Levi Lewis

The ThrombusCheck team is developing a microfluidic blood-testing device to screen for risk of heart attack, optimize antiplatelet therapy, and reduce perioperative bleeding complications for cardiovascular patients. I was heavily involved in the research & development and manufacturing process. Accomplishments include:
Designed and manufactured multiple microfluidic blood cartridges (25 micron tolerance) with no fluid leakage
Optimized and drafted improved PMMA bonding protocol to reduce deformation into microchannels
Determined and implemented method to prevent blood separation in vitro to mimic a true arterial environment
Designed and implemented optimal latching mechanism between cartridge and vacuum ports to allow consistent, quality seals to occur
Filmed and produced a promotional device demo, showcasing the fully functional device

Led team responsible for designing multiple medical device design patents as a credited inventor
Designed, prototyped and 3D printed testing mechanisms and performed experiments to test effectiveness and quality of newly developed products
Performed statistical analysis and experimentation to analyze and produce consistent, quality results
Drafted and published a white paper study detailing the experimentally validated advantages of new products

Diagnosed and repaired internet, software, and hardware issues
Repaired electronic devices (tablets, iPads, PCs, etc.), and organized entire internet, audio, video network
Led technical support team in charge of supporting vendors and sales staff by diagnosing, troubleshooting, and resolving sales software issues

Semester long senior design project. Our team set out to design and prototype a self-stabilizing, wearable orthotic device to reduce hand/wrist tremors in patients with Parkinson's Disease and/or Essential Tremor. Constructed and built testing mechanism to scientifically validate the design of the assistive device.

α-mangostin belongs to a category of organic compounds called xanthones, phytochemicals found in many plants and trees. α-mangostin is derived from the mangosteen tree and was first utilized as an insecticide. Previous research has shown that α-mangostin has anti-proliferative effects against certain cancer cell lines such as DLD-1 colon cancer1. This study seeks to identify and characterize the anti-proliferative and apoptotic effect of α-mangostin on the U87 glioblastoma cell line. Three assays were performed: CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, and clonogenic assay. Prior to CCK-8, cells were treated with six different concentrations of α-mangostin and a control and allowed to incubate for 48 hours. The IC-50 was determined from this assay and used to treat the cells for flow cytometry and the clonogenic assay against a control. Treatment was removed 10 days prior to the clonogenic assay to characterize the long-term effects of α-mangostin on U87 cells. Triplicates were used for all three tests performed. For all three assays, α-mangostin was shown to induce apoptosis and have anti-proliferative effects on the U87 cell line. This study shows that α-mangostin may have significant value in immunotherapy and cancer treatment of many other cell lines, outside of simply colon cancer and glioblastoma, and may prove to serve an effective compound used in combination with other kinds of anti-cancer drugs.