Engler Lab

May 2021: Congratulations to Evan Masutani for receiving a Radiological Society of North America fellowship!

April 2021: Check out our new podcast episode featuring the work of Alex Whitehead. [AJP Podcast].

March 2021: Congratulations to So Youn Moon for passing her qualifying exam and advancing to the PhD program!

January 2021: Congratulations to former PhD students Andrew Holle and Jennifer Young for starting their faculty jobs at the National University of Singapore!

December 2020: Check out a new publication from the Engler lab in J Cell Science.

September 2020: Congratulations to Afsheen Banisadr for his successful PhD thesis defense!

August 2020: Welcome new PhD students Miranda Barraza from UC San Diego and Alyssa Holman from Cornell University.

July 2020: The Engler lab welcomes Dr. Katherine Birmingham to the lab from her predoctoral training at the Georgia Tech.

April 2020: Congratulations to Pranjali Beri for her successful PhD thesis defense!

January 2020: Check out 2 new publications from the Engler lab in Cancer Research and Advanced Healthcare Materials.

December 2019: Congratulations to Natalie Kirkland, Aileena Nelson, and Evan Masutani for receiving American Heart Association Fellowships.

August 2019: Congratulations to Evan Masutani (MSTP student) for receiving an NHLBI T32 fellowship.

August 2019: Welcome new PhD students Erin LaMontagne from UC Santa Cruz and Gisselle Gonzalez from the University of Arizona.

June 2019: The Engler lab welcomes Dr. Natalie Kirkland to the lab from her predoctoral training at the University College London.

March 2019: We're excited to announce the renewal of our NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The site was renewed for years 10-12!

February 2019: Check out 4 new publications from the Engler lab, including 2 new patient-derived stem cell papers in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

January 2019: The Engler lab has received new R01 funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to continue our work to study aging's effects on heart function using fruit flies as a unique model system (surprisingly with significant similarity to humans).

December 2018: Congratulations to Aditya Kumar and Chris Plunkett for successful PhD and MS thesis defenses, respectfully.

November 2018: The Engler lab welcomes visiting scholar Paloma Campos as well as celebrates our annual "Labsgiving."

October 2018: Check out the publications from the Engler lab in Nature Reviews Materials [paper].

August 2018: Check out 5 new publications from the Engler lab, including a new mechanobiology paper in Nature [paper].

May 2018: The Engler lab has received new funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to develop new team-based bioengineering design courses that expose students to clinical medicine during problem identification.

April 2018: The Engler lab has received new funding from the National Cancer Institute and the Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program to develop a new adhesion device to isolate and detect highly metastatic cancer cells.

December 2018: Congratulations to Dr. Engler on the birth of his new son, Charlie. That makes 3 babies this year for the lab. We've been very "re"productive!

February 2018: Congratulations to Dr. Jesse Placone for the birth of his new daughter, Kyla Patricia.

October 2017: Welcome new PhD students Evan Masutani from Stanford, Alexander Whitehead from VCU, and Benjamin Yeoman from SDSU.

July 2017: Congratulations to Dr. Cassi Happe for the birth of her new son, Gus.

July 2017: Congratulations to Peter Min for his successful master’s thesis defense!

July 2017: Check out two new publications from the Engler lab in MBoC’s special issue on force in cells (links in the publications page).

June 2017: Congratulations to Dr. Cassi Happe for winning the Schulman Early Career Research Award in Cardiology from the Division of Cardiology! Congratulations also to Aditya Kumar for being named an AHA Predoctoral Fellow.

May 2017: Congratulations to Ayla Sessions for her successful PhD thesis defense!

March 2017: Welcome new masters student Christopher Plunkett and PhD student Bibiana Matte.

October 2016: Welcome new masters student Jaimie Mayner from UCLA.

August 2016: Congratulations to Jesse Placone who was awarded an National Institutes of Health NRSA fellowship.

August 2016: Welcome new postdoc Dr. Jesse Placone from Johns Hopkins and UMD.

June 2016: Congratulations to Evan Teng for his appointment as an NHLBI predoctoral trainee. The Engler lab has also received new funding from the National Cancer Institute to investigate how the slow change in stiffness of the extracellular environment drives epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

May 2016: 4 new papers just published by Engler lab members. Check them out!

April 2016: Congratulations to Pranjali Beri and Afsheen Banisadr for their NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awards. Former rotation students Anthony Vu and Anastasia Gromova also were awarded NSF fellowships.

April 2016: The Engler lab welcomes new graduate students Evan Teng and Pranjali Beri!

March 2016: The Engler lab announces new National Science Foundation funding for a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Check out the application site here.

February 2016: Congratulations to Cassandra Happe who was awarded an National Institutes of Health NRSA fellowship.

January 2016: The Engler lab welcomes Gus William Happe, son of postdoc Dr. Cassandra Happe, into the world on January 21st! Congratulations to mom and son.

December 2015: More new papers just published by Engler lab members. Check them out!

October 2015: 3 new papers just published by Engler lab members. Check them out!

September 2015: The Engler lab welcomes new bioengineering MS student Peter Min.

June 2015: The Engler lab welcomes new PhD student Afsheen Banisadr to the lab from the BMS program in the School of Medicine.

June 2015: The Engler lab announces a new publication in Science Translational Medicine, a paper in Cell Stem Cells along with 3 other stem cell and biomaterial papers.

May 2015: Congratulations to Cassandra Happe and Ayla Sessions who were both awarded American Heart Association fellowships. Congratulations to Hermes Taylor-Weiner and Jessica Wen for their successful thesis defenses.

March 2015: The Engler lab announces a new publication in Nature Cell Biology along with several other clinical and basic science papers. Congratulations to Gaurav Kaushik for his successful thesis defense.

February 2015: Check out our latest journal cover on skeletal muscle stem cells. Click here

October 2014: Congratulations to Ludovic Vincent for his successful thesis defense.

August 2014: Congratulations to Hermes Taylor-Weiner for being named on of UCSD's 2014-2015 Siebel Scholars.

August 2014: The Engler lab announces a new publication in Nature Materials.

July 2014: Congratulations to Kelsey Thomas for being named a CIRM Pre-Doctoral Fellow. Congratulations also go out to postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gretchen Meyer for starting her faculty position at Washington University in St. Louis.

June 2014: The Engler lab announces 3 new publications listed here. We also welcome in new postdoctoral fellow Dr. Cassandra Weaver to the lab from the University of Pittsburgh.

January 2014: The Engler lab welcomes two new bioengineering PhD students Aditya Kumar (also a new NSF fellow) and Michael Gibbons.

December 2013: Congratulations to our PhD (Jennifer Young and Andrew Holle) graduates this year. Dr. Engler has also been recognized as the 2014 American Society of Matrix Biology Mid-career Award winner.

October 2013: Our outreach with High Tech High, a charter high school in San Diego, on fruit fly genetics, heart function, and longevity was featured in the publication "thisweek@ucsandiego," a newsletter for over 30,000 faculty and staff at UC San Diego. To read more about our efforts, please click here.

October 2013: Please see our latest video describing our translational work with adipose-derived stem cells in muscle, which is funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This work was presented at the Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa.

September 2013: Congratulations to Ludovic Vincent for being named on of UCSD's 5 Siebel Scholars. Congratulations to Gaurav Kaushik as well for winning a Graduate Student Research Award at the annual Biomedical Engineering Society meeting.

July 2013: The Engler lab announces new funding from the Department of Defense to examine how extracellular matrix stiffness directs mammary gland assembly and maintenance.

July 2013: The Engler lab announces many new publications listed here as well as new funding from the National Institute of Aging to investigate heart function and mechanics during aging in fruit flies. Please see our video describing this work as well as our outreach efforts to local high school students.

April 2013: Congratulations to Matthew Ondeck for being named an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

February 2013: The Engler lab announces our latest research feature in Nature Methods here.

November 2012: The Engler lab announces another round of our newest publications listed here, new fellowships for Dr. Alexander Fuhrmann and Gaurav Kaushik, and a new visiting master's student Alice Spenlehauer.

July 2012: The Engler lab announces 3 more of our newest publications listed here as well as new funding from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to investigate the use of adipose-derived stem cells as a cell source for cell-based therapies for muscular dystrophy.

June 2012: Congratulations to our masters (Jennifer Kiang and Xinyi Tang) and PhD (Somyot Chirasatitsin) graduates and our new PhD students Kelsey Thomas and Ayla Sessions.

April 2012: Congratulations are also in order for Dr. Gretchen Meyer for receiving an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes on Health to study the therapeutic role of adipose-derived stem cells in skeletal muscle repair.

December 2011: The Engler lab announces 3 more of our newest publications listed here, including one highlighting the use of our new Matlab-based code to analyze the indentation of soft multi-layered materials. We also are pleased to announce our move to the new Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine building in La Jolla, CA.

September 2011: The Engler lab welcomes postdoc Gretchen Meyer and graduate student Matthew Ondeck to the group and announces 3 more of our newest publications listed here as well as new funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of NIH to investigate how time-dependent hyaluronic acid-based matrix may improve heart remodeling post-infarct.

April 2011: Congratulations to Hermes Taylor-Weiner and Ludovic Vincent for being named 2011 NSF Fellows and Gaurav Kaushik for being named an NHLBI Predoctoral Fellow!

December 2010: The Engler lab announces our newest publication in Biomaterials.

September 2010: The Engler lab welcomes postdoc Alexander Fuhrmann to the group. Congratulations are also in order for Justin Tse for receiving an undergraduate student research award from the Biomedical Engineering Society.

June 2010: Congratulations to Jennifer Young on being awarded an American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship as well as our newest publications come out in Soft Matter and Current Protocols in Cell Biology.

April 2010: Postdoc Yu Suk Choi joins the group. Congratulations are also in order for Justin Tse for winning 1st place in the UCSD Bioengineering Day poster competition and Jennifer Young for being recognized by the Society for Biomaterials for her research contributions to their annual meeting.

March 2010: The Engler Lab was awarded a grant from the Human Fronteirs Science Program in collaboration with Giuseppe Battaglia at the University of Sheffield to develop new nano-patterned materials. The lab also received new funding from the National Institutes of Health to better understand how embryonic stem cells differentiate into endoderm-derived tissues.

December 2009: Jennifer Young's work on cardiomyocytes was featured in the pressbook of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. Check out a description of her work from the ASCB pressbook, UCSD, or the Technology Review. Jerry Tuler also joins us as our new lab manager!

September 2009: We are proud to announce that our lab has been award a 2009 NIH New Innovator Award for our work in matrix biology and adult stem cells. For more details, please read the UCSD press release or the San Diego Union-Tribune.