Amy Wagoner Johnson receives 2011 Arnold O. Beckman Award

MechSE Professor Amy Wagoner Johnson

Wagoner Johnson works in collaboration with Assistant Professor Barbara McFarlin in the College of Nursing and UIUC Alumnus and Assistant Professor Edward Chien at Brown University Medical School on some of her research. The team recently received Campus Research Board funding for their proposal, ‘'Indentation as a measure of cervical remodeling for preterm labor risk assessment', which will address the serious global health concern of preterm birth. Preterm birth survivors are at a significant higher risk to lifelong complications: cerebral palsy, learning and development disabilities, hearing and vision impairment. The team works to use mechanical measures of reproductive tissue as a diagnostic tool for risk assessment for premature birth. This may lead to new therapies that can reduce the rate of premature births. Current therapies target contractions to delay premature birth, but there is still no preventative method.