Center for the Promotion Of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW)
The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) (PI: Laura Punnett, Sc.D.) conducts research with working people and employers to overcome workplace obstacles to health.
It is a Total Worker Health® (TWH) Center for Excellence, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health since 2006.
TWH calls attention to how “environmental workplace factors can both mitigate and enhance overall worker health.” The program aims to create and disseminate evidence for effective and efficient activities to preserve the health, safety and productivity of the American workforce. CPH-NEW researchers are especially interested in topics such as job stress, musculoskeletal disorders, organization of work, and worker engagement in program design.
Our projects develop and evaluate ways to help a workplace be health-promoting; evaluating the full costs to employers of worker ill health; the feasibility of delivering a TWH program in different types of settings; and how to strengthen system organizational readiness for optimal program adoption and impact. The Center also offers research-based program toolkits and continuing education opportunities directed to employers, workers, health professionals, and union representatives.
Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2)
The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) is a lifeline for the state’s smaller medical device companies, offering inventors and executives easy, affordable, and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources at the UMass Lowell and the UMass Medical School campuses of the University of Massachusetts.
Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT)
The Advanced Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Lab
The Advanced Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Lab (PI: Chiara Ghezzi, Ph.D.) The focus of my research liaises with engineering biopolymer structure/function properties with advanced bio-fabrication techniques to develop 3D tissue models, by combining physiological architecture, physical stimuli, and native microstructure to recapitulate healthy and disease tissue states. The impact of these approaches will be to further guide and educate biopolymer material designs towards needs in regenerative medicine.
The Medical Devices and Biomedical Optics Lab
The Medical Devices and Biomedical Optics Lab (PI: Walfre Franco, Ph.D.) - My research initiatives span the design, development, and fabrication of devices, sensors, and computational tools for solving health-related problems.
Pain Research Lab
The Pain Research Lab (PI: Bryan Black, Ph.D.) - Our mission is to develop optical and electrical neural interfaces, along with novel tissue engineering constructs, to better understand and treat chronic pain conditions.
The Biofluids and Inhalation Drug Delivery Lab
Biofluids and Inhalation Drug Delivery Lab (PI: Jinxiang Xi, Ph.D.) – The areas of interest in my lab include respiratory dynamics, characterization of oral and nasal devices and drugs (MDI, nebulizer, nasal sprays), personalized drug delivery, inhalation toxicology, aerosol-based tumor diagnosis, snoring/apnea diagnosis and therapy.
Biomedical Modeling and Simulation Laboratory
The Biomedical Modeling and Simulation Laboratory (PI: Zhenglun “Alan” Wei, Ph.D.) - My research focuses on developing and applying advanced engineering techniques (data science, computer simulation, and in vitro experiments) to investigate biofluid and biosolid mechanics in physiological systems. The lab’s current funded projects revolve around pediatric and adult heart diseases, cerebrovascular malformations, and ear problems. We aim to produce significant knowledge and data on the cause, accurate diagnosis and prognosis, and safe and effective treatment of and medical devices for these diseases.