Translational Microfluidics Laboratory

Congratulations to graduate student Ryan Stack for being awarded an inaugural Lampe Pilot Research grant for his proposal entitled, "An ALI skin-on-chip to model wound healing by tuning collagen III:I ratio." The grant will support his research efforts and training toward an independent research career.

Bill traveled to Baltimore to present recent work by Dr. Doherty and Ryan on the development of tissue-engineered approaches for modeling vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The invited talk at the American Society for Matrix Biology was in a special session focused on arteriopathies and was supported by the Marfan Foundation.

Bill attended the 8th Annual Mid-Atlantic Advanced Biomanufacturing Symposium in Charlottesville to present recent work by Ryan and Maddie on the development of human-derived organ-on-chip technology that leverages cell-derived extracellular matrix hydrogels. It was a fantastic meeting, focused on academic and industry partnership toward real-world impact. Information on the symposium can be found here .

UNC office of technology commercialization recently highlighted the humanized ECM developed by the Polacheck Lab. Shout out to Elizabeth and Ryan for their awesome work pushing this technology forward! More information .

Bill recently joined the scientific advisory board for Jellatech, an innovative startup company founded to revolutionize human protein production. More information here .

Elizabeth is the first PhD student to graduate from the Polacheck Lab. She walked at the departmental commencement on Friday, May 10. Congratulations, Dr. Doherty; we'll miss you!

Elizabeth defended her thesis on Cell-Derived Matrix platforms for microphysiological modeling of Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Congratulations, Dr. Doherty!