Overview

We develop materials-based, regenerative strategies with the goal of engineering the self-organization and self-assembly of various cell types into tissue structures and understanding the emergence of higher-order function in neuromuscular and cardiovascular systems. Our specific focus is on the interaction of cells and tissues with engineered materials and determining how cells sense, respond and modulate their environment. This is a problem that spans from the molecular (nano) to the tissue (macro) level where we try to elucidate how biochemical, electrical and mechanical signals are propagated across spatiotemporal scales.

Current efforts are focused on the following areas

• 3-dimensional nano/micro structured tissue engineering scaffolds using protein-based materials
  
  
• Engineered skeletal muscle soft robotic devices and bioprosthetics
  
  
• Stem cell differentiation and engineered morphogenesis of cardiovascular tissues

Protein nanoFabrics

Endothelial cells on patterned fibronectin