Our Student Uses Expertise to Help Health Care Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic

Destie Provenzano, a PhD candidate in our lab, and her husband, Dr. Yuan James Rao, MD (GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences) had to cancel their honeymoon in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so they determined to use the time instead to help health care workers. They are doing this by developing 3D-printed N95 respirators to supplement the rapidly depleting stocks of these and other PPE (personal protective equipment). This SMHS article tells the story of the work they are doing. They are also getting help with the project from Dr. Loew, BME graduate and doctoral students Konstantin Mitic and Sofian Obaid, Dominique Pierce (GW Library); James Huckenpahler (Corcoran School of the Arts and Design); Jeffrey Berger (Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine), and Sharad Goyal (Department of Radiology).