Andy Downard
B.S., Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, 2004; M.B.A., 2004

A native of Manchester, Conn., Andy Downard started looking at colleges when he was a junior in high school. “I wanted to go to a place with an excellent academic reputation,” he says, “and I wanted to have world-class athletes to cheer on in football and basketball.” Downard was a varsity cheerleader as an undergraduate. He was also at the top of his class in the Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering.

As an undergraduate working with Professor David Leighton, he built a prototype of a protein/virus/bacteria separation device that is on the verge of commercialization, making the leap from laboratory to real-life application. The device will enable medical researchers to increase their understanding of the building blocks of life, as well as the pathogens that threaten it. Downard also interned at the Cook Nuclear Power Plant in Bridgman, Mich., for several summers.

After graduation his professors asked him to stay at Notre Dame as the product development manager for the Center for Microfluidics and Medical Diagnostics, to help advance the technology transfer program at the University. He wrote five patents -- was actually the co-inventor on one project -- and started a small company. He also participated in the annual business competition sponsored by the Mendoza College of Business; his team, which proposed the development and marketing of the separation device he had worked on with Professor Leighton, were among the finalists. Another team featuring an engineering undergraduate took first.

Today, Downard is a Ph.D. student at the California Institute of Technology, where he hopes to continue his work developing inexpensive medical diagnostics that extend the blood glucose sensor model to the early detection of cancer, viruses, and bacteria. His goal is to become a professor and play an active role leading a research group at the frontier of human knowledge. “I cannot imagine,” Downard says, “that I would have found these kinds of opportunities elsewhere. The slogan really is true -- ‘Nowhere else but Notre Dame.’”

Brent Mitchell
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2005

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, Brent Mitchell decided to pursue a career in the biotechnology industry. He was interested in bioengineering because of the opportunity it offered to make a difference in the quality of life for millions of people. He also was attracted by the rapid growth in the field and the challenges it offered.

The first step toward that goal was to obtain a master’s degree in mechanical engineering -- with a concentration in biomechanics and biomaterials -- from Notre Dame. During his time at the University, Mitchell worked closely with Assistant Professor Glen L. Niebur and DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., on developing a material that could be used as a bioresorbable load-bearing soft tissue implant for the patella tendon. He performed mechanical tests and analyzed the properties of the material and worked closely with his advisor and researchers at DePuy to determine if the material could be used to repair tendons and ligaments.

Mitchell also served as a teaching assistant for several courses in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, specifically Orthopaedic Biomechanics, Mechanics of Solids, and Computing in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. In addition, he volunteered as a mentor in the Dream Team Mentoring Program at Lincoln Elementary School.

Today, Mitchell works as an associate research engineer for Osteotech, Inc., in Eatontown, New Jersey, a global leader in the processing of human bone and connective tissue for transplantation. He is developing a load-bearing support system using a bioresorbable polymer embedded with fibers of human bone, which form a strong composite material. The goal of this project is to create a biodegradable product that will replace existing permanent metal spinal fusion cages currently on the market. Over time the polymer in the product will resorb while the embedded bone provides channels for new bone to form, leaving a strong fusion of new to existing bone.