this episode of BME Basics, Amy, a third-year Engineering Science student majoring in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, introduces fluorescent microscopy and demonstrates how researchers use fluorescently labelled cells to visualize targets that would otherwise be difficult to observe with a standard light microscope.
Faculty startups
The following list highlights some of the startup companies that have been launched by these forward-thinking faculty members, demonstrating their commitment to translating academic knowledge into real-world applications and making a significant impact on the biomedical industry.
| Faculty Member | Commercialization Venture | Focus | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan Andrysek | LegWorks | Prosthetic Knee Joint | San Francisco |
| John E. Davies | Tissue Regenerative Therapeutics Inc. | Mesenchymal Stem Cells | Toronto |
| Milos Popovic | MyndTech Inc. | Medical Tech Company | Mississauga |
| Milica Radisic | Tara Biosystems | Cardiac Drug Discovery | New York |
| Jonathan Rocheleau | QuantM3 | Microfluidics Technology Diabetes Treatment | Toronto |
| Paul Santerre | Interface Biologics | Drug Delivery and other technologies | Toronto |
| Paul Santerre and Eli Sone | Cohesys Inc | Bone Tape to replace plate and screws in craniofacial repair; Angel investment | Toronto |
| Paul Santerre | Ripple Therapeutics | Non-polymeric anti-inflammatory drug delivery systems for ophthalmology; venture invested | Toronto |
| Molly Shoichet | AmacaThera | Injectable hydrogel platform technology | Toronto |
| Aaron Wheeler | Miroculus (formerly Kappex) | Digital Microfluidics Platform | Toronto |