People

Our team is multicultural and multidisciplinary with current and former members being drawn from around the globe and with a variety of academic backgrounds including; engineering, veterinary medicine, biochemistry, dental medicine, chemistry, environmental sciences and medicine.

Graduate Students

Lisa Berntsen

Education

B.S. Oklahoma State University (2014) Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University Email Lisa: lmk53@psu.edu Lisa Berntsen earned her bachelor’s degree in Biosystems Engineering from Oklahoma State University.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering with a focus on tissue engineering. Lisa’s research is on fabrication of functional tissues and model systems for studying stem cell differentiation. She is using mesenchymal stem cells with a nanoparticle gene delivery system for spatial and temporal control of differentiation and cell sheets for construction of quasi three-dimensional structures.

Nicholas Alden

Education

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, minor in BME, Virginia Tech (2017)
M.S. Mechanical Engineering with BME Option, Virginia Tech (2018)
Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University

Email: naa5460@psu.edu

Penn State University Current Research – Development of inorganic-based magnetic nanoparticles utilizing thermally labile Diels Alder linker chemistry for the controlled delivery of gene regulating siRNA/miRNA therapeutic payloads in vitro (2D and 3D models) and in vivo (mouse model). The thermally labile linkers undergo the retro-Diels Alder reaction, cleaving due to the heat generated within the magnetic nanoparticles when activated in a radio frequency-driven alternating magnetic field (AMF-RF) at sub-hyperthermia temperatures, allowing for therapeutic payloads to be released in deep tissue targets where light activated nanoparticle systems may be unfavorable.

Yiming Liu

Education

B.S. Chemical Engineering, minor in Biomedical Engineering, (2015)
Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University

Group Alumni

Jonathan Casey, Mohammad Abu-Laban, Anoosha  Forghani, Andre Zanetti, Ammar Qureshi, Corey Landry, Mark Hoppens, Nick Totaro, Joshua Tate, Lekeith Terrell, Emily Hodges