Mao lab undergraduate students Bruce Enzmann, Anson Zhou, Michael Lan, and Juan Diego Carrizo advance as finalists to the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s Collegiate Inventors Competition. Their team, named Innerva, has created a funnel-shaped biodegradable device to help direct the regrowth of nerves and prevent tumorgenesis in amputation patients.
The Whiting School students—senior Bruce Enzmann, junior Anson Zhou, and 2021 graduate Michael Lan, who were later joined by junior Juan Diego Carrizo—began the project after hearing from Johns Hopkins surgeon Sami Tuffaha about the challenges of targeted muscle reinnervation, a surgical procedure for facilitating nerve regrowth in amputation patients. (Source: https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/09/13/collegiate-inventors-competition-finalists/)
Best of luck Bruce, Anson, Michael, and JD!