For Brittany Gonzalez, returning to Florida International University means coming back to where an important part of her journey as a biomedical engineer began — this time as a member of the faculty.
A Miami native and former FIU Biomedical Engineering doctoral student, Gonzalez joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as an assistant professor in Fall 2026 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Her return brings new expertise in cardiovascular engineering and heart valve research, along with a meaningful connection to the research legacy she experienced firsthand as a student.
Gonzalez completed her Ph.D. at FIU under the supervision of the late Professor Sharan Ramaswamy, whose work helped establish and sustain the department’s research in cardiovascular engineering.
After completing her doctorate, she continued her research as a postdoctoral research fellow in Katherine Yutzey’s laboratory at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in molecular cardiovascular biology at the Heart Institute.
“Returning to FIU as a faculty member after earning my Ph.D. here is both an honor and an exciting opportunity,” Gonzalez said. “It is inspiring to see how much the university and the Department of Biomedical Engineering have grown in such a short time, and I am proud to contribute to that continued progress.”
During her postdoctoral fellowship, Gonzalez received external funding from both the American Heart Association and National Institutes of Health and went on to earn the highly competitive NIH Pathway to Independence Award. The award supports promising researchers as they transition from postdoctoral training to independent faculty positions.
Now, Gonzalez is building her independent research program at FIU. Her laboratory focuses on understanding how heart valves develop, what happens when they become diseased, and how those changes can affect heart function. She also explores how tissue engineering can be used to better understand heart valve disease and develop new approaches to treatment.
Through her NIH Pathway to Independence Award, Gonzalez will study how specific cells contribute to the progression of myxomatous heart valve disease, a condition in which valve tissue grows weak, thickened and overly pliable, keeping the valve from sealing shut completely. Her goal is to gain a better understanding of the disease and identify potential new approaches to treatment.
Her return to FIU is especially meaningful given her connection to Ramaswamy, who passed away in July 2025. A respected associate professor of biomedical engineering at FIU, Ramaswamy was a leading researcher in heart valve engineering and regenerative medicine. His work focused on developing growth-capable, stem cell-seeded living heart valves as potential treatments for children with congenital heart valve disease.
As one of his former doctoral students, Gonzalez now has the opportunity to build on the foundation Ramaswamy helped establish while developing her own research program and mentoring the next generation of biomedical engineers.
Gonzalez will also contribute new knowledge and therapies to the FIU-Florida Heart Research Foundation Center for Innovation in Cardiovascular Health. Backed by a $11.7 million investment from the Florida Heart Research Foundation, the center brings together experts from across the university to uncover the fundamental drivers of cardiovascular disease and translate discoveries into improved patient outcomes.
“Coming back allows me not only to build my own research program, but also to mentor and inspire students who are beginning the same journey I once started at FIU,” Gonzalez said. “Being able to give back to the institution that helped shape my career is especially rewarding.”