Nimmi Ramanujam

Robert W. Carr, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Nirmala (Nimmi) Ramanujam is the Robert W. Carr Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and Global Health at Duke University.  She founded the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) in 2013 to reshape women’s health through technology innovation. Her translation program in cervical and breast cancer has brought together multiple partners across U.S. and international academic institutions, hospitals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and ministries of health. 

Prof. Ramanujam creates technological solutions to detect cancer at its earliest stages, improve the effectiveness of current treatments and refine them to be more effective and less toxic. Prof. Ramanujam has developed point of care imaging technologies (Pocket colposcope and Callascope) and deep learning algorithms for the global prevention of cervical cancer.  She has implemented these technologies in global health care settings where access to cancer prevention and treatment is sparse or non-existent. Towards cancer treatment, Prof. Ramanujam has developed a drug releasing immunomodulating polymer that simultaneously disrupts tumor cells and elicits an immune boost. This injectable therapeutic can be deployed in settings where treatment is unavailable owing to its simple and low-cost formulation, and it can also provide an immune boost to checkpoint inhibitors. To understand why some tumors are resistant to therapy, she has created tools to image basic cellular processes that provide insight into tumor resistance. She has shown that metabolic plasticity in human residual disease can serve as a cue for treatment optimization and patient management.

Prof. Ramanujam has created a global consortium, Women Inspired strategies for health or WISH to establish technology-enabled community clinics for cervical cancer detection in Peru and Kenya. The MacArthur Foundation recognized WISH in 2019 as one of the top 100 most transformative and impactful global solutions.  She founded Calla Health in 2019 to commercialize women’s health technologies developed by her group. Through WISH and Calla Health, her femtech innovations have been disseminated in 11 countries and has reached more than 8,000 women globally. She has also co-developed the (In)visible Organ documentary on reshaping the future of women’s health through femtech. Her documentary was officially selected for the Women at the Center Film Festival at the International Papillomavirus Conference in 2020.  Prof. Ramanujam has seen the value of co-creating solutions with those that are at the level of the problem. This has led to the creation of a global education program IGNITE that intersects engineering design thinking, STEM concepts, and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. This peer mentoring model between undergraduate students and high school and middle students has been deployed in 5 locations globally, reaching more than 2,500 students and the online curriculum has more than 1000 users.

Prof. Ramanujam has received numerous awards, several of which are highlighted here. She received the prestigious DOD Breast Cancer Innovator award in 2024 given to gifted individuals who have a history of visionary scholarship, leadership, and creativity. She received the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award Technical Field Award in 2023 given annually for outstanding contributions to the field of Biomedical engineering. She is a fellow of and has received several awards from professional societies in the field of biomedical optics.  She is a Fulbright scholar, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Institute of Biomedical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE). She has been invited as a speaker at the United Nations and at TEDx events. Her textbook, Biomedical Engineering for Global Health (2024), examines the intersection of health systems, point of care technologies, and data analytics / artificial intelligence and how these technological capabilities can broaden access to care in the 21st century.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Robert W. Carr, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Director of Center for Global Women's Health Technologies
  • Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
  • Research Professor of Global Health
  • Core Faculty Member, Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
  • Affiliate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
  • Member of the Duke Cancer Institute

Contact Information

Education

  • B.S. University of Texas, Austin, 1989
  • M.S. University of Texas, Austin, 1992
  • Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin, 1995

Research Interests

Biomedical engineering, biophotonics, women's cancers, global health, engineering design, point of care technologies, metabolic imaging, deep learning, immune modulating therapies.

 

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Breast Cancer Research Program Innovator Award. US Department of Defense. 2024
  • IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award. IEEE. 2023
  • The WomC Global Impact Award. Duke University Women’s Center. 2020
  • Michael S. Feld Biophotonics . OSA. 2020
  • Associate Editor. Inaugural Editorial Board of IEEE OJEMB. 2020
  • Women In Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) Leadership Committee. WIMIN. 2020
  • Women in Molecular Imaging Network Outstanding Leadership in Molecular Imaging Award. World Molecular Imaging Society. 2019
  • Associate Editor. Scientific Reports. 2019
  • Program co-leader for Radiation Oncology and Imaging Program. Duke Cancer Institute. 2019
  • Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award. International Society for Optics and Photonics. 2019
  • Social Impact Abie Award. AnitaB.org . 2019
  • CUGH Emerging Leader in Global Health Innovation Faculty Award. Consortium of Universities for Global Health. 2018
  • Fellow (NAI). National Academy of Inventors. 2017
  • Fellow. International Society for Optics and Photonics. 2013
  • Fellow. American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. 2012
  • Fellow. Optical Society of America. 2010

Courses Taught

  • ISS 796T: Bass Connections Information, Society & Culture Research Team
  • ISS 396T: Bass Connections Information, Society & Culture Research Team
  • GLHLTH 230L: Global Women's Health Technologies
  • BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
  • BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
  • BME 290L: Intermediate Topics with Lab (GE)
  • BME 290: Intermediate Topics (GE)
  • BME 230L: Global Women's Health Technologies

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Ekem, Lillian, Erica Skerrett, Megan J. Huchko, and Nimmi Ramanujam. “Automated Image Clarity Detection for the Improvement of Colposcopy Imaging with Multiple Devices.” Biomed Signal Process Control 100, no. Pt B (February 2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2024.106948.
  • Ramanujam, Nirmala, and Brian Crouch. Biomedical Engineering for Global Health Cancer, Inequity, and Technology. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
  • Rickard, Ashlyn G., Yvonne M. Mowery, Alex Bassil, Douglas C. Rouse, Nerissa T. Williams, Theresa Charity, Rafaela Belloni, et al. “Evaluating Tumor Hypoxia Radiosensitization Via Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Oxygen Imaging (EPROI).” Mol Imaging Biol 26, no. 3 (June 2024): 435–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-023-01855-0.
  • Wang, Roujia, Lillian Ekem, Jennifer Gallagher, Rachel E. Factor, Allison Hall, and Nimmi Ramanujam. “A color-based tumor segmentation method for clinical ex vivo breast tissue assessment utilizing a multi-contrast brightfield imaging strategy.” J Biophotonics 17, no. 5 (May 2024): e202300241. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.202300241.
  • Adhikari, Gatha, Venkata Polavarapu Sarojasamhita, Vene Richardson Powell, Asma Farooqui, Maya Budzinski, David T. Garvey, Jeffrey Yang, et al. “Impact of Injection-Based Delivery Parameters on Local Distribution Volume of Ethyl-Cellulose Ethanol Gel in Tissue and Tissue Mimicking Phantoms.” IEEE Transactions on Bio-Medical Engineering 71, no. 5 (May 2024): 1488–98. https://doi.org/10.1109/tbme.2023.3340613.