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PhD start year
2016
Award Year
2016
Department/Unit
Chemical & Biomolecular Eng.
Research Advisor(s)
Brendan Harley
Description of Research
Craniomaxillofacial battle injuries display large, complex injury patterns and poor prognosis, with current statistics showing 26% of all battle-injuries sustained by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are craniomaxillofacial. Difficulties associated with donor site morbidity (autologous grafts) as well as high donor-to donor variability (allogenic grafts) motivate efforts to generate tissue engineering solutions.
I am working to improve bone regeneration in these defects by supplementing our existing mineralized collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffolds with various biologically active components to support stem cell recruitment, osteogenic differentiation, and angiogenesis.
Email
ast2@illinois.edu
Research Area
Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine