News
2020
March 31 – Katie Bunde is the newest member of the lab! Welcome Katie! Katie will be working on our NSF-funded project, along with Prof. Stamenović and Prof. Barbone, on tensional homeostasis of endothelial, epithelial, and stromal cells.
January – Michael made a trip to Tinet, Kenya, with Engineers Without Borders! Michael traveled with Cameron Reimer, our community host Franklyne (who met us in Nairobi), August Bernhard, and Komal Kango to begin implementing clean water solutions for this community. This project is the result of tons of work done by all of the student members of the BU chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and these students should all be commended for their selfless commitment to societal engineering. Check out some pictures below, and please check out the link above to learn more about EWB!
2019
June 21 – Gwen successfully passed her prospectus titled “Mechanically Active and Tunable Extracellular Matrix fibers”. Congrats, Gwen!
June 19 – Han successfully defended her thesis titled “Effects of Substrate Stiffness, Cadherin Junction and Shear Flow on Tensional Homeostasis in Cells and Cell Clusters”. Congratulations, Dr. Xu!
2018
May 14 – Alicia successfully defended her thesis titled “Tensional Homeostasis: the Role of Cell Properties and the Environment“. Congratulations, Dr. Zollinger!
May 8 – Alicia, Han, Michael and collaborator Prof. Stamenović‘s paper in collaboration with the Seruca group at The Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto is accepted by Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering and is now available online! It is titled “Dependence of Tensional Homeostasis on Cell Type and on Cell-Cell Interactions“. Check it out!
May 4 – Caroline and Sunny concluded their senior project with an awesome presentation titled “the Mechanobiology of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells”. Congratulations on a successful project and graduation!
2017
Oct 11 – Alicia and Han traveled to Phoenix, AZ to attend the 2017 annual BMES conference. Alicia presented a Talk titled “the Effects of Cell Type on Tensional Homeostasis”, and Han presented a poster titled “Site-Specific E-Cadherin Mutations Affect Gastric Cancer Cell Tensional Homeostasis”.
Aug 10 – Antoinette and Jordan concluded their RET/REU journey with awesome posters! Thank you for joining us for the summer and best of luck for your future endeavors!
July 27 – Alicia and Han both attended the Society of Engineering Sciences 2017 conference at Northeastern University. Alicia presented a talk titled “Importance of Cell Type in Tensional Homeostasis” and Han presented a talk titled “Effects of Mutated E-cadherin in Human Gastric Cancer Cell Tensional Homeostasis”.
June – We officially welcome Gwen Hoffmann to join our group and congratulate her on passing her qualifier exam! She is co-advised by Prof. Joyce Wong. We are happy to have you on board, Gwen!
May 31 – Han successfully passed her prospectus titled “Effects of Intercellular Interactions through Cadherin on Endothelial and Epithelial Tensional Homeostasis”. Congratulations, Han!
May 30 – Sze Nok successfully defended her Masters thesis titled “Identifying Factors that Promote Tensional Homeostasis in Endothelial Cells”. Congratulations, Sze Nok!
April 4 – Matt‘s paper is officially published! It is titled “Silk-fibronectin protein alloy fibres support cell adhesion and viability as a high strength, matrix fibre analogue.” Congrats!
2016
Nov 21 – Matt successfully defended his thesis titled “Peptide Processing via Silk-inspired Spinning Enables Assembly of Multi-functional Protein Alloy Fibers”! Congratulations, Matt!
Oct 10 – Collaborators Dr. Wilbur Lam and Dr. David Myers published a paper with Michael in Nature Materials. The manuscript utilizes a modified version of micropattern traction microscopy coupled with a microfluidic system to measure single platelet contraction forces in a high throughput system.
Oct 7 – Michael, Alicia and Han travel to Minneapolis, MN to present their talk and posters at the annual BMES conference.
September 27 – Alicia passed her prospectus titled “Role of inflammation and the ECM in tensional homeostasis”. Congratulations, Alicia!
August – Summe REU student Stephanie Emenyonu completed her project and presented her poster “Micropatterning Traction Microscopy of Single Smooth Muscle Cells on Laminin”!
August 3 – Two publications from our lab are accepted! Alicia and Michael co-authored a review article in Matrix Biology; Liz, Alicia, Michael and collaborators Sze Nok and Prof. Stamenović‘s paper is accepted into American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology.
July – Samuel ends his stay in the lab, but our collaboration continues across the Atlantic ocean.
June 22 – Michael presents Brant and Mark‘s work in collaboration with Prof. Nugent in a poster titled “Fibronectin fiber extension decreases cell spreading and migration” at Gordon Research Conference (signaling by adhesion receptors) in Lewiston, ME.
June 14 – Sze Nok, Michael and Prof. Stamenović‘s paper is published in International Journal of Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering! Congratulations!
May 20 – Matt presents a talk titled “Microfluidic spinning of fibronectin fibers via silk-induced cross-linking” at the 10th World Biomaterials Congress in Montreal, Canada.
January – Michael became the Associate Chair for Undergrad Studies for the BME department.
2015
October 10 – Sze Nok presents her talk “Modeling tensional homeostasis in cells” at the annual BMES conference in Tempa, FL.
September – Samuel Rosset starts working at the lab as a visiting post-doc. Samuel is a lead scientist at Prof. Shea’s lab in École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He will be working on a project using dielectric elastomer actuators as cell stretchers. We are very excited to have him here!
June 18 – Alicia had an awesome trip to Utah for her poster presentation at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference. Her poster title was “Role of cell-cell interaction in tensional homeostasis.”
June 17 – Congratulations to Han for passing her PhD oral qualification exam! As a rite of passage, it’s great to have that out of the way. She’s now official :)
May 7 – A big, well-deserved round of applause for Liz. She was awarded the BME Best Dissertation Award, which goes to one graduating PhD recipient per year.
May 1 – Han Xu is the newest member of the Matrix Mechanotransduction Lab. Welcome Han! She is co-advised by Dimitrije Stamenovic.
January 1 – Michael became the Associate Chair for Graduate Programs in the BME department.
2014
October 23 – Matt and Brant both had poster presentations at BMES in San Antonio. It is always fun to connect with colleagues and friends at BMES.
August 6 – Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Canovic for successfully defending her thesis!
August 5 – Matt Jacobsen successfully defended his Ph.D. prospectus. Congratulations Matt!
August 1 – Congratulations to Liz and Michael in addition to collaborators Tom, Paul, and Dimitrije for publishing their in Journal of Biomechanics.
E.P. Canović, D.T. Seidl, P.E. Barbone, M.L. Smith, D. Stamenović. 2014. Stiffness versus prestress relationship at subcellular length scale. J Biomech. 47: 3222-5.
July 11 – Congratulations to Dimitrije and Michael. Their National Science Foundation proposal entitled “Maintenance of Mechanical Tension for Normal Tissue Function Requires Intercellular Cooperation,” was funded!
June 1 – Congratulations to PI, Prof. Trinkaus-Randall and co-investigator Michael for receiving funding for their grant entitled “Corneal epithelial adhesion: morphology and biochemistry.” It is R01 funding from NIH NEI.
May 2 – Michael has been given the 2014 Award for Teaching Excellence from the BME department. Congrats!
April 28 – Congratulations to Michael, as he was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor.
April 4 – Congratulations also to Dr. Brant Hubbard for successfully defending his thesis! It was a very busy week indeed in the MML.
April 3 – We welcome Alicia Zollinger to the lab! Alicia is a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering.
April 1 – Congratulations to Dr. Sam Polio for successfully defending his thesis! This is no April Fool’s Joke.
January 3 – Our newest paper was just accepted for publication in Integrative Biology! This manuscript describes a micro patterning approach that allows the user to measure traction forces for focal adhesions that are bound to different extracellular matrix ligands.
2013
December 17 – Congratulations to Liz, as she received the Biomedical Engineering Department’s Paper of the Year Award! This award resulted from her article in Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology.
October 1 – Congratulations to Brant Hubbard and our collaborator, Prof. Nugent, for publishing their article in Matrix Biology!
B. Hubbard, J.A. Buczek-Thomas, M.A. Nugent, M.L. Smith. 2014. Heparin-dependent regulation of fibronectin matrix conformation. Matrix Biol. 34: 124-31.
September 25 – Liz Canović (2 oral presentations) and Sam Polio (poster presentation) head to the Biomedical Engineering Society Conference to present their work, while Prof. Smith will co-chair the Mechanotransduction III session. Please stop by for a visit!
In related news, Liz Canović was awarded a BMES Travel Award for her work. Great job!
September 2 – Congratulations to Sam Polio as his invited book chapter on micropattern traction microscopy was accepted for publication in Methods in Cell Biology!
September 1 – Michael was featured as a “Scientist to Watch” by The Scientist Magazine. Check it out: http://www.the-scientist.
August 26 – Congratulations to Liz, Sam, and collaborators Tom Seidl, Prof. Oberai, Prof. Barbone, and Prof. Stamenović for publishing their article in Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology!
E.P. Canović, D.T. Seidl, S.R. Polio, A.A. Oberai, P.E. Barbone, D. Stamenović, M.L. Smith. 2014. Biomechanical imaging of cell stiffness and prestress with subcellular resolution. Biomech Model Mechanobiol. 13: 665-78.
August 16 – Smit Jain presented his summer research in the lab at the RISE conference in the Life Science and Engineering Building as a conclusion to the program. Thanks for your hard work this summer, and good luck with your future endeavors Smit!
August 14 – Congratulations to Mark Bradshaw as his invited review on fibronectin mechanobiology was accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia!
June 20 – Congratulations to Dr. Mark Bradshaw for defending his thesis!
May 3 – Congratulations to our undergraduate teams presenting today! Diana, Bhumica, Varuna, Jen, and Carolynn! Good luck with your future endeavors.
2012
December 27 – Congratulations to Mark Bradshaw and collaborators Man Ching Cheung and Dan Ehrlich for publishing their article in PLoS Comput. Biol.!
M.J. Bradshaw, M.C. Cheung, D.J. Ehrlich, M.L. Smith. 2012. Using Molecular Mechanics to Predict Bulk Material Properties of Fibronectin Fibers. PLoS Comput. Biol. 8(12): e1002845.
September 27 – This fall, our graduate students will be presenting research at both the Biomedical Engineering Society conference on October 24-27 and the American Society for Matrix Biology conference on November 11-14. Please stop by and chat!
In related news, Sam Polio has been granted a BMES Travel Award for the BMES conference. Great job and keep up the good work!
September 4 – Welcome back to school and welcome to our new senior project teams!
August 29 – Congratulations to Liz Peruski Canovic on passing her prospectus defense. Great job!
August 16 – We’d like to give a goodbye to Katy Rothenberg and wish her the best of luck in her graduate school work at Duke.
August 10 – Lily Wang presented her summer research in the lab at the RISE conference in the Life Science and Engineering Building as a conclusion to the program. Thanks for your hard work this summer Lily!
May 25 – Congratulations to Brant Hubbard for presenting and defending his research at his committee review for the MCBB program.
May 17 – We would like to welcome Matt Jacobsen to the lab! He will be a joint graduate student with Prof. Joyce Wong’s research group. You can find more information on the Biomimetic Materials Engineering Lab here.
May 17 – Congratulations to Sam Polio on passing his prospectus defense. Great job!
May 11 – We would like to congratulate Mark Bradshaw on passing his prospectus defense and moving on to the next step in his PhD candidacy. Great job Mark!
May 4 – The undergraduate senior project groups presented their senior projects today as part of the 27th Annual BME Senior Project Conference. We thank them for their hard work and dedication on their projects throughout the year. The conference proceedings and project abstracts can be downloaded here.
March 15– Michael has been awarded an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award! You can read more about the award here.
2011
October 5 – Mark Bradshaw has published his first article in Biophysical Journal.
M.J. Bradshaw, M.L. Smith. 2011. Contribution of unfolding and intermolecular architecture to fibronectin fiber extensibility. Biophys J. 101(7): 1740-8.
August 22– Samuel Polio and Katy Rothenberg’s first research article from the lab has been accepted and published in Acta Biomaterialia.
S.R. Polio, K.E. Rothenberg, D. Stamenović, M.L. Smith. 2012. A micropatterning and image processing approach to simplify measurement of cellular traction forces. Acta Biomater. 8(1): 82-8.
June 22 – The MML is attending the ASME 2011 Summer Bioengineering Conference. Mark Bradshaw and Sam Polio will be presenting work on their up and coming projects. Look for us in the conference proceedings here.
May – Michael has been given the 2011 Award for Teaching Excellence from the BME department. Congrats!
2010
October 24 – Brant Hubbard and Mark Bradshaw are representing the MML at the 2010 ASMB Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. Check out the meeting program here.
May 30 – We welcome new graduate students Samuel Polio and Elizabeth Peruski to the lab!
May 6 – The first senior projects from the lab were presented as part of the 26th Annual BME Senior Project Conference. We thank Benny and Victor for their hard work over the past years as part of the lab and wish them luck in their future endeavors. The conference proceedings and project abstracts can be downloaded here.
2009
May – We would like to welcome a new graduate student, Brant Hubbard, to the lab!
2008
December – Mark Bradshaw has joined the MML as the first graduate student!
