Bryan Pfister

Bryan Pfister
Professor and Chair, Biomedical Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering
973-596-3401
619 Fenster Hall (FENS)
About Me
Bryan Pfister received his BS from Clarkson University, earned his PhD in Material Science and Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 2002 and did his post-doctoral study in the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania. Bryan joined the NJIT Biomedical Engineering Department in January 2006 where he now serves as Department Chair. He played a leading role in the department’s initial ABET academic accreditation in 2006 and recently chaired the accreditation visit in 2013. More recently he has helped establish the Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials and Medicine, New Jersey’s first Research Center focused on Nervous system injury and repair. His commitment to teaching earned him the 2009 Educator of the Year Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies of NJ. Dr. Pfister is proud of consistently providing extracurricular experiences at the undergraduate level including a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program, enhanced capstone design program and clinical observerships. Dr. Pfister’s research encompasses how mechanical forces affect the nervous system – spanning from stretch induced growth during development to axonal stretch injury in traumatic brain injuries. He is also working to determine biomechanics of brain injury from blunt and blast injuries using both animate models and full scale inanimate models of the human brain. He is also a co-PI on a grant from the Army to develop a primary blast injury criteria for animal/human TBI models using field validated shock tubes. He is funded by the Army Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research.
Education
Ph.D.; Johns Hopkins University; ; 2002

M.S.; Johns Hopkins University; Mechanical Engineering; 1998

B.S.; Clarkson University; Interdisciplinary Engineering And Management; 1991

2025 Spring Courses
BME 491 - RESEARCH & INDEPENDENT STUDY I

BME 494 - HONORS RESEARCH THESIS II

BME 792 - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH

BME 492 - RESEARCH & INDPNDNT STUDY II

BME 493 - HONORS RESEARCH THESIS I

BME 701B - MASTER'S THESIS

BME 790A - DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Past Courses
BME 420: ADV BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE

BME 420: BIOMATERIALS & BIOCOMPATIBILITY

BME 420: BIOMATERIALS & BIOCOMPATIBLTY

BME 452: MECH BEHAV&PERF OF BIOMATERIAL

BME 601: SEMINAR BIOMEDICAL ENGR

BME 611: ENG ASPECTS MOLEC & CELL BIO I

BME 612: ENG ASPCTS MOLEC&CELL BIO II

BME 652: CELL & MOLECULAR TISSUE ENGR

BME 698: ST:

BME 698: ST:CELL & MOLECULAR TISSUE ENGR

BME 788:

BME 788: ST:LAB ROTATION

BME 791: GRADUATE SEMINAR

Research Interests
My laboratory practices a holistic approach to studying traumatic brain injury (TBI). To address the complex question in TBI, the lab employs (1) unique in vitro models that replicate biomechanical loading parameters to study specific molecular sequelae of neuronal injury in real time, (2) in vivo models that precisely replicate injury parameters to study the effects on physiological and behavioral function, and (3) full scale human models of the head as well as post mortem human subjects to biomechanically create the full scale boundary conditions of head trauma. In this effort, we have developed a core of collaboration and team research from surrounding institutions including the NJ Medical School, Rutgers Newark, and the East Orange VA Hospital. Our research takes place in the Center for Injury Biomechanics Materials and Medicine. I serve as the center’s associate director; currently combining the efforts of 8 core faculty.

The core of the lab’s research objectives encompass how mechanical forces affect the nervous system – spanning from stretch induced growth during development to traumatic tissue deformation in traumatic brain injuries. For this effort, our lab has engineered in vitro and animal models to specifically elucidate biological mechanisms and electrophysiological alterations associated with blunt and blast TBI. These efforts are scaled to the human level through an effort funded by a NSF MRI to develop a human scale blunt and blast model to measure the related spatial and temporal deformations within the brain tissues.
Journal Article
Arun Ravula, Jose Rodriguez, Daniel Younger, Venka Perumal, Ningning Zhao, KV Rama Rao, Bryan J. Pfister, Namas Chandra. 2022. “Animal model of repeated low-level blast traumatic brain injury displays acute and chronic neurobehavioral and neuropathological changes.” Exp Neurol, vol. Mar;349:113938.

K Billiar, DP Gaver, K Barbee, A Singh, JD DesJardins, B Pruitt, J Tranquillo, G Gaudette, B Winkelstein, L Makowski, JR Amos, A Saterbak, J LeDoux, B Helmke, M Grimm, P Benkeser, LD Segan, Bryan J. Pfister, D Meaney, T Arinzeh, S Margulies. 2022. “Learning Environments and Evidence-Based Practices in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering.” Biomed Eng Educ, vol. Jan;2(1):1-16.

M Siriwardane, K DeRosa, G Collins, Bryan J. Pfister. 2021. “Engineering Fiber-Based Nervous Tissue Constructs for Axon Regeneration.” Cells Tissues Organs, vol. 2021;210(2):105-117.

A Aravind, A Ravula, N Chandra, Bryan J. Pfister. “Behavioral deficits in animal models of blast traumatic brain injury.” .

JR Loverde, RE Tolentino, P Soteropoulos, Bryan J. Pfister. 2020. “Biomechanical Forces Regulate Gene Transcription During Stretch-Mediated Growth of Mammalian Neurons.” Front Neurosci, vol. 2020;14:600136.

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Conference Proceeding
“Depth resolved optical coherence elastography based on fiber-optic probe with integrated Fabry-Perot force sensor”
2016.

“Impact of Brain Injury on High Frequency Cerebellar Oscillations in Rat”
Society for Neuroscience,

“Electrophysiological monitoring of cerebellar evoked potentials following fluid percussion injury.”
6th International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, November 2013.

“An in vitro 3-D model of collagen-based fiber constituents for peripheral nerve conduits ”
Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), 2012 38th Annual Northeast , 2012.

“High magnification imaging of neuronal somata undergoing Axon Stretch Growth in vitro ”
Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), 2012 38th Annual Northeast , 2012.

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