Areas of Research

Summary: Scaffolds play essential roles in drug delivery and tissue engineering. They not only provide the architecture to deliver therapeutics and to support cells, but also physical cues for cell behavior, including attachment, proliferation, and gene expression. Superior scaffolds have a variety of characteristics in common: they have a physical structure similar to the extracellular… read more 

Summary: Soft tissue tumors, including breast cancer, become stiffer throughout disease progression. This increase in stiffness has been shown to correlate to malignant phenotype and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro. Unlike current models, utilizing static increases in matrix stiffness, our group has previously created a system that allows for dynamic stiffening of an alginate–matrigel composite hydrogel… read more 

Summary: Macrophages that have engulfed apoptotic cells tend to polarize toward an anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotype over a pro-inflammatory (M1) phenotype. Our lab is interested in which characteristics of apoptotic cells cause this shift. We also utilize the anti-inflammatory nature of apoptotic cells to produce nanoparticle systems to aid in the calming of inflammation for regenerative… read more