Degrees:

    B.S.  Stanford University 1983

    Ph.D.  University of Washington 1991

 

Current Positions:

    Associate Professor of Bioengineering

    Adjunct Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine

    Adjunct Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Sanders has been a Bioengineering Department faculty member since 1992. Her research programs are in Prosthetic Engineering, Tissue Sciences - Skin Adaptation, Biomaterials, and Tissue Engineering.  Currently, we are seeking staff (Staff Employment Opportunities), graduate students (Opportunities in Graduate Research) and undergraduate students (Opportunities in Undergraduate Research) in the Prosthetic Engineering and Biomaterials areas.  Current projects are discussed below. Click here for material on past projects (Publications Index) and here for an Patent and Invention Disclosure Index.

Prosthetic Engineering: The prosthetic engineering effort is directed towards improving the design and performance of artificial limbs for lower-limb amputees. It is strongly affiliated with other prosthetics and engineering research groups at the University of Washington - the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Mechanical Engineering  - as well as local industry. We have a long history conducting research directed towards better understanding load transfer (pressures and shear stresses) at the residual limb-prosthetic socket interface and factors that influence them.  Other areas we have researched include the assessment of prosthetic interface materials and the development of new measurement tools for the field (see Publications Index).  Current projects, and ones for which we are seeking staff and students, are focused on the development and clinical application of novel measurement techniques:

Assessment of Changes in Residual Limb Shape and Volume Over Time
    Bioimpedance
    Optical Imaging
Assessment of Residual Limb Skin Quality Using Near Infrared Imaging
Assessment of the Quality of Sockets Made Using Central Fabrication Facilities

Biomaterials: The Biomaterials effort is part of the UWEB   (University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials) Program, an Engineering Research Center in the Bioengineering Department supported by the National Science Foundation and industry. The goal of UWEB is to pursue a new approach to biomaterials design, to engineer "biomaterials that heal," i.e. materials that the body recognizes as natural tissue rather than as foreign entities that it encapsulates with a fibrous layer. The following is a project within UWEB:
Fibro-Porous Meshes for Biomedical Applications