People

Principal Investigator

Phillip B. Messersmith, Ph.D.
Class of 1941 WWII Memorial Professor
Departments of Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering
Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana
M.S. Bioengineering, Clemson University
B.S. Life Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana
philm(at)berkeley(dot)edu
LinkedIn

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Postdoctoral and Senior Researchers

Subhajit Pal, PhD
Postdoc, Department of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley (2022-Present)
Postdoc (2020-2021), Adolphe Merkle Institute, Switzerland
Ph.D. (2016-2020), University of Fribourg, Switzerland
BS & MS (2010-2015), Visva-Bharati University, India
subhajit.pal(at)berkeley(dot)edu
LinkedIn

Ruhani Sagar, PhD
Ruhani completed her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Chemistry from Panjab University, India. Went on for Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee, where she developed metal-ion responsive liposomes for selective drug delivery applications. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, she focuses on developing new chemical approaches to design biomaterials for tissue regeneration and bio-imaging. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and dancing.
rsagar(at)berkeley(dot)edu

Michael Conboy, PhD

Yanina Bogliotti, PhD

Alexandra Sviercovich, PhD

Zachery Robinson, PhD

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PhD Students

Hannaneh Kabir

Serafina Mei

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Masters Students

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Undergraduate Students

Emma Berman
4th Year | Bioengineering, B.S. University of California, Berkeley
Expected Graduation May 2026
emma.berman(at)berkeley(dot)edu

Esther Chu
4th Year | Bioengineering, B.S. University of California, Berkeley
Expected Graduation May 2026
estherchu04(at)berkeley(dot)edu
LinkedIn

Joaquin Cabrera Caballero

Ariana Chen

Diya Kadadi

Gwendolyn Riley

Natalie Tang

Anna Tran

Jasmine Cao

Neftaly Meza

Sophia Flagg

Anderson Tran

Anish Ayyavoo

Negar Morshedian

Frances Melendres

Steve Hemm

Eva Khorsandi

Karan Malhotra

Deeya Nagi

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Visiting Scholars

Mayuka Ninomiya Kanda

Dan Kim

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Alumni

PhD Alumni
Erika Salzman (PhD MSE, UC Berkeley, 2025)
Cynthia Perez (PhD BIOE, UC Berkeley, 2025)
Nivedina Sarma (PhD MSE, UC Berkeley, 2025)
Kelsey DeFrates (PhD BIOE, UC Berkeley, 2023)
Arianna Avellan (PhD MSE, UC Berkeley, 2023)
Katerina Malollari (PhD ME, UC Berkeley, 2022)
Peyman Delparastan (PhD MSE, UC Berkeley, 2021)
Sally Winkler (PhD BIOE, UC Berkeley, 2020)
Devang Amin (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2018, MD 2020)
Dominic Fullenkamp (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2012, MD 2014)
John Kuang (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2014)
Tadas Sileika (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2014)
Hyun-Ok Ham (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2012)
Kvar Black (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2012)
Carrie Brubaker (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2011)
Lesley Hamming (PhD MSE, Northwestern University, 2010)
Andrea Statz: (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2008)
Marsha Ritter Jones (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2008, MD 2010)
Haeshin Lee (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2008)
Bruce Lee (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2005)
Tor Jensen (PhD ChemE, Northwestern University, 2004, joint w/ W. Miller)
Jeffrey Dalsin (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2004)
Joel Collier (PhD BME, Northwestern University, 2003)
Ranee Stile (PhD BME 2002, secondary advisor; primary advisor K. Healy)
Tracy Belvin (PhD ChemE, Northwestern University, 2002, joint w/ A. Barron)

Postdoc Alumni
Jisoo Shin (2019-2024)
Joakim Engstrom (2019-2022)
Kyueui Lee (2017-2021)
Yiran Li (2017-2019)
Cody Higginson (2016-2019)
Patrick Rühs (2018-2019)
Brylee Tiu (2017-2019)
Jing Cheng (2013-2019)
Dirk Balkenende (2016-2019)
Caroline Sugnaux (2015-2017)
Severin Sigg (2016-2018)
H. Zha (2016-2017)
Rafael Libanori (2016)
Yang Wei (2014-2015)
Patrick Burch (2014-2016)
Suresh Manohar (2010-2014)
Devin Barrett (2010-2014)
Iossif Strehin (2011-2014)
Paula Lopez-Perez (2010-11)
Dong-Keun Lee (2010-2013)
Lihong He (2009-12)
Aaron Lau (2008-2013)
Basak Kayitmazer (2007-2009)
Jing Su (2006-2011)
Zhongqiang Liu (2005-2011)
Jose Rivera (2008-2011)
Hyung-Do Kim (2009-2010)
Harsha Kulkarni (2008-2010)
Kanika Chawla (2006-2009)
Bi-Huang Hu (1999-2009)
Trung Nguyen (2007-2008)
Hermona Pandya (2005-2007)
Bruce Lee (2005)
Simonida Grubjesic (2004-2007)
Yuri Zimenkov (2004-2005)
Jeff Dalsin (2004-2005)
Xiaowu Fan (2003-2006)
Lijun Lin (2002-2004)
Kui Huang (2000-2)
Ranee Stile (2002)
Xiaoping Zhang (1999)
Sonke Svenson (1997-8)
Satya Vallabhaneni (1995-7)

Undergraduate Student Alumni
Connor William Nims, (2023-25)
Isabelle Pummill (2023-24)
Dominic Orion Ramirez (2023-24)
Clarissa Jacobo Hernandez (2023-24)
Aditya Udgaonkar (2022)
Hannah Chen (2022-25)
Esther Chu (2022-25)
Katelyn Dale (2022-24)
Elaine Tong (2022-24)
Griffin Lawrence (2021-22)
Vanessa Lim (2021-23)
Eva Sabine (2020-22)
Athiyya Umar (2019-22)
Kristene Mai (2019-20)
Daniela Franco (2019-20)
Brittany Zhang (2019-21)
Valentin Martchenko (2019-20)
Sasha Demeulenaere (2018-20)
Caroline Sobek (2018-20)
Mason Kellogg (2018-19)
Sarah Spivack (2017-19)
Luis F. Caldera Guzman (2016-17)
Aimee Nguyen (2016-18)
Stephanie Liu (2016-18)
Sunny Xu (2016-19)
Max Ney (2016-19)
Alyse Gonthier (2015-19)
Andrew Kelleghan (2015-16)
Ivander Fnu (2014-15)
Sarah Bhattacharjee (2014-17)
Zhuojun Huang  (2014-17)
Chelsea Fries (2012-13)
Charlie Reis (2011-13)
Jason Guo (2011-13)
Yufei Tian (2011-13)
Rahul Varshney (2010-11)
Sarah Uttal (2010-12)
Christina Fuentes (2010-13)
Michael Kanter (2010-11)
Jin Tao (2010-12)
Grace Bushnell (2010-13)
Antonio Feliciano (2009-10)
Kevin Pukala (2009-10)
David Bieranoski (2009-10)
Erica Pollack (2009-10)
Vijay Raghunathan (2009-10)
David Wu (2009-10)
Steven Lu (2009-10)
Calvin Kwan (2009-10)
Anika Williams (2009-10)
Piotr Maniak (2009-11)
Michael Kharouta (2009-11)
Kelly Luckasevic (2008-9)
Junsung Rho (2007-8)
Mary Richert (2007-8)
Winifred Lo (2007-9)
Kyle Vining (Holmberg) (2007-9)
Mary Beth Holden (2006-7)
Mohd Azman (2006-7)
Dorothea Koh (2005-6) 
June Cha (2005-6)
Sonali Rajan (2004)
Saranya Srinivasan (2004)
Stephanie Sabourin (2004)
Christopher Walsh (2004)
Justin Rohde (2003)
Iossif Strehin (2003-4)
Emre Motan (2003-4)
Mohit Manocha (2003-4)
Matt Keller (2003)
Jonathan Friedstat (2002)
Priti Madhav (2002)
Neha Goel (2002)
Ravi Kacker (2002)
Caren Nguyen (2002)
Nader Varjavand (2002)
Lauren Anderson (2002)
Nicole Eberle (2000)
Steven Jedlinski (2000)
Toni Kwan (2000)
Ryan Williams (2000)
Sweta Modi (1999)
William Murphy (1998)
Sara Lindberg (1998)
Brian Korreck (1998)
Frank Znidarsich (1998)
Steven Starke (1997)
Scott Millard (1997)
Van Nguyen, (1997)
Christian Block (1997)

Visiting Scholar Alumni
Wing-Lok Cheng (2025) KAIST
Enrique Orejas (2024) University of Oslo
Jun Tae Kim (2023) KAIST
Professor Mustafa Arslan (2022-24) Kirklareli University
Tomoko Ogiyama (2021-23) Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.
Alexandra Ramos (2021) University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
Guon Lee (2020) Pohang University of Science and Technology
Gijung Kwak (2019) Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)
Miriam Zintl (2019) Technische Universität Wien
Sun Kim (2018-19) Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)
Jorge G. Padilla Zayas (2018) University of Puerto Rico
Jaime Augusto Santillan Mercado (2018) University of Puerto Rico
Farid Behboodi Sadabad (2017-18) Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Pedro O. Méndez (2017) University of Puerto Rico
Livius Muff (2017) ETH-Zurich
Kyueui Lee (2016-17) KAIST
Professor Suhair Sunoqrot (2016-17) Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan
Jiafu Shi (2016-17) Tianjin University
Professor Haeshin Lee (2016-17) KAIST
Professor Wenjian Wu (2016) National Defense University
Iho Kamimura (2015-16) Mitsubishi Chemical
Professor Xi Xie (2015-16) Hainan University
Chao Liang (2015-17) National Defense University
Professor Yi Cao (2015) Nanjing University
Professor Siwei Liu (2014-15) Sun Yat-sen University
Professor George Mogami (2014) Tohoku University
Sebastian Giessler (2014) University of Oslo
Haowei Yang (2013) Tsinghua University
Gali Fichman (2013) Tel-Aviv University
Reza Nejadnik (2012) Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Pamela Walsh (2012-13), Lecturer, Queens University Belfast
Professor Yusuke Arima (2012-13), Kyoto University
Diana Alves (2012), Universidade do Minho
Professor Hyuk Sang Yoo (2010-11), Kangwon National University
Jisuk Choi (2010-11), Kangwon National University
Haesuk Kim (2011), Kangwon National University
Kan Fu (2010) National University of Singapore
Timothy Douglas (2010), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Professor Yuhong Ren (2009-10), National Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology
Professor Isao Hirata (2009-10), Hiroshima University, Japan.
Professor Yongkuan Gong (2008-9), Northwest University, Xi’an China.
Yuhan Lee (2006) KAIST