CEMB Postdocs
Farid Alisafaei, PhD
Dr. Alisafaei continues his postdoctoral studies in the Shenoy Lab (University of Pennsylvania), but is working on other projects.
Joseph Ayariga
The mechanisms, the pathways, the biological networks, every structural beauty, every artistry, every empirical utility, every form and shape that entertains, any that informs and educates are indicative of a mind, the presence of brilliant mind at work, or a footprint of a mind that passed by in some time past. As a scientist, investigating and discovering these intricate web of beauty and functionality is inexplicably fulfilling in its own right, it is the juice that keeps me awake at night, and wakes me up very early in the morning to search, and search and research. I am Joseph Ayariga, currently a Research Associate in Dr. Derrick Dean’s laboratory, hopefully looking forward to a postdoctoral opportunity in the same edifice.
Edward Bonnevie, PhD
Eddie is from the Philadelphia suburbs and obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware. From there, he completed his PhD studies in Engineering at Cornell University, where he focused on orthopaedic tissue mechanobiology and tissue engineering. Since joining the Mauck Lab at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, Eddie has been focusing on connective tissue mechanobiology in the context of fibrosis.
Christina Chen, PhD
Christina is a postoc in the group of CEMB PI Dr. Benjamin Prosser.
Yu Du, PhD
Yu is a postdoc in the group of CEMB PI Dr. Rebecca Wells.
Ze Gong, PhD
Ze Gong is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Shenoy’s Lab. His work focuses on how the dissipative properties of extracellular matrices, such as plasticity, and viscoelasticity, affect cell behaviors. Currently, he is using the insights of chemo-mechanical models to understand the influence of matrix viscoplasticity on invadopodia dynamics and migration of cancer cells.
Kapish Gupta, PhD
I did my PhD from Mechanobiology Institute Singapore under Prof Hanry Yu. In my PhD I investigated the mechanism of pressure driven hepatic lumen contraction. Currently, I am post-doctoral researcher in Rebecca Wells group and working on developing an animal model for biliary atresia.
Haijiao Liu, PhD
Haijiao is a postdoc working with Dr. Dan Huh in the Biolines lab at Penn. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on microengineering of tumor- and fibrosis-on-a-chip models for cellular immunotherapy and drug testing.
Claudia Loebel, MD, PhD
Claudia Loebel is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Jason Burdick at the University of Pennsylvania. She obtained her MD (2011) at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany and completed her PhD (2016) at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) under Professor Marcy Zenobi-Wong and the AO Research Institute under Dr. David Eglin. She has been awarded postdoctoral fellowships by the Swiss National Science Foundation and IBSA Foundation and a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award through the National Institutes of Health. Her research interests are on the development of biomaterial platforms to characterize and uncover the role of nascent microenvironments on cellular function. Currently, her work focuses on developing engineered lung alveolar organoids, aiming to build models of acute and chronic pulmonary diseases.
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dgZKIR4AAAAJ&hl=en
Roger Rowe, PhD
Dr. Roger A. Rowe loves working with teams, learning new science and engineering, and challenging assumptions. He holds a BA degree in physics from Willamette University and BS, MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. An expert in inverse modeling, regularization, viscoelasticity, and 3D tissue culture, he is particularly interested in the independent mechanical contributions of cells and important subcellular structures to the bulk viscoelastic response of tissues. Roger enjoys recreating outdoors with his wife and his labradoodle Yadi.
Emily Scarborough, PhD
Raised in Pocatello, Idaho, Emily was introduced to scientific research during her time as an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Dr. James Shorter, where she studied the role of RNA-binding proteins in neurodegenerative disease. She moved to the University of Washington for her graduate work, using single-molecule biophysics and in vitro reconstitution in the lab of Dr. Trisha Davis to interrogate the mitotic kinetochore-microtubule interface. She returned to UPenn for her postdoctoral studies, where she is currently a member of the Prosser Lab in the Physiology Department, focusing on mechanisms of mRNA transport in cardiac hypertrophy.
Him Shweta, PhD
A wide range of biological and physiological processes are modulated by the capability of the cell to respond and sense to mechanical stress/force, yet these mechanical forces are poorly understood at the molecular scale with molecular specificity. For the intricate details and better understanding of these mechanical forces, I am working on Force-FRET (Forster resonance energy transfer) sensors project, which involves designing and characterization of new Force-FRET probes in solution at single molecule level. These Force-FRET probes will be further incorporated into protein of interest (such as Nesprin and Myosin I) and will be calibrated for its mechanical sensitivity by measuring force vs FRET efficiency using combined optical trap/TIRF microscopy and performing fluorescence lifetime imaging
Pennsylvania
Claire Witherel, PhD
Dr. Claire Witherel currently is a University of Pennsylvania Provost Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Professor Jason Burdick’s lab in the department of Bioengineering. Her research interests include the development of immunomodulatory hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the knee. Prior to joining the Burdick Lab, she completed her PhD at Drexel University advised by Professor Kara Spiller studying innate immune-stromal cell crosstalk in the context of biomaterial-mediated fibrosis. Outside of the lab, Claire enjoys being a scientific mentor and teacher to undergraduate and graduate students, actively participating in various professional societies and communities (BMES, SFB), spending time doing all things outdoors with her two dogs and husband, or trying to PR her SBD.
Faculty from a diverse array of institutions and scientific backgrounds, all contributing to research in mechanobiology.
Staff support research, education, and diversity missions at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in St. Louis.
Postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates who have found success in many fields, including academia and industry.
