Tissue Engineering Career Conversations

Our latest episode features Dr. Irene de Lázaro, an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Dr. Lázaro leads the NanoBioEngineering for Tissue Reprogramming and Regeneration laboratory at NYU since 2023. Her team investigates the influence of genetic, biochemical, and mechanical signals on cell plasticity, identity, and function. Their...

In our latest episode, we feature Dr. Brooke Coley, a bioengineer and social justice scholar. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). She is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Research Advancing Racial Equity, Justice, and Sociotechnical Innovation Centered in Engineering (RARE J...

In our latest episode, we feature Dr. Elisa Cimetta, an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padua and Principal Investigator of the BIAMET laboratory (Biomedical Applications of Multiscale Engineering Technologies). Dr. Cimetta obtained her Ph. D. from the University of Padua and conducted postdoctoral research at Columbia University, where she co-f...

Our new episode features Dr. Hunter Rogers, Investment Research Analyst at a globally and nationally ranked academic medical center. Prior to this role, Dr. Rogers was an Equity Research Associate with a focus on biotech investment opportunities at William Blair. Previously, Dr. Rogers also served as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Northwestern University. Dr. Rogers has a Bachelor of Enginee...

Our latest episode features Dr. Tomas Gonzalez-Fernandez who started his role as an Assistant Professor at the Bioengineering Department at Lehigh University in 2022. Gonzalez-Fernandez received his PhD in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in 2018 from Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Kelly and Fergal O’Brien. After completing his PhD, Tomas joined the Leach lab...

Our latest episode features Dr. Guellermo Ameer, the Daniel Hale Williams professor of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the McCormick School of Engineering and the Department of Surgery in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. Ameer is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering (CARE). His resear...

Our latest episode features Dr. Kara Spiller, Professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. She is a leader in the biomedical engineering community, known for her passion and focus on building an immunoengineering community within the field. She obtained her Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University, where she also completed her Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2010. In...

In this month’s episode, we are delighted to host Dr. Kelsey Kennedy, a valued consultant at McKinsey & Company. Dr. Kennedy specializes in providing commercial guidance to medical device companies.  Additionally, she is a co-founder of OncoRes Medical, a start-up that develops intraoperative imaging technology to provide surgeons with realtime assessment of tissue microstructure. During this...

Our new episode features Dr. Misti Ushio, Managing Partner at Digitalis Ventures. Prior to joining Digitalis Ventures, Dr. Ushio was the founding CEO of TARA Biosystems, which was acquired by ValoHealth in 2022. TARA Biosystems was spun out of Prof. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic’s lab at Columbia University and Prof. Milica Radisic’s lab at the University of Toronto. TARA developed physiologically rele...

Our latest episode features Chris Ghadban, Chief of Staff at Alix Ventures. He joined the company as a Venture Follow in the summer of 2021 and has been working as Chief of Staff since February 2022. Mr. Ghadban is focused on techbio platforms and on supporting early-stage life science startups. Prior to Alix Ventures, Chris was a Senior Strategy & Innovation Associate with AstraZeneca’s Emerg...

Our new episode features Dr. Jennifer Levin Carter, Managing Director at Sandbox Industries and Blue Venture Fund. She joined the Fund in early 2021. Prior to Sandbox Industries and Blue Venture Fund, Dr. Carter was a Managing Director of JLC Precision Health Strategies. She has been a Board member, advisor, and consultant in multiple precision medicine, healthcare services, digital health, and li...

Our eighth episode features Dr. Milica Radisic, Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is internationally renowned for shaping a new field of organ-on-a-chip engineering and developing new biomaterials that promote healing and attenuate scarring. She obtained her Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University, and her Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT. In this episo...

Our seventh episode features Dr. Carlo Rizzuto, Managing Director at Versant Ventures. He joined the firm as a Principal in 2012 and has been promoted to Managing Director in 2022, where he is still involved in building and investing in a number of Versant’s portfolio companies. Prior to Versant Ventures, Dr. Rizzuto was at Novartis where he led global product development teams advancing innovativ...

Our sixth episode features Dr. Tejal Desai, currently Deborah Cowan Endowed Professor and former chair of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and the incoming Dean of Engineering at Brown University. She received her B.S. from Brown University in biomedical engineering in 1994 and was awarded a Ph. D. in bioengineering jointly f...

This episode’s conversation is with Dr. Brian Aguado an Assistant Professor at UCSD. Dr. Aguado discusses his journey to his current position highlighting the influence of key mentors and his background which have shaped him not only as a researcher but also as an educator and advocate for an inclusive STEM community. Throughout the conversation we learn about what it takes to make it through the...

Our fourth episode features Dr. Jennifer Munson, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Virginia Tech, the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, and an affiliate member of the Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Institute. She received her Ph. D. from Georgia institute of Technology in 2011 and completed her postdoctoral training at th...

This episode features Dr. Nina Tandon, CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, the world’s first company growing living human bones for skeletal reconstruction. Dr. Tandon has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union, a Master’s in Bioelectrical Engineering from MIT, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. She also received an MBA from Columbia University, which sh...

Our second episode features Dr. Šeila Selimović, Program Manager at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the US Department of Health and Human Services. After her PhD training in condensed matter physics at Brandeis University and a postdoctoral fellowship in tissue engineering at Harvard Medical School / Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Dr. Selimović joined the...

The podcast’s inaugural episode features Dr. Caitlin Czajka, Senior Editor at Science Translational Medicine. The conversation follows her career’s trajectory ending in a not-so-expected career as an editor at a scientific journal. From childhood inspirations and STEM-related summer camps to graduate school and a pandemic, Dr. Czajka describes her journey to the field of scientific communications....