Emerging Investigators have been highly recommended as early career scientists whose work has made a significant impact to shape and define the future of biomaterials research.
Janet Zoldan, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has been named an Emerging Investigator by Biomaterials Science, a high impact journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Emerging Investigators have been highly recommended as early career scientists whose work has made a significant impact to shape and define the future of biomaterials research.
Zoldan’s research focuses on human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a model system to explore key principles underlying tissue formation processes by integrating and applying materials and stem cell bioengineering. Understanding this process is critical for treating a broad spectrum of pathological conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson’s, and heart failure, as well as alleviating the current shortage of donor tissue necessary for repair and transplant. She is currently focused on developing inter-/intra-cellular microenvironments with tunable physical and chemical signals to understand and control the natural developmental process of iPSCs differentiation.
As part of their Emerging Investigators designation, Biomaterials Science featured a new paper from Zoldan. She and her team have developed a more affordable, less resource-intensive method to create aligned cell sheets beneficial for tissue engineering purposes, specifically for engineering tissues that are anisotropic in function, such as cardiac muscle, nervous tissue, blood vessels, and cartilage. Read more about this new tool that can be used to foster cardiovascular tissue transplantation research.
