Our research focuses on designing biomaterials for tissue engineering applications. This multidisciplinary area couples engineering, life sciences, and clinical medicine to develop strategies to repair damaged tissues. To do this, we require a detailed understanding of body’s own biomaterials (i.e., the proteins and carbohydrates of the extracellular matrix), the cellular machinery by which the biomaterials are assembled and degraded, and how the dynamic microscale interactions of these components influence tissue physiology.

Currently, we are designing, synthesizing, and characterizing biomaterials created from naturally derived and synthetic biopolymers. We are implementing these novel biomaterials as a platform to gain a more detailed understanding of neural and cancer cell behavior. By correlating the impact of individual substrate properties on cell behavior, we will elucidate key design principles that will aid in the development of improved therapies to treat nerve injury and tumor growth.