OUR TEAM
OF CREATORS

I am a bioengineer with a passion for developing novel approaches to tissue engineered scaffolds and culture systems.  Following my undergraduate studies in physics at Colby College I became interested in biomedical engineering and the growing subfield of tissue engineered organs.  This led me to pursue a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in biomedical engineering, during which I was exposed to decellularized tissue scaffolds and perfusion culture, culminating in a project investigating various approaches to recellularize rodent whole liver scaffolds.  Since then I have been working at IVIVA with the goal of translating bioartificial organ technology into therapies for end stage renal disease.  The promise of organ engineering is a future where organ failure is not a death sentence and donor organ shortage is a solved problem, and working everyday with a team dedicated to these goals is truly inspiring.

I am a scientist and engineer with an interest in improving human health. Following my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University I worked at a medical device company and a startup prior to beginning graduate school. At University of Virginia I investigated local drug delivery from oxygen sensitive nanofiber membranes to create an immunomodulated and vascularized environment for the transplantation of pancreatic islets to treat Type 1 Diabetes. I then transitioned to studying intracellular signaling and phenotypic cell migration on electrospun nanofiber substrates, focusing on isolating the effect of fibril curvature at the Pennsylvania State University. As a Hartwell Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University and now a Scientist at IVIVA Medical, I am continuing the search for a bioengineered vascularized destination for insulin producing cells. I am excited to be leading IVIVA’s teamwork driven effort to create immediately blood perfusable insulin producing grafts designed at human scale for high cell survival with our platform technology.

During my training I became aware of the scale of unmet donor organ needs and the potential health impact of engineered functional tissue replacements, and also of the potential of integrating the independent and disparate tissue engineering and cell biology research groups who’s goal was to advance the field of tissue engineering. I joined IVIVA to be part of a team of engineers and biologists whose entire energy is focused on the present and singular goal of producing human-scale engineered tissues. Before joining IVIVA, I did my bachelor’s studies in general biology at New Mexico State University, researching avian thermoregulatory physiology as a model of surgical temperature management. As a graduate student at the University of California at San Diego I focused on developmental biology and morphogenesis of the kidney, and later did post-doctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and subsequently the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in human and animal stem cell and renal regeneration studies.

I studied kidney stem cell and developmental biology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. During my Ph.D. I gained experience working with human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developed one of the currently widely used kidney organoid protocols. I am passionate about new technologies involving iPSCs and I joined IVIVA to help utilize iPSC-differentiated cells as an alternative source for our scaffolds. I am excited to integrate these techniques into our everyday workflows.

I earned my PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester. There, I focused on building microfluidic models of human vasculature to study biophysical interactions of blood with the endothelium. After earning my degree, I spent 6 years working in the pharmacutical industry building microphysiological models for drug discovery. I joined Iviva for the opportunity to translate these complex in vitro models out of the lab and into something larger that could provide functional benefit to a patient.

I earned my PhD from Indian Institute of Science where I explored the signaling pathways regulating cardiac hypertrophy and insulin resistance. To mature my understanding of how signaling pathways can help us to train cells and give them function, I did a postdoc in Harvard Stem Cell and regenerative biology department where I worked on stem cell -based therapies applied to the treatment of heart disease. To translate my knowledge into a more powerful tool that can improve the quality of human life I joined IVIVA’s team where I develop novel approaches to create the necessary cellular building blocks to ultimately save people’s lives.

I have been a Research Associate at IVIVA for 3 years. I have a Bachelors of Science in bioengineering from Endicott College and worked at a immuno-oncology start-up prior to joining the IVIVA team where I run primary and iPSC derived cell expansion and banking. What I find most exciting about IVIVA is how multidisciplinary the team is, which allows me to work on numerous aspects of tissue engineering.