Sharvari Apte
Sharvari worked in the Chen Lab with graduate student mentor, Xining Gao. During this project, her lab partnered with Harvard Medical. Sharvari did a lot of cell work with cardiomyocytes and aimed to create a 2D assay that normalizes the heart cells in a high-throughput manner. Watch below to hear more about Sharvari’s REU experience!
Rafaela Frota
In 2019, Rafaela worked across the Chen Lab and Eyckmans Lab focusing on better understanding Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, a heart condition affecting up to 500,000 in the United States and contributing to a leading cause of sudden death.
Lea Hebert
Lea worked in the Tissue Microfabrication Lab under PI Christopher Chen on post-heart attack healing of the heart through engraftments. The topic of her project was “Characterization of Cardiomyocyte Integration within an In Vitro Engraftment Platform”. Learn more about Lea and her work below!
Akhila Johny
Akhila worked in the Chen Lab controlling mass transport in organ-on-a-chip devices. She created a profusion system to feed media or nutrients to the cells in the device over a longer period of time. Learn more about Akhila’s REU experience below!
Charles Knight
Charles worked on the Lab on a Chip project that is working on microchips that will eventually be used to help repair heart tissue. He went on to work as a computer scientist at the US Department of Defense. Learn more about Charles and his work below!
Madison Nieves
Madison worked in the Chen Lab on a project called Characterizing SynNotch Receptors for Improved Cardiac Regeneration. She took synthetic notch receptors, synNotch, and introduce them into human endothelial cells. Learn more about Madison’s REU experience below!
Shola Onissema-Karimu
Shola Onissema-Karimu was a CELL-MET REU for two years. First she worked in the Chen Lab focusing on vasculogenesis, or the growth of blood vessels. The following summer, she was a REU participant at the Lahann Lab at the University of Michigan where she demonstrated the ability to produce alignment in engineered ECMs using novel polymer […]
Domenica Passariello
Domenica Passariello participated in two CELL-MET summer research experiences. First, she worked in the Chen Lab researching cardiomyocytes during the summer of 2018. The following summer, she went to the Baker Lab studying electrospinning DexMA fibers on the micro tug devices and measuring the tension of the fibers against the pillars.
Nico Pedroncelli
In 2021, Nico Pedroncelli participated in the Chen Lab making microtissues out of different cell types and collagen. He investigated the roles of different extracellular matrix proteins deposited from various stromal cells in microtissue wound models to better understand the mechanisms of wound healing and tissue formation. Learn more about Nico and his work below!
Genevieve Vega
Genevieve worked on “Assessment of culture substrate functionalization in an inducible border zone culture platform” in the Tissue Microfabrication Lab under PI Christopher Chen. The project focused on understanding communications between border zone cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts; and improving upon the integration of cardiomyocytes engraftments.