Engineering hearts earns pioneering professor a lifetime achievement award
Karen May-Newman is lauded for her career's work in understanding the impact of medical devices designed to support patients with heart failure.
Millions of Americans live with heart failure, a condition that makes it harder for the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body鈥檚 needs. For some patients, medical devices can help support that function, giving the heart assistance when it can no longer do the job on its own.
Since 1998, Karen May-Newman, professor of in 麻豆传媒映画's , has studied how those devices interact with the human body. Her research has helped advance the understanding of heart-support technologies, including artificial heart valves and left ventricular assist devices, or LVADs, mechanical pumps used to help circulate blood in people with advanced heart failure.
Now, those contributions have earned May-Newman the 2026 Pushpa and Kewal Gupta in the Development of Therapies for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Diseases from the (ASAIO). The award recognizes her contributions to mechanical circulatory support and research that has improved understanding of how device-based therapies interact with human physiology.
May-Newman鈥檚 work, supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, highlights the critical role engineering research can play in addressing health challenges including heart failure, the leading cause of death in the United States.
While the science is complex, the goal is straightforward: understanding what happens when a machine helps the heart keep going.
Heart-support devices do not operate in isolation. They affect blood flow, heart valve function and the way the heart changes over time. May-Newman's research has helped illuminate how those interactions influence patient outcomes, including complications such as blood clot formation and the heart's ability to adapt during treatment.
"l am deeply honored to be selected for this award by ASAIO, whose community has welcomed and supported me for over 20 years in a richly rewarding career in mechanical circulatory support," May-Newman said. "ASAIO has provided a home for interdisciplinary collaboration to advance technologies and treatments for heart failure."
May-Newman 鈥渉as played a leading role in advancing the mechanical circulatory support field, especially in understanding how device support influences valve biomechanics and remodeling," said Pramod Bonde, past president of ASAIO. "She is a role model for engineers, physicians, innovators and entrepreneurs alike."
May-Newman founded 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 bioengineering program in 1998. Along with her role as a professor, she now works with future generations of pioneers in her field as the faculty advisor to the 麻豆传媒映画 student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).
鈥淭o share a passion to help patients with heart failure through a marvel of bioengineering: the LVAD. The interplay of this device and the human system drives events as far-flung as thrombosis and reverse remodeling, underscored by the altered physiology,鈥� said May-Newman. 鈥淭hese interdisciplinary challenges require expertise from a unique cross-section of academics, medical professionals and engineers who work together.鈥�
Read more about Professor Karen-May Newman's work at 麻豆传媒映画:
Cardiovascular Engineering Professor Brings Heart to Research as Engineering Pioneer
Q&A With One of SDBJ's Top 50 Women of Influence in Engineering
