Research

Forming new connections

The Center for Medical and Engineering Innovation (CMEI) fosters interdisciplinary research through multiple initiatives that engage Ohio State faculty, staff, trainees, students and extramural entities whose focus is to expand innovation and impact at the intersection of medicine and engineering.

Research activities include:

• Organized lectures with tours of research facilities and equipment demonstrations to increase personnel familiarization with resources on campus.
• Workshops for attendees to gain additional laboratory equipment or software expertise.
• Collaborative interactions with existing Ohio State departments, centers, and institutes to expand utilization of resources in new and ongoing research endeavors.

CMEI recognizes that major advancements in medicine will involve a multitude of engineering-related disciplines such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Engineers working in concert with health professionals will alter the landscape for patient care. New developments are broadly expected in areas including advanced therapeutics (e.g. targeted drug delivery) and diagnostics (e.g. biosensors) as well as implantable and wearable devices. CMEI strives to facilitate innovative solutions and transformative applications such as these in medicine by promoting local collaborative efforts between physicians and engineers.

If you’re interested in collaborating with CMEI on a research project or educational activity, please submit this electronic form.

CMEI is pleased to announce its 2026-2027 Pilot Grant Awards.

The awardees and their Ohio State University affiliations and projects are listed below.

The CMEI pilot grant program supports collaborations between Ohio State colleges that initiate promising ventures at the medicine-engineering interface. Proposed research involve at least one faculty member from the College of Engineering and one faculty member from one of the Health Sciences Colleges. These collaborations test innovative approaches (ideas, technologies, devices) directed at basic or clinically relevant biomedical research. In funding awards, special consideration has been given to applications addressing specific topics such as telemedicine, wearable devices, robotics, novel materials and artificial intelligence/machine learning. Other topic areas are expected to be emphasized in future funding opportunities. Our program funds $35,000 grants to assist faculty in obtaining preliminary data that will result in a collaborative grant application for the NIH, or another agency or foundation, or lead to an entrepreneurial endpoint such as a patent.

The next request for applications for CMEI pilot grant funding is likely to be announced in the late Spring of 2027. Please watch this space and various Ohio State University news sources (e.g., onCampus, HealthBeat, etc.) for announcements.

The most recent round of proposals occurred in August 2026. Awardees of CMEI Pilot Grants for the period 10/1/2026 – 9/30/2027 and their projects are:

• Buddini Karawdeniya, PhD (Biomedical Engineering, COE) and Brad H. Rovin, MD (Medicine - Nephrology, COM)
  Project: Development of a Non-invasive Paper-based Point-of-Care System for Detection of Lupus Nephritis
• Karen C. Dannemiller, PhD (Civil, Environmental & Geodetic Engineering, COE), Christopher Timan, MD (Pediatrics, COM), Benjamin Kopp, MD, MPH (Pediatrics, COM), Mitchell H. Grayson, MD (Pediatrics, COM), and Perena Gouma, PhD (Materials Science and Engineering, COE)
  Project: Technology for Environmental Allergen Mitigation (TEAM)