Speaker: Dr. Gulden Camci-Unal, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract: Regeneration of tissues damaged due to disease, trauma, degeneration, and aging represents a major medical need. Although surgical replacement can be performed to address this issue, insufficient number of donors limits the applicability of the approach. There is an unmet demand for development of tissue replacements. My work at the interface of biomaterials and bioengineering has made important contributions in generation of engineered biomaterial platforms through my multidisciplinary research background. To achieve my research goals, I use diverse tools from chemistry, cell biology, materials science, engineering, and medicine. In this seminar, I will talk about the functional biomaterials that we developed using unconventional approaches to generate tissue-mimetics for clinical applications. We developed multicellular and compartmentalized scaffolds for regenerative engineering, hydrogel-based platforms for personalized medicine, bioactive scaffolds for template-guided biomineralization, oxygen-generating biomaterials for tissue repair, micro/nanoparticle-reinforced hydrogels and origami-inspired approaches for bone tissue engineering, and hydrogel-based stem cell delivery approaches. I will also talk about my lab’s expertise on developing point of care (POC) diagnostic platforms for detection of pathogenic diseases (viral and bacterial), health conditions, forensic applications, and testing for environmental reagents. My lab’s research projects cover a broad range of applications including understanding fundamental biology to developing disease models for personalized medicine, tissue repair and regeneration, and rapid POC diagnostics. The overarching goal of my research is to improve human health and quality of life.
Bio: Dr. Gulden Camci-Unal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her current research interests include design and implementation of engineered biomaterials for regeneration of tissues, unconventional materials and medical devices for personalized medicine, and low-cost point of care diagnostics. Her research has been supported by the NIH, NSF, US Army, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), American Heart Association (AHA), and Phase 1 and Phase 2 SBIR and STTR grants.
Dr. Camci-Unal’s research and teaching achievements include various awards such as the Robert and Gail Ward Endowed Professorship (2020, 2021, 2022), University of Massachusetts Lowell Teaching Excellence Award, Iowa State University Teaching Excellence Award, Runner-Up for the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) $200K Challenge (2019, 2020), Wakonse Fellowship, Chevron-Phillips Award, Procter&Gamble Fellowship, and finalist for BioFlux Innovation Award.
Her research has resulted in 85+ papers, 80+ conference abstracts, and 10+ patent applications so far. Her work has been published in various high impact journals such as Matter, Trends in Biotechnology, Bioactive Materials, Advanced Materials, Nature Asia Materials, JACS, Biomaterials, and Lab on a Chip. She is an Associate Editor for Bioactive Materials, and an Editorial Board member of Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group), PLoS One, Gels, Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine, International Journal of Bioprinting, and Micromachines.
Webinar: https://iastate.zoom.us/j/93059039343?
passcode: 987654