Hometown: Bedford, Massachusetts

Education: BS in Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University;
PhD in Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania

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Research interests: I'm fascinated with the complex interplay between a tissue's microenvironment and its constituent cells.  How do cells receive and interpret a wide array of dynamic external cues to make fundamental decisions to spread, migrate, divide, or make and remodel extracellular matrix?  Each of these actions changes the cell's future interpretation of its microenvironment. This reciprocal relationship is in part what makes this process both difficult and exciting to study.  My group develops novel biomaterials and in vitro microsystems to understand these interactions, with the belief that sufficient understanding ultimately will provide engineering control over cellular decision-making in disease or regenerative contexts.

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Outside of lab interests: When not working on a grant, I'm either fixing broken equipment in lab, playing squash, doting on my derpy cat, Gigi (aka. Lady Cat), cutting up the back roads of Ann Arbor on a CBR600RR, or enjoying a tasty Michigan brew at Rappourt.