Designing Biomaterial Scaffolds for Tissue Regeneration and Cellular Assays

The flow of signal within a cell upon receiving cue from extracellular stimuli can be represented by biochemical reactions. My research interests are focused at the interface of Engineering, Chemistry and Biology to dissect chemical signaling pathways and characterize how quantitative changes in signal transduction can alter the cell fate. Specifically, I am interested in rational designing of biomaterial scaffolds for applications in tissue regeneration, three dimensional cell culture, and cellular arrays/ assays. The research will span the fundamental studies to better understand cell-material interactions including wettability, surface topography, surface chemistry and stiffness of bioactive surfaces in regulating cell fate to more targeted clinical applications including development of 3D cell culture matrices to investigate interaction between stromal cells and cancer cells as well as development of cellular arrays/assays for quantifying receptor mediated cell behavior. My Ph.D research (involving immobilization of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) onto cellulose triacetate membrane to develop cell based biosensor for screening cancer) as well as postdoctoral research (involving development of hydrogel based three dimensional protein array for high-throughput profiling of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in cancer cellular extracts) which provide me complementary skills to develop a biomaterial based approach to address health related issues will be highlighted and my plans to develop an independent research program will be discussed.