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Mahsa Dabagh

  • Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship
  • Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Affiliate Associate Professor, Computer Science

In Mechanobiology and Vascular Biomechanics Lab, Dr. Dabagh’s group seek to develop innovative precision strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer patients and patients suffering from main vascular diseases. The group develops sophisticated multiscale, personalized computational models to discover fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the diseases progression. Empowering multiscale models of full organ and arterial tree enable them to study the influence of local diseases on global human health.

Education

  • Research Associate, Duke University
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lappeenranta University of Technology
  • PhD, Lappeenranta University of Technology
  • MSC, Sharif University of Technology
  • BSC, Sharif University of Technology

Research Interests

  • Digital Health
  • Digital Twin of Human Tissues
  • Biomechanics & Mechanobiology
  • AI-empowered Computational Modeling of Biological Systems

Publications

Google Scholar link for all publications. Most recent ones are listed here:

  • Soheil Arbabi, Hannah Vincent, Erik Hansen, Morgan Connaughton, Kianoush Falahkheirkhah, Rohit Bhargava, Mahsa Dabagh. Developing virtual physiology of human tumor tissue for malignancy assessment. npj Precis. Onc. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-026-01316-1.
  •  Leemon Nikhila, Suresh Surya, Shahul Hameed Najeeb, Thankachan Mangalathettu Binumon, Aayush Gupta, Sandeep Gopalakrishnan, Mahsa Dabagh, Parameswara Panicker Sreejith. Disrupted cholesterol biosynthesis and hair follicle stem cell impairment in the onset of alopecia. PLOS ONE 2025, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308455
  • Morgan Connaughton, Mahsa Dabagh. Impact of stroma remodeling on forces experienced by cancer cells and stromal cells within pancreatic tumor tissue. BioMedical Engineering OnLine 2024; 23:88. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-024-01278-0.
  • Morgan Connaughton, Mahsa Dabagh. Modeling Physical Forces Experienced by Cancer and Stromal Cells Within Different Organ-Specific Tumor Tissue. IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine 2024;12: 413–434. https://doi.org/10.1109/JTEHM.2024.3388561.
  • Kelly McElvain, Sandeep Gopalakrishnan, Mahsa Dabagh.  Role of mechanotransduction on decision making for treatment of chronic wounds. AIChE J.  2024; e18390. https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.18390.
  • Andrea Alonso, Alessandra Ebben, Mahsa Dabagh. Impact of disturbed flow and arterial stiffening on mechanotransduction in endothelial cells. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01743-0.
  • Mahsa Dabagh and Mahsa Ranji. Prediction of ischemia reperfusion injury zone using in silico model of cardiac injury zone. CLEO 2023, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 2023), paper JTu2A.4. https://opg.optica.org/abstract.cfm?URI=CLEO_FS-2023-JTu2A.4
  • Alessandra Ebben, Mahsa Dabagh. Mechanotransduction in endothelial cells in vicinity of cancer cells. Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering 2022: 15: 313–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-022-00728-w.
  • Kelly McElvain, Joshua Klister, Alessandra Ebben, Sandeep Gopalakrishnan, Mahsa Dabagh. Impact of wound dressing on mechanotransduction within tissues of chronic wounds. Biomechanics 2022, 10: 3080. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/12/3080.
  • Morgan Connaughton, Mahsa Dabagh. Association of Hypertension and Organ-Specific Cancer: A Meta-Analysis. HealthCare 2022;10: 1074. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10061074.

News

Awards, Honors and Societies

  • Awards:
    • 2025 - Awarded the Richard and Joanne Grigg Faculty Fellowship.
    • 2025 - Invited to Chancellor Mark Mone on the March 2025 Chancellor’s Report show on Wisconsin’s NPR/ WUWM 89.7. The podcast focused on AI and how it’s being embraced at UWM.  
    • 2024 - Awardee of NSF-Career (Award Number: 2340149) of $ 542,000, for developing virtual tumor tissues.
    • 2024 - Awardee of NSF-I-Corps (Award Number: 2418649) as PI, for developing a wound healing monitoring device using deep-learning-assisted multi-modal imaging. 
    • 2022 - Received UWM-Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) of $ 150,000, as PI, to support promising, early-stage research in mechanobiology of wound healing.
    • 2022 - Received NSF grant (Award Number: 2229652) of $500,000, as co-PI. NSF grant to establish the Cyberinfrastructure Comprehensive, Applied and Tangible Summer School.
    • 2021 - Received NSF grant (Award Number: 2126229) of $ 400,000, as co-PI. NSF grant to upgrade the campus supercomputing cluster. 
    • 2021 - Dr. Dabagh joins International Journal of Biosensors & Bioelectronics as Associate Editor (https://medcraveonline.com/IJBSBE/editorial-board)
    • 2021 - Dr. Dabagh joins the topics board editors of the journal Applied Sciences (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/topic_editors.
    • 2019 - Advisor, UWM student chapter, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
    • 2018 - Recognized reviewer of Microvascular Research (Elsevier)
    • 2017 - Late Breaking Science Abstract, CNS
    • 2017 - Recognized reviewer of Journal of the Royal Society Interface
    • 2016 - Recognized reviewer of Journal of the Royal Society Interface
    • 2010 - Member, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
  • Mentees’ Achievements:
    • 2026 - Ahmad Momani won the first place in 2026 CEAS Graduate Poster Competition.
    • 2026 - Ahmad Momani’s poster won third place in 18th AIChE Midwest Regional Conference, Chicago.
    • 2025 - Hannah Vincent won the first place in 2025 CEAS Student Research Poster Competition Award.  
    • 2023 - Andrea Alonso received UWM-Graduate School Advanced Opportunity Program Fellowship award.
    • 2022 - Morgan Connaughton won the first place in 2022 CEAS Undergraduate Research Poster Competition.
    • 2022 - Morgan Connaughton won ‘Outstanding Presentation Award” at 2022 UWM-Undergraduate Research Symposium & she received one of four top awards at UWM’s Undergraduate Research Symposium
    • 2021 - Madison Rose Schillinger won ‘Outstanding Presentation Award” at 2021 UWM-Undergraduate Research Symposium.
    • 2021 - Morgan Connaughton won the third place in 2021 CEAS Undergraduate Research Poster Competition. 
    • 2021 - Morgan Connaughton was the winner of the Chalk Talk category in the Biomedical Engineering seminar series organized across UWM-CEAS and Health Science.
    • 2020 - John Quinn won Department Award in CEAS 2020 Undergraduate Research Poster Competition.
    • 2019 - Samantha Schwartz received CEAS Academic Excellence Award.

Community Involvement

  • Reviewer for: National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and American Heart Association.
  • Journal Reviewer: Scientific Reports-Nature, Gastroenterology, Advanced Functional Materials, Bioengineering & Translational Medicine, MedComm, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, PLOS ONE, Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, Computers in Biology and Medicine, Advanced Science, ACS Materials Letters, Medical Engineering and Physics, BMC Biology, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, Journal of Biomechanics
  • Conferences:
    • Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (BMES) (2018-)
    • Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C) (2018-)