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Group Picture

(Top Left to Top Right): Koji Foreman, Douglas Chang, James Rolland, Sean Palcek (PI), Andy Zhang, Bill Ding, Aaron Simmons,
(Bottom Left to Right): Fathima Shabnam, Hope Holt, Abigail Cordiner, Soniya Tamhankar, Austin Feeney, Sarah Boutom

Principal Investigator

  • Sean Palecek
    Email: sppalecek@wisc.edu
    Education
    - Ph.D in Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    - M.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
    - B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware.

Post-doctoral Research Associates

  • Hope Holt
    Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, blood brain barrier
    Email: hholt@wisc.edu
    Education
    - Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, University of South Carolina
    - B.S. Chemical Engineering, Tennessee Technological University

Graduate Students

  • Aaron D. Simmons
    Research Interests: hPSC-derived cardiomyocyte differentiation/maturation; metabolism; mitochondria
    Email: adsimmons2@wisc.edu
    Education
    - M.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Oklahoma - Norman, OK
    - B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Oklahoma - Norman, OK
  • Bill Ding
    Research Interests: Induced pluripotent stem cells, blood brain barrier
    Email: ding52@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Feifan Du
    Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, blood-brain barrier
    Email: fdu3@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.Ch.E. (Bachelor of Chemical Engineering), University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
    - B.S. in Computer Science, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Sarah Boutom
    Research Interests: blood-brain barrier modeling with human pluripotent stem cells; brain vascularization/BBB development
    Email: boutom@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. in Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Fathima Shabnam
    Research Interests: cardiomyocyte differentiation, metabolomics
    Email: shabnam@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. in Chemical Engineering, minor in Bioengineering - University of Pittsburgh
  • Douglas Chang
    Research Interests: Antifungal α/β-peptides, polyelectrolyte multilayer coatings
    Email: dhchang2@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Soniya Tamhankar
    Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, blood-brain barrier
    Email: soniya.tamhankar@wisc.edu
    Education
    - M.S. in Biotechnology, Pennsylvania State University
    - B.Tech in Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
  • Austin Feeney
    Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, cardiomyocyte differentiation, metabolism
    Email: afeeney@wisc.edu
    Education
    - M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    - B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • James Rolland
    Research Interests: mRNA delivery via lipid nano particles; stem cell biology; genetic manipulation of stem cells
    Email: jrrolland@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. in Biochemistry, Valparaiso University - Valparaiso IN
  • Andy Zhang
    Research Interests: Induced pluripotent stem cells, cardiomyocyte differentiation, metabolism, mitochondria
    Email: xzhang2555@wisc.edu
    Education
    - M.Phil. in Biomedical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
    - B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Abigail Cordiner
    Research Interests: Induced pluripotent stem cells, cardiomyocyte differentiation, Genetic Engineering, Synthetic Biology
    Email: cordiner@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. in Chemical Engineering, NC State University
  • Fatemeh Yaghoobi
    Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, blood-brain barrier
    Email: yaghoobihash@wisc.edu
    Education
    - B.S. Chemical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Iran

Current Undergraduates

  • Shreeya Rajesh
  • Dhvani Trivedi
  • Maxwell Herman
  • Alexandra Steinberg
  • Will Friedrich
  • Nate Schlueter
  • Tessa Christopherson