Paper published in ACS Omega on ultrasound for bioreactor monitoring

Our team published a new research paper, "Ultrasound Imaging and Machine Learning for Nondestructive Sensing in Bioreactors" was published in ACS Omega! This study investigates the potential of ultrasound technology to characterize cellular growth and decellularization in spinach scaffolds. Ultrasound images were acquired of fresh spinach leaves, decellularized leaves, and leaves with cells seeded in defined cloning well regions on decellularized leaves. Machine learning tools were employed to assist in the identification and segmentation of images as part of ultrasound data analysis. The results indicate that ultrasound imaging could serve as a viable, nondestructive tool for quality assessment of plant scaffolds in cellular agriculture applications.

This has been an exciting interdisciplinary project with Prof. Glenn Gaudette and Prof. Antonio Freitas dos Santos at Boston College. Kate Serpe, an undergraduate research student and HCE'25, is the first author of this paper and did a fantastic job leading this project from the start. Caleb Lee (HCE'26), Reid Povinelli (HCE'26), Richard Thyden (PhD WPI '24), Luke Perreault (Visiting Assistant Professor and Core Fellow), and Keshi He (Postdoctoral Fellow), Glenn Gaudette, and Antonio Freitas dos Santos were co-authors.