Taylor Norris at her first BMES poster session, presenting on a collagen/cellulose nanofiber biocomposite.
Author: Taylor Norris | Major: Biomedical Engineering | Semester: Fall 2025
Hi there! My name is Taylor Norris, I am a senior Honors Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Arkansas. As an undergraduate student, I am pursuing a career in research with a passion for discovery and helping others. I currently perform undergraduate research for Dr. Younghye Song, in her Therapeutic Testbed Engineering Lab. Thanks to the Honors College, this October I was able to travel to San Diego, California and present my research findings at a national research conference through the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).
Presenting at BMES has been one of the biggest highlights of my college career. It was the culmination of years of hard work and learning, and an incredible opportunity to be surrounded by innovation. The work that I presented on my poster involves creating a novel biomaterial-a rehydratable membrane that can be sutured- made from naturally derived materials for tissue repair. The material we make is made from collagen-the most abundant protein in the surrounding area around cells- and cellulose nanofibers (CNF), which is found in plant cell walls. Incorporating CNF into a collagen-based material, which is already known to promote healing, allows for the material to be stronger and maintain tissue regenerative properties. While presenting on this material, I received several questions about how we plan on moving forward with experiments and where I saw this idea heading outside of academia. It was extremely rewarding to have people be interested in my work, and we even had a few people ask about future commercialization. The invention and commercialization side of research has always interested me, and at this conference I was even able to connect with a few people interested in dental applications for this product. After presenting my work, I feel very proud of what I have accomplished so far, and I am thrilled to see this project grow while I am in graduate school.
At BMES, I also attended other poster presentations and speaker sessions from several universities. I got to meet so many other scientists from a range of research topics, including biomaterials work like mine. It was interesting to talk to other people at their posters about how our work relates to each other and how we share similar goals. A particularly unique experience from this conference for me was getting to meet Dr. Fischbach, a professor from Cornell University who mentored Dr. Song when she earned her PhD. It was interesting to see how Dr. Fischbach’s and Dr. Song’s labs overlap in some research areas and how they could complement each other too. Apart from professors, I also met other undergraduate researchers and graduate students, which was encouraging to meet people on similar paths as me. One thing I learned while I was there was that you can do meaningful and exciting work regardless of which university you attend. For some people, it is easy to assume that the most impactful research and top talent come exclusively from highly prestigious institutions. However, I’ve found that what truly stands out is when someone demonstrates genuine passion for their work and can communicate it effectively, regardless of where they come from. That level of engagement is often far more compelling.
Moving forward, at future conferences I would advise making a schedule each day for yourself- including all the talks and posters. Get all the times and location in one place so you can visualize where you need to be. Also definitely download the BMES app and keep track of changes in presentation times, because sometimes they did change and we sadly missed talks. Traveling with a group made this experience far less stressful, and even if I did not have a group, I would have found some people at the conference to walk around with. You can totally go off on your own to talks that are more specific to you though. My thought is that research is collaborative, so why not attend sessions with others and discuss them together after. My last piece of advice would be to get to the conference city the night before if possible! I had friends who traveled the opening day and had their flights delayed, which would have stressed me out so much.
Lastly, I would like to thank the following people for helping me get to where I am today and leading me to continue into my master’s degree here at the University of Arkansas: First, thank you Dr. Song for your incredible support and guidance through my time working in your lab! Thank you to Patrick Kuczwara for mentoring me and answering my millions of questions about our work, and to Dr. Joseph Batta-Mpouma for collaborating on this project. Lastly, thank you to Dr. Jones at the CLAF for training me for future animal studies, as well as Niko Ala-Kokko for teaching me to work with the cell line specific to future immunology studies. I could not have gotten to where I am today without these people and so many others. I am incredibly grateful for the experiences and people that have shaped my journey so far, and I am excited to carry this momentum forward as I continue growing as a researcher and contributing to meaningful, impactful science.