CAST started as a core group of faculty researchers and students from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and Department of Chemical Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, UMBC. With our 2007 expansion into a UMBC campus center, we now have faculty from several other affiliated departments and centers.
Research Faculty
Assistant Research Scientists
Research Staff / Assistant
Mike Tolosa
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Pegah Rezaei (she/her)
Pegah is a medical doctor currently working on developing a continuous blood CO2 monitoring device in the opioid crisis to follow the dynamic changes in blood gases which is safer and faster than current sensors. Her research is focused on how continuous glucose monitoring and the amount of hemoglobin A1c (glycated hemoglobin) relate to each other, especially in hemoglobinopathies. In her free time, she likes to read books, listen to podcasts, and go to the gym!
Graduate Students
Hasib Hasan (he/him)
Hasib is an Electrical Engineering PhD student advised by Dr. Gary Carter with a research interest in biosensor development and prototyping. He is currently developing a multi-channel biochemistry analyzer, in the form of an optical sensor based on periplasmic binding proteins like glucose binding proteins. His work aims to monitor glucose in bioprocesses with the intention of upgrading this to a multi-channel biochemistry analyzer commercialized for both bioprocess and healthcare applications. In his free time, he likes to travel, listen to music, and garden indoors!
Aaron Thole (he/him)
Aaron is a Chemical Engineering PhD student co-advised by Dr. Govind Rao and Dr. Douglas Frey with a research interest in the use of chromatography in biosensor applications. He is currently developing a low-cost, chromatography-based system for the broad-spectrum detection of viruses. In his free time, he enjoys watching horror movies and baking!
Revati Kadolkar (she/her)
Revati is a Chemical Engineering PhD student co-advised by Dr. Govind Rao and Dr. Douglas Frey with research interests in downstream processing of biologics, application of scientific machine learning for the modeling of chromatography, design and fabrication of microfluidic chromatography columns, and development of chromatography sensors for in-line monitoring. Her current project focuses on the application of mechanistic modeling for continuous purification of biologics obtained from cell-free systems. In her free time, she loves to paint, travel, play basketball and cook traditional Indian dishes!
Vikash Kumar (he/him)
Vikash is a Chemical Engineering PhD student advised by Dr. Govind Rao with a research interest in developing a membrane platform bioreactor for cell-based and cell-free recombinant protein synthesis. He is currently developing a bioreactor that replaces the traditional steel and glass walls with engineered membranes that can selectively allow gaseous substrates like oxygen and carbon dioxide to flow through. His work involves designing and exploring variants of biocompatible silicone membranes to achieve a bioreactor system with reduced oxygen and carbon dioxide tension. In his free time, Vikash likes to read (especially Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro), watch soccer and cricket, and spend time exploring new scenic spots in the Baltimore County area!
Chad Sundberg (he/him)
Chad is an Environmental Engineering PhD student advised by Dr. Govind Rao with research interests in: bioenergy, sustainability, environmental contaminant sensing and remediation, cell-free systems, synthetic biology, molecular biology, and metabolic engineering. In his free time, he likes to go rock climbing, skiing, trail running, and biking!
John Biffl (he/him)
Zach Sheffield (he/him)
Zach is a Chemical Engineering PhD student advised by Dr. Govind Rao with research interests revolving around developing point-of-care and wearable biosensors for neuropsychiatric biomarkers. He is currently working on inkjet-printing organic electrochemical transistor arrays for the multiplex detection of cortisol and neuropeptide-y in sweat. In his free time, he likes to play video games and watching the latest movie/show on streaming services. However, when he has the time, his favorite activities include listening to his record-player, drawing, and painting!
“Kelly” Yunqian Wei (she/her)
Kelly is a Chemical Engineering PhD student advised by Dr. Govind Rao. She is interested in implementing sensing capabilities to culture flasks (especially Grex) to improve process understanding and develop soft sensors to enable process decision-making without sampling. Her work aims to contribute to the overall automation trend as well as the effort of meeting current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirement and reducing operational risk. Applications include treatments like adoptive T cell therapy (ACT), in which Chemistry, Manufacturing and Conotrol (CMC) plays a critical role in patient access. Adding monitoring capabilities to convenient and high throughput flasks can improve not only robustness and scalability, but ultimately patient safety and efficacy. In her free time, she likes reading and listening to music!
Undergraduate Students
Elias Gilotte (he/him)
Elias is a freshman at UMBC majoring in Chemical Engineering, mentored by Chad Sundberg and Dr. Govind Rao, with a research interest in biotechnology. In his free time, he likes to hike and take care of his pet reptiles!
Tithi Prajapati (she/her)
Tithi Prajapati is a sophomore at UMBC majoring in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, mentored by Dr. Venkatesh Srinivasan and Dr. Govind Rao. Her research interests include biotechnology, genetics and genomics, and bioengineering. She works on nitrate and carbon dioxide sensors, and microfluidics at CAST. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, exercising, learning languages and exploring new music!
Mesha Shajahan (she/her)
Mesha is a sophomore at UMBC majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, mentored by Dr.Preety Ahuja, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, and Dr. Govind Rao. Her research interests include biomedical engineering, sensor technology and electrochemistry. Her current work is on developing a wearable transcutaneous CO₂ sensor and nitrate sensing. Her hobbies include dance, creative writing, and reading!