New Faculty Member Joins BME

The Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering is delighted to welcome Dr. Sossena Wood as a new faculty member. Sossena received her bachelor of science in electrical engineering and her doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Her postdoctoral training was in Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University as an inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Jana Kainerstorfer’s lab. Dr. Wood will be transitioning from the position of an inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow to become an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the next academic year.   

Sossena’s research lab is focused on developing a multi-modal, noninvasive hemodynamic imaging technique and data analysis to visualize and quantify the management and the treatment of vascular diseases with neural effects and neural disorders, especially sickle cell disease.  Her lab investigates and evaluates cerebral health biomarkers in cerebrovascular disease populations using multi-modal hemodynamic and neural imaging with MRI, NIRS and EEG, including the neural pathways of pain and cognition. The focus is to contribute to the scientific community's understanding as to why and how cerebrovascular disease changes cerebral health under various functional states (i.e., sleep, rest, cognition).

“I am thrilled to join CMU’s interdisciplinary, collaborative and creative community,” says Wood “There are a lot of opportunities to contribute to incredibly impactful science and engineering that can positively impact the world we live in.”

“As an undergraduate and graduate student, I never met someone that looks like me or has a similar upbringing as a faculty member or scientist in my home departments. I am eager to be a part of students having a different experience than I did. I am really excited to begin to work on biomedical research initiatives that address important issues in vascular diseases that have neural effects.”