Michelle Teplensky
2026 REU Project: Modifying Nanocarriers to Modulate Release From Hydrogel Research in the Teplensky Lab focuses on engineering nanotechnology to control immunological cell connectivity, processing, and communication by design. In doing so, we elucidate fundamentals about cellular events and leverage this knowledge to develop improved therapeutics and vaccines that can impact the treatment of cancer […]
Targeted Therapeutic Delivery through Modified NanocarriersÂ
Mentors Project Description The ability to programmably deliver immunotherapies is an emerging area of vaccine design as it enables us to manipulate molecules that stimulate the immune system (e.g. proteins, DNA) to make more potent responses. Although nanocarriers used in drug delivery research stabilize the immunogenic molecules they encapsulate and allow for their controlled release, […]
Characterizing Relaxin-2 as a Therapeutic Candidate for Fibrosis
Mentors Project Description Biomaterials are essential tools in biomedical research, providing physiologically relevant environments that support the study of disease mechanisms and the evaluation of therapeutic candidates including relaxin-2 in fibrotic conditions. Using the endogenous hormone relaxin-2, this project will evaluate its therapeutic potential for reducing fibrotic tissue within a uterus-mimicking environment. Throughout this project, […]
Developing Anchoring Methods to Generate and Mature 3D-Engineered Tissues
Mentors Project Description The field of tissue engineering commonly employs post-like 3D mechanical boundaries as a useful way to give cues to the cells for compacting and remodeling the extracellular matrix. These boundaries and anchoring play a key role since they define the shape of the tissue and report forces tissues generate through their deformations. […]
Designing a Soft Bioinspired Grasper for Underwater ManipulationÂ
Mentors Project Description The Morphable Biorobotics Lab at Boston University is developing a bioinspired soft underwater gripper for grasping delicate marine samples. This technology is key to ensuring adaptability in unpredictable environments without inflicting damage to the sample, the environment or the robot itself. This REU project aims to design a soft gripper that encloses […]
Hardware Programming for Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems
Mentors Project Description The student will conduct background research on hardware programming and will build an all-electrical setup for precision measurement of an electro-mechanical resonator. The student will be provided with relevant hardware and software, including FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) boards, their corresponding IDEs (integrated development environment), and other pieces of electronics. The student […]
Multimaterial 3D Printing of Multifunctional Materials
Mentors Project Description The Additive Assembly Laboratory (AAL) at BU has a variety of active projects that focus on multimaterial 3D printing of multifunctional materials, ranging from 4D printing (3D printing materials that change shape over time in response to a stimulus – time being the fourth axis), 3D printed optics, robots, soft electronics, and […]
Chloe Kekedijan
Chloe Kekedijan is a graduate student in the Additive Assembly Laboratory. Previous REU/RET Projects include: Designing Activators and Monomers for 3D Printed Chemically Coalescing Liquid Metal Polymer Composites (2023)
Nathan Frey
Dr. Nathan Frey was a graduate student in the Sharifzadeh Lab. Previous REU/RET Projects include: Computational Design of Organic Semiconductors (2016)
Masha Kamenetska
The Kamenetska research group develops and uses novel single molecule nano-manipulation, detection and spectroscopy techniques to understand and control how the structure of the intermolecular interface affects function in biological and man-made devices. Previous REU/RET Projects Include: Develop a PCR Protocol for Preparing “sticky end” DNA Handles for Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy Measurements (2024)