Research

Our lab interests are interdisciplinary in nature, integrating tools and concepts from biomaterials engineering, nanotechnology, and cell biology. Our current efforts focus on the development of in vitro platforms to assess nanoparticle toxicity and for cancer cell sorting. We are also interested in the design and development of hydrogel composites for applications in bioengineering.

Graduate students: Amy Mongersun, Scott Fukuoka
Undergraduate students:  Eva Bouzos, Marcus Kraus 
Alumni: Matthew Blanco (SCU), Andrew Chang (Two Pore Guys), Smritee Dadhwal (VA Palo Alto), Jared Hara (UH), Cade Ito (UNC Chapel Hill), Jeffrey Kunkel (Amyris), Steven Long (Genentech), Carlos Medina (UCSD), Kalpith Ramamoorthi (Life Technologies), Mark-Phillip Pebworth (UCSF), Sonette Steczina (SCU), Josergio Zaragoza (Genentech)

 

• Dr. Asuri was appointed as the Director of BioInnovation and Design Lab that aims to partner with industry to transform domestic and global health.
• Dr. Asuri's petition for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor has been approved and will become effective September 2017.
• Andrew Chang and Scott Fukuoka presented their research findings at the 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting held at San Francisco, CA.
• Amy Mongersun's paper describing the development of droplet microfluidic platforms for the determination of lactate release in cancer cells was accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry (2016).
• Smritee's, Carlos's, and Sonette's paper describing the roles of matrix properties on cell responses to cytotoxins was accepted for publication in Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2015).
• Josergio's, Nasim's, Victor's, Andrew's, and Matt's paper describing the effects of nanoparticles on hydrogel mechanical and thermal properties was accepted for publication in PLOS One (2015).
• Dr. Asuri won second place in the KEEN 2015 Winter Conference poster session: Bioengineering design and innovation: teaching an entrepreneurial mindset to undergraduate bioengineers.