Research
My work asks how immune context, stromal state, biomaterial properties, and mechanical forces combine to determine repair fate.
My research centers on a simple but unresolved problem: injured tissues do not merely receive immune, mechanical, and material signals; they interpret those signals through context. The same pathway can support constructive repair in one setting and fibrosis, degeneration, aneurysmal remodeling, or implant failure in another.
I study how immune programs, stromal cells, timing, and tissue state determine repair outcome. A central interest is why pro-repair immune responses require the right context to produce durable regeneration rather than pathological remodeling.
Engineered vascular tissues and biomaterials provide a high-stakes model for studying repair fate. Their success depends not only on biocompatibility, but on how host cells remodel matrix, sense mechanics, respond to inflammation, and integrate with the material over time.
I build and use 3D/ex vivo culture systems, two-photon imaging, SHG/2PEF analysis, tissue mechanics, and immune modulation assays to study repair mechanisms in controlled systems before moving into more expensive and complex in vivo models.
Long-term vision
The long-term goal is to define mechanistic design rules for therapies that guide injured tissues toward durable, functional repair rather than fibrosis or failure.