Two faculty members within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Amy Brock and Dr. Janet Zoldan, have been promoted to associate professor. Both have made significant impacts on the department's teaching and research efforts.
L-R: Amy Brock and Janet Zoldan.
Amy Brock’s research focuses on understanding cancer as a complex biological system in order to gain insights into problems such as chemotherapy resistance. Her lab developed a novel cell barcoding platform to analyze heterogeneity of individual cells that make up tumors. The platform provides a valuable tool for applications to further personalized medicine and effective drug targeting.
Brock joined the university in 2013 and has been recognized as a 2019 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening Innovation finalist. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Texas 4000. She received her B.S. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in biomedical and biological sciences from Harvard University.
Janet Zoldan uses human-induced pluripotent stem cells as a model system to explore underlying tissue formation processes by integrating and applying materials and stem cell bioengineering. Her research focuses on applying human-induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate treatments for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, as well to alleviate the current shortage of donor tissue needed for tissue repair and transplant.
Zoldan joined UT Austin in 2013. She has been recognized with the National Institutes of Health Trailblazer award and was named a 2017 Emerging Investigator from Biomaterials Science. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, and National Institutes of Health. Zoldan received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Hebrew University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in materials engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
