RESEARCH OVERVIEW:
MACROMOLECULAR-BASED APPROACHES FOR EXCITABLE BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
CURRENT SUPPORT:
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NSF DMR:#2239647, CAREER: Harnessing Dynamic Cell-Scaffold Interactions to Develop Adaptive Biohybrid Systems
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NIH NHLBI: 5R01HL164348; 1R56HL164348, Optically Promoting Cardiac Maturation Using Engineered Peptides; Supplement: 3R01HL164348-01A1S1
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NSF CBET (M. Watanabe, PI; H.A.M. Ardoña, co-PI): #2225624, RECODE:Spatial Engineering of Morphogens for the Reproducible Formation of Cortical Organoids with Arealization
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University of California, Irvine
PREVIOUS SUPPORT:
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UCI MRSEC Seed Grant Program, Directed Self-Assembly of Optoelectronic Peptides on Nanostructured Polymeric Surfaces (06/2021– 05/2022)
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Society of Hellman Fellows (2023–2024)
With the advent of designer materials for various biological applications, there is a growing demand for developing new molecular engineering approaches to achieve unmet material functionalities or properties—matching the increasing complexity of our current biomedical challenges. Contributing to this emerging scientific endeavor, our research team will implement bioinspired approaches for engineering organic materials and their corresponding assemblies to develop appropriate tools and platforms for investigating these biological phenomena at multiple spatial and temporal scales. We are developing macromolecular and bioinspired materials capable of transducing optical, electronic, chemical and mechanical cues, specifically for the following applications:
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Materials for Directing and Modulating Cellular Behavior
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Materials for In Situ Probing of Electromechanical Biological Processes
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Tissue Engineering Towards Modeling Disease Mechanisms and Toxicological Pathways