People

Brendan Harley (he/him)

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Email bharley@nospam63903bf4efd3a.illinois.edu
Title Robert W. Schaefer Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Office Program Leader, Cancer Center at Illinois
Theme Leader, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology

S.B., Engineering Sciences, Harvard University, 2000
Sc.D., Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2006
Postdoc, Childrens Hospital Boston, 2008

Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2014
Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2018
Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), 2021
Young Investigator Award (2014), Clemson Award for Basic Research (2021), Society for Biomaterials
NSF CAREER award, 2013

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Phone (217) 244-7112

Faculty

Sara Pedron Haba (she/her)

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Email spedron@nospam63903bf4f25a7.illinois.edu
Title Research Professor (CHBE, IGB, CI MED)
Department Ph.D., Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (Spain), 2009
Office Project: biomaterial models of the tumor margins in globlastoma

graduate trainees

Ashwin Bale, (he/him)

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Email abale2@nospam63903bf5008f9.illinois.edu
Department B.E. Chemical Engineering with a Minor in Materials Science, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, 2021

Gunnar Thompson (he/him)

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Email gunnart2@nospam63903bf50197c.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016
Office Project: Granular Hydrogels for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Culture

Sheridan Fok, (he/him)

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Email kfok2@nospam63903bf502a34.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Life Science, National Taiwan University, 2015,
M.S., Life Science, National Taiwan University, 2018

Brittany Payan, (she/her)

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Email bpayan2@nospam63903bf5039e7.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, 2020

Génesis Ríos-Adorno, (she/her)

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Email genesis5@nospam63903bf50496b.illinois.edu
Department B.S. Chemical Engineering with a minor in Pharmaceutical Engineering at University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, 2021
Office Project: Incorporation of Gel-SH hydrogels into a stratified scaffold for tendon-to-bone interface regeneration

Grace Rubino, (she/her)

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Email grubino3@nospam63903bf50595a.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio State University, 2022

Vasiliki (Aliki) Kolliopoulos (she/her)

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Email vk7@nospam63903bf506412.illinois.edu
Title B.S., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio State University, 2018
Office Project: modifying mineralized collagen scaffolds to modulate the inflammatory response in craniomaxillofacial defects

Victoria Kriuchkovskaia (she/her)

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Email vk10@nospam63903bf5073ce.illinois.edu
Title B.S., Chemical Engineering and Mathematics, Iowa State University, 2019

Yoanna Ivanova (she/her)

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Email yoannai2@nospam63903bf507f00.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2021

Willencia Louis-Charles, (she/hers)

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Email Wl30@nospam63903bf508ec8.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biomechanics, Marquette University, 2021

Hannah Theriault (she/her)

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Email hst4@nospam63903bf509a12.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021
Office Project: Developing hydrogel-based models of endometriosis lesion etiology and progression

Kyle Timmer

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Email ktimmer2@nospam63903bf50a979.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Chemical Engineering & Biochemistry, Calvin University, 2020
Office Project: Tailoring triphasic biomaterials to promote regeneration of osteotendinous transitionary tissue

undergraduate assistants

Rachael Bell (BioE)

Department Mentor: Tori Barnhouse

Ambar Rivera (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey/Alec Tiffany

Edward Neves (CHBE)

Joy Hensold (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Mai Ngo

Angela Andrada (Chemistry)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey

Alison Nunes (MatSE)

Department Mentor: Aidan Gilchrist

Amber Boyce (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Rebecca Hortensius

Christine Hunter (BioE)

Department Mentor: Mai Ngo

Yunseon Park (CHBE)

Department Mentor: Aliki Kolliopoulos

Noah Chiou (Engineering Physics)

Department Mentor: Samantha Zambuto

Maxwell Polanek (CHBE)

Department Mentor: Aliki Kolliopoulos

alumni

Raul Sun Han (he/him)

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Email sunhanc2@nospam63903bf50f6fc.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Chemistry, Pomona College, 2016
Office Project: developing instructive biomaterials for osteotendinous tissue regeneration

Aleczandria Tiffany (she/her)

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Email ast2@nospam63903bf51067a.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Chemical Engineering, U. of Southern California, 2016
Office Project: enhancement of mineralized collagen scaffolds for craniomaxillofacial bone defects

Samantha Zambuto (she/her)

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Email zambuto2@nospam63903bf511610.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biological Engineering, Cornell University / Sc.M., Biomedical Engineering, Brown University
Office Project: developing models of endometrial physiology and disease

Tori Barnhouse (she/her)

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Email vb7@nospam63903bf51256e.illinois.edu
Department B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Ohio State University, 2017
Office Project: models of the perivascular niche in hematopoiesis

Steven Caliari

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Title Ph.D., ChBE, 2014
Department Project: influence of scaffold biophysical properties on tenocyte and mesenchymal stem cell bioactivity for musculoskeletal tissue engineering
Office Current: Asst. Prof., U. Virginia

Emily (Jee-Wei) Chen

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Email jechen3@nospam63903bf515829.illinois.edu
Title Project: glioma cancer stem cell invasion
Department Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2019)
Office Current: Postdoc (Cecilia Leal), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ji-Sun Choi

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Title Ph.D., ChBE 2014
Department Project: label-free tracking of hematopoietic stem cell fate decisions
Office Current: Samsung Biologics, S. Korea

Marley Dewey

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Email mjdewey2@nospam63903bf517364.illinois.edu
Title B.S., Chemical Engineering, UMaine Orono, 2016
Office Project: bone regeneration utilizing mineralized collagen composites

Seema Ehsan

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Title Postdoc (IGB), 2014 - 2015.
Department Project: tissue engineering platforms for cancer
Office Current: Regulatory Affairs, Genentech, San Francisco, CA.

Nathaniel Gabrielson

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Title Post-doc (IGB), 2011 - 2012
Department Project: cell-laden hydrogels in integrated microfluidic devices for long-term cell culture
Office Current: Lecturer, Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, U. Illinois

Aidan Gilchrist

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Email agilchr2@nospam63903bf51994d.illinois.edu
Title Ph.D. ChBE 2020
Office Project: biomaterial platforms for directed hematopoietic stem cell response
Current: Postdoc with Dr. Sarah Heilshorn at Stanford University

Emily Gonnerman

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Title M.S., ChBE, 2011
Department Project: collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffold systems to assess HL-1 cardiomyocyte beating and alignment
Office Current: Manufacturing Engineer, TSI, Inc., MN.

William Grier

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Title Ph.D., ChBE 2017
Department Project: mechanotransduction in osteotendinous insertion repair
Office Current: Process Engineer, Manufacturing Science and Technology Group, Genzyme, Cambridge, MA

Rebecca Hortensius

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Title Ph.D. BioE 2016
Department Project: amniotic-membrane functionalized collagen biomaterials for orthopedic repair
Office Current: Postdoc in the Ogle Lab at U. Minnesota

Bhushan Mahadik

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Title Ph.D., U. Illinois, 2014
Department Project: microfluidic tools for studying hematopoietic stem cell/niche interactions
Office Current: Assistant Director, NIH Center for Engineering Complex Tissues, U. Maryland

Laura Mozdzen

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Title Ph.D., ChBE 2016
Department Project: mechanically reinforced scaffolds for osteotendinous insertion repair
Office Current: Senior Scientist, AbbVie, Chicago, IL

Mai Ngo

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Email maingo2@nospam63903bf51dffa.illinois.edu
Title Ph.D. ChBE 2020
Office Project: developing vascularized glioblastoma models
Current: Postdoc with Dr. Chris Chen in the Biological Design Center at Boston University

Jacquelyn Pence

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Title Ph.D., ChBE 2016
Department Project: endometrial-inspired biomaterials
Office Current: Research Assistant Professor, U. Memphis

Julio Serrano

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Email jfserra2@nospam63903bf51fb08.illinois.edu
Title Postdoc
Department Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Office Project: Modular hydrogel bioinks for three-dimensional tissue printing applications

Daniel Weisgerber

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Title Ph.D., ChBE 2016
Department Project: mineralized collagen scaffolds for bone and craniofacial defect repair
Office Current: Post-Doc in Abate Lab at UCSF

Tamaki Yokohama-Tamaki

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Title Visiting scientist, 2011 - 2012
Department Project: CXCR4/CXCL12 signaling in the dental epithelial stem cell niche
Office Current: Asst. Prof., Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan

alumni (undergrads)

Christine Hunter (BioE)

Department Mentor: Mai Ngo

Diana Slater (BioE)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey

Vincent Cornelius (BioE)

Department Mentor: Aidan Gilchrist

Allison Kojima (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Samantha Zambuto

Michael Ding (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Aidan Gilchrist

Nathan Petrikas (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Tori Barnhouse

Sanha Kim (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Mai Ngo

Sarah Leary (Chemistry)

Department Mentor: Emily Chen

Andrey Nosatov (MatSE)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey

Ioana Pintescu (MCB)

Department Mentor: Samantha Zambuto

Matthew Au (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Bhushan Madadik

Audrey Blazek (BioE)

Department Mentor: Emily Chen

Lily Buescher (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Sara Pedron Haba

Hannah Chait (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Alec Tiffany

Jill Ebens (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Rebecca Hortensius

Kevin Erning (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Dan Weisgerber

Michael Foley (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Bill Grier

Eileen Johnson (BioE)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey

Elijah Karvels (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Mai Ngo

Allison LaHood (BioE)

Title Mentor: Emily Chen

Sarah Laken (BioE)

Title Mentor: Sara Pedron Haba

Patricia Li (CHBE)

Department Mentor: Sara Pedron

Jordan Meyer (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Bill Grier

Ashley Moy (BioE)

Title Mentor: Bill Grier

Harshita Polishetty (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Sara Pedron Haba

Amanda Pritchard (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Sara Pedron Haba

Matt Ramsey (BioE)

Title Mentor: Bill Grier

Ryan Rodgers (ABE)

Title Mentor: Laura Mozdzen

Shayta Roy (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Laura Mozdzen

Kirsten Schroeder (BioE)

Department Mentor: Aidan Gilchrist

Simona Slater (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Marley Dewey

Erik Steinbrenner (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Bhushan Mahadik

Jessica Vargas (Int. Biology)

Title Mentor: Rebecca Hortensius

Alan Vucetic (ChBE)

Title Mentor: Laura Mozdzen

Evan Willey (ChBE)

Department Mentor: Bhushan Mahadik

Gabrielle Wolter (BioE)

Department Mentor: Sara Pedron

Huiru Zhang (MatSE)

Department Mentor: Sara Pedron