She teaches Chemical Engineering Kinetics, Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals and Polymer Science. Her research specialties are in the areas of bio-fluid mechanics, bioreactors, and sickle cell disease.

Prof. Barabino was the recipient of the 1994 ASEE Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award for the New England Section. She is also the DiPietro Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. Recently honored with a National Science Foundation Visiting Professorship for Women, she spent two years as a visiting professor in the chemical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Barabino earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans, LA in 1978, and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Rice University, Houston, TX in 1986.

As the director of the Biomedical Engineering Research Laboratory, Dr. Barabino promotes research efforts in some of the currently most active areas of bio-engineering: engineered-based therapies for sickle cell disease (a genetic disorder) and the creation of functional artificial tissues in the laboratory.

1. Barabino GA, McIntire LV, Eskin SG, Sears DA, Udden M: Endothelial cell interactions with sickle cell, sickle trait, mechanically injured, and normal erythrocytes under controlled flow, Blood 70:152-157, 1987.

2. Barabino GA, McIntire LV, Eskin SG, Sears DA, Udden M: Rheological studies of erythrocyte-endothelial cell interactions in sickle cell disease, in Pathophysiological Aspects of Sickle Vaso-Occlusion, Alan R. Liss, pp. 113-127, 1987.

3. Kasschau MR, Barabino GA, Bridges KR, Golan DE: Adhesion of sickle neutrophils and erythrocytes to fibronectin, Blood, 87:771-780, 1996.

4. Bridges K, Barabino G, Brugnara C, Christoph G, Cho MR, Dover GW, Ewenstein BM, Golan DE, Gutmann CR, Hofrichter J, Mulkern RV, Zhang B, Eaton WA: A multiparameter analysis of sickle erythrocytes in patients undergoing hydroxyurea therapy, Blood, 88:4701-4710, 1996.

 

5. Barabino GA, Wise RJ, Woodbury VA, Zhang B, Bridges KR, Hebbel RP, Lawler J, Ewenstein B: Inhibition of sickle erythrocyte adhesion to immobilized thrombospondin by von Willebrand factor under dynamic flow conditions, Blood, 89:2560-2567, 1997.

6. Barabino GA, Liu XD, Ewenstein BM, Kaul DK: Anionic polysaccharides inhibit adhesion of sickle erythrocytes to the vascular endothelium and result in improved hemodynamic behavior. Blood,93:1422-1429, 1999.

7. Ameer GA, Barabino G, Sasisekharan R, Harmon W, Cooney CL, Langer R: Ex vivo evaluation of a Taylor-Couette flow, immobilized heparinase I device for clinical application. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:2350-2355, 1999.