MechSE PhD candidate wins Beckman postdoc fellowship

3/30/2022 Jenna Kurtzweil, Beckman Institute

Amir Ostadi Moghaddam's work focuses on understanding the tissue microenvironment to improve patient care.

Written by Jenna Kurtzweil, Beckman Institute

Group of 6 recipients of the Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Beckman Institute's 2022 cohort of postdoctoral fellows. Top (left to right): Rong Guo, Matt Lowerison, Eman Hamed.  Bottom (left to right): Natalia Krawczynka, Amir Ostadi Moghaddam, Chang Cao.  Photo credit Beckman Institute Office of Communication.

Amir Ostadi Moghaddam, who anticipates receiving his PhD in mechanical engineering in May, is one of six recipients of a 2022 Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship. His work focuses on understanding the tissue microenvironment to improve patient care.

The Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program recruits four to six outstanding scientists annually to work at the Beckman Institute. The program was established in 1991 by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The fellows were selected for their highly innovative research, which fills critical societal needs while aligning with the institute’s core values: excellence, collaboration, integrity, transdisciplinarity, exploration, and diversity.

With diverse skillsets and a broad range of experience, the six researchers who make up the 2022 cohort seek to transform how we diagnose, monitor, and treat conditions like colorectal and breast cancer, brain tumors and traumatic brain injuries, osteoarthritis, and Alzheimer's disease. Their innovative projects are a product of creative computation, state-of-the-art imaging technology, and interdisciplinary collaborations on campus and in the community.

Ostadi Moghaddam will study the biophysical properties of collagenous tissue — like the tissue found in human skin — to improve diagnosis and treatment for conditions like osteoarthritis.

He will collaborate with MechSE professors Mariana Kersh and Amy Wagoner Johnson, along with Brad Sutton, the technical director of Beckman’s Biomedical Imaging Center.

He will combine advanced medical imaging, microscopy, and deep learning to examine the three components of tissue biophysics: microstructure, composition, and mechanical function. Focusing on cervical and ligament tissues, both of which serve distinct yet common functions, will ensure that the results are highly translatable to a variety of applications in the human body. His novel technique will allow non-invasive, comprehensive in vivo imaging — and ultimately diagnostics — to facilitate safe and speedy patient care.

Ostadi Moghaddam earned an M.Sc. in mechanical engineering in 2016 from the University of Tehran. He also participated in the 2020 Tissue Microenvironment Training Program.


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This story was published March 30, 2022.