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JOYCE Y. WONG, PhD

Dr. Wong is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University. She is also the Inaugural Director of ARROWS, Office of the Provost, focused on promoting women in STEM at BU. She is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), and the Controlled Release Society (CRS). In 2019 she led Boston University's AAAS SEA Change (STEM Equity Achievement) Bronze Award. She is the 2020 recipient of the Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for Basic Research.

RESEARCH FOCUS: We develop biomaterials to detect and treat disease.

CURRENT PROJECTS: vascular tissue engineering for pediatric cardiovascular disease; theranostics for post-surgical adhesions; biomaterials for maternal and child health.

RECENT LEADERSHIP ROLES: President, AIMBE 2022-2024; NIBIB National Advisory Council Member 2023-

CURRENT PERSONNEL

STAFF

Dr. JoAnn Buczek-Thomas 

PhD trainees

Isabella Claure, BME
Matthew Geib, MSE
Christine McKee, BME
Sebastian Naranjo, BME
Emily Schwartz, MCBB
Hanrong (Belle) Ye, BME

MS Thesis trainees

Sydney Marchando, BME

BS trainees

Nicole Ostrovsky, BME
Alisha Ragatz, BME
Hailey Hallenberg, BME

MS/MD trainees

Simrita Dhulekar, BME
Ana Gushken, MED
Camille Nimmer-Guentner, BME
Chisom Orakuwe, BME
Alexandra Piñeiro, BME
Benjamin Siegel, BME

WONG LAB ALUMNI/AE

Wong Lab researchers have gone on to positions in academia, industry, government, and the medical profession. Listed below are the first position of alumni/ae after they left the lab. 

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

Olukemi Akintewe, Instructor/Lecturer, Univ of South Florida, Dept. of Medical Engineering
Elaine Lee, Assistant Professor, BU School of Medicine
Graciela Mohamedi, Adjunct Lecturer, Physics, BU
Yoonjee Park, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati
Brett Isenberg, Biomedical Researcher, Draper Laboratories
Christopher Sucato, Blue Stream Laboratories
Ragnhild Whitaker, Postdoc, Univ. of Tromso, Norway
Kristen LaFlamme, Medical Writer, MedErgy Marketing, Inc.
Jennie Leach, Assistant Professor, Univ Maryland, Baltimore County
Xin Brown, Lab Manager, Biointerface CORE Facility, BU/BME
Padmavathy Rajagopalan, Postdoc, Massachusetts General Hospital

PHD STUDENTS

Gwendolyn Hoffmann, Scientist I, Sarepta Therapeutics, Co-advisor, Michael Smith, PhD
    "Mechanically Active and Tunable Extracellular Matrix Fibers"

Catherine Gormley, Novel Delivery Technologies Postdoctoral Fellow, Novartis (NIBR)
    "Targeted Microbubbles as Ultrasound Contrast Agents for Monitoring Post-Surgical Abdominal Adhesions" 

Jin Yu, Associate Scientist, Bristol Myers Squibb
    "Developing Superparamagnetic Nanoparticle  (SPION) Systems with Tunable Colloidal Stability and Magnetic Properties" 

Cari Meisel, Director of Research and Development, NanoTomer, Inc.
     "Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Early Detection of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease"

George Kwong, Scientist I, Invicro, Co-advisor, Darrell Kotton, MD
     "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Reporter Systems for Smooth Muscle Cell Sheet Engineering" 

Erin Roberts, Engineer, Novoheart, Co-advisor, Sitaram Emani, MD
     "Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cell Sheets: Motivation for Bio-MEMS Device to Create Patient Matched Myocardial Patches"

Nicholas Rim, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Novartis
     " Micropatterned Cell Sheet as an Alternating Building Block for Biomimetic Vascular Patch Application"

Matthew Jacobsen, AIMBE/FDA Fellow, Co-advisor, Michael Smith, PhD
     "Peptide Processing via Silk-inspired Spinning Enables Assembly of Multifunctional Protein Alloy Fibers"
Laura Blaha, Postdoctoral Scientist, Biogen, Co-advisor, Mario Cabodi, PhD
     "A Microfluidic Platform to Examine Competition in Soluble Signaling in the Extravasation Microenvironment"
Christopher Hartman, Process Engineer, Manufacturing Technology, Bristol-Myers Squibb
     "The Role of Extracellular Matrix Composition in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Durotaxis"

Chentian Zhang, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Co-advisor, Mario Cabodi, PhD
     "Microfabricated systems for studying cancer metastasis"

Jaeyun Kim, ROKIT
     "Enzymatically degradable hydrogel platform for cell sheet engineering"

Daniel Backman, United Therapeutics Corporation
     "The Biomechanics of Aligned Cell Sheets for Arterial Tissue Engineering" 

Tuan Pham, Consultant, Simon-Kucher & Partners
     "Early detection and treatment strategies for vulnerable plaque detection" 

Raphael Yao, Researcher, Academia Sinica, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Taipei, TAIWAN
     "The Effects of Mechanical Stimulation on Controlling and Maintaining Mesenchymal Stem Cell
Differentiation into Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells"

Michelle Kinahan, Science Editor, JoVE
     "Tunable Silk: Using Microfluidics to Fabricate Silk Fibers with Controllable Properties and Investigate Sequence-Structure-Property Relationships"

Matthew Walker, clinical trials manager
     "Development of Novel Approaches For The Study Of Cellular Migration and Durotaxis"

Olga Sazonova, Postdoc, Stanford University, Co-advisor, Matthew Nugent, PhD
     "Cell-cell interactions and ECM presentation mediate the effects of substrate stiffness on vascular smooth muscle cell behavior"

Corin Williams, Postdoc, Tufts University
     "Controlling cell shape, organization, and behavior: Towards the development of vascular patches that recapitulate native artery structure and function"

Wynter J. Duncanson, Postdoc, Harvard University, Co-advisor, Robin Cleveland, PhD
     “Targeted polymer ultrasound contrast agents for molecular imaging”

Kelley Burridge, Postdoc, Duke University
     “Targeted drug delivery: Effects of grafted polyethylene glycol on ligand-receptor binding under flow”

Sooyoung Kim, UCSF Dental School Residency Program in Endodontics
     “Impact of substrate stiffness on vascular smooth muscle cell behavior: A comparison of uniform and gradient substrate stiffness”

Jeffrey Jacot, Postdoc, UC San Diego
     “Multiscale analysis of arterial bypass remodeling: Mechanical characterization and influence of endothelial injury on vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation”

MS STUDENTS

Colleen McCarthy, Engineer I -Process Development, Moderna
    " Fibrin Targeting Microbubbles for the Detection of Nascent Surgical Adhesions"

Elizabeth Marr, PhD candidate, Tufts University, Co-advisor: Brett C. Isenberg, PhD
    "Development of an in vitro model to study the impact of substrate strain on uterine smooth muscle cell hypertrophy"

Marissa McPhillips, Analyst, Axiom Healthcare Strategies, Co-advisor: Xuemei Zhong, PhD
    " A biomedical science and engineering approach to developing SPION-based nanoparticle systems for rare immune cell isolation"

Christine McKee, Form Labs
    "Tissue engineered pediatric patches: Bioprinting structured collagen to mimic the mechanical properties of native blood vessels"

Jocelyn Davee, Medical Device Research Engineer, Boston Children's Hospital
    "NHANES: PFAS exposure in pregnant women on the basis of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status"

Adam Selsman, Research Scientist, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)
    "Development of Crimped Collagen Fibers for Vascular Tissue Engineering"

Jian Yu, PhD candidate, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
    "Optimization of filtration properties of a dialyzer membrane"

Peter Hsi, Draper Laboratories
    "Modeling Bilayer Cell Sheet Mechanical Behavior with Finite Element Analysis "

Anna Kalmykov, PhD candidate, Carnegie Mellon University
     "Flexible electronic substrates to deliver electromechanical stimuli to regenerative cardiac patches"

Carl Beigie, Astra Zeneca

David Li, PhD candidate, Carnegie Mellon University
     "Biomimetic Modifications to Microfluidic Silk Spinning"

Chian Yang, Energesis Pharmaceuticals, Co-advisor: Darrell Kotton, MD
     "Derivation of purified smooth muscle cells from mouse induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells"

Tatiana Laivins, Merck, staff scientist
     "A pulsatile bioreactor for pediatric cardiovascular tissue culture”

Jared Smith, MD student at the University of Miami
     “Characterization and toxicity assessment of PEGylated iron oxide nanoparticles”

Adam Luce, BU Medical School, MD student
     “The fabrication and characterization of novel monodisperse microbubbles for molecular imaging and targeted drug delivery”

Graham Houtchens, Claros Diagnostics, scientist
     “Multiphase microemulsions using microfluidic flow focusing”

Emmanouela Filippidi, NYU Physics PhD candidate
     “Controlled biopolymer assembly in microfluidic devices”

Sumona Sarkar, Drexel BME PhD candidate, Co-advisor: Tejal Desai, PhD
     “Fabrication of a layered micro-structured tissue construct for vascular tissue engineering applications” 

Michael Figa, Bind Biosciences, Inc., scientist
     “Development, characterization and optimization of novel lipid-polymer micro and nanoparticle targeted delivery vehicles”

Michael Foster, Arthocare, Inc., engineer
     “Microgrooves dominate cyclic strain response of vascular smooth muscle cell orientation”

Christianne Gaudet, BrainLAB, engineer
     “Effect of ligand concentration on cell-generated traction stresses”

Mark Hennessy, SPARTA, Inc., engineer
     “Effect of substrate adhesivity on cell-generated traction stresses”

VISITING RESEARCHERS

Damien Calvet, Patent firm, Montreal, Canada
Keiko Ookawa, Assistant Professor, Univ of Tsukuba, Japan
Hiroshi Nomura, MD, Okinawa JAPAN

VISITING STUDENTS

Matthew Robinson, Duke University
Katrin Schorsch, Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research of Dresden, GERMANY
Teresa Eichinger, Ludwig-Maximillians University, Munich, GERMANY
Esther Amstad, ETH-Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Marie-Laure Hisette, CNRS Strasbourg, FRANCE
Yukiko Tsuda, University of Tsukuba, JAPAN
Sarah Koester, University of Ulm, GERMANY