Caroline Elizabeth Bales

My master's thesis project investigated the elution of vancomycin from a novel infection-resistant implant surface coating. The coating was created through a collaboration with the Irish company ENBIO Ltd. and Ph.D. dissertation work by Sarah Helms. This research involved an animal study, in vitro antibacterial testing, and material characterization testing to analyze the antibiotic coating and its elution. A paper on this research is currently being written. 

The capstone senior design project is a requirement for all bioengineering students at Clemson University. In teams of four or five, students work on the entire process of designing a device. For my project, I worked with three other bioengineering students and Dr. Benjie Mills, an OB-GYN with the Greenville Health System (Prisma Health), to design a novel patient positioning system for use in procedures using the Trendelenburg position. 

I worked in the Laboratory of Orthopaedic Design and Engineering under Dr. John DesJardins for two and a half years. For the final two years, I worked with Sarah Helms on her Ph.D. dissertation project, investigating the creation of a novel infection-resistant implant coating. I worked on my own project as a part of this research, investigating the material characterization of these different coatings, and earned departmental honors for it. 

I took a required bioinstrumentation class in my junior year at Clemson. Part of the class was a design project, in which students were required to create a working prototype of an instrument that used some type of biological input. I worked on a team with two other students to design a sensor to monitor a baby’s heart rate and breathing, particularly during sleep. These sensors will be configured to send an alert to an external interface for real-time monitoring.

I worked in the Laboratory of Orthopaedic Design and Engineering under Dr. John DesJardins for two and a half years. For the first six months, I worked with Michael Stokes on his master's project, the development of a novel TKR with synthetic ligaments. I worked on Instron testing of the device to determine the mechanical properties of the implant with different ligament configurations. A paper was published on this research in January 2018.