Matthew Lucia presented his research at SEED!

Matthew Lucia presented his research, “Agriculturally-Relevant, Artificial Cell Biosensors Are Deployable In Situ and Enabled by Encapsulated, Bacterial Cell Lysates,” at this year’s Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution, & Design (SEED) conference. His work highlights the potential of artificial cell-based biosensors for real-time, field-deployable agricultural monitoring. Great job, Matthew!
Congratulations to Vivian Hu for successfully defending her dissertation!

We’re thrilled to celebrate Vivian Hu for successfully defending her dissertation titled “Engineering Cell-Free Modified Liposomal Platforms for Vaccines and Biosensors.” Vivian’s work established a rapid cell-free liposomal platform for incorporating viral membrane proteins, enabling multivalent vaccine development against emerging pathogens such as Nipah virus. Congratulations, Dr. Hu, on this incredible achievement!
Congrats to Tim Vu for the ABioM 2023 Graduate Student Research Award!

Tim Vu was awarded the ABioM 2023 Graduate Student Research Award for his contribution to the field of Advanced Biomanufacturing. He will accept the award and present his research at ABioM 2023, which is a division of BMES, in late March. Congrats Tim!!
Citlayi heads to SACNAS!

Citlayi Villaseñor presented her research at the National Diversity in Stem Conference. She ran into our REU student, Jessy Gonzalez, while she was there!
Nina and Lucas Win Undergraduate Awards!

Kamat Lab undergraduate researchers Nina Galvez and Lucas Sant’Anna have been recognized for their research! Both students were awarded the Lyle F. Mockros Outstanding Senior Award for their research and achievements in the Biomedical Engineering department. Congratulations on their well-deserved awards!
The Kamat Lab presents at the 2022 BMES Annual Meeting!

The Kamat Lab attended the 2022 BMES Annual Meeting from October 12-15 in San Antonio, Texas! The following students presented their work: Taylor Gunnels (platform) – “Elucidating Design Principles for Engineering Cell-Derived Vesicles to Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Infection” Vivian Hu (platform) – “Assembly of Therapeutic Nanoparticles Using Cell-Free Integration of Viral Membrane Proteins” Mary Kelly (platform) […]
Tim and Lucas present at the 2022 ACS Fall Meeting!

Tim Vu and Lucas Sant’Anna presented at the 2022 ACS Fall Meeting in Chicago, IL! Tim gave a talk titled “Lipid Phase Separation in Vesicles Enhances TRAIL Mediated Cytotoxicity” and Lucas presented a poster titled “Phase separation and lipid saturation influence ligand-receptor interactions on lipid vesicles”.
Kamat lab members head to the Midwest Protein Folding Conference at Notre Dame!

Members of the Kamat lab head to South Bend for the Midwest Protein Folding Conference!
Maggie successfully defends her thesis!

Maggie Boyd, a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering program, successfully defended her thesis. Her thesis was titled “Engineering bilayer membranes for nano- and microscale sensing.”
Miranda successfully defends her thesis!

Miranda Jacobs, a graduate student in the Interdiscliplinary Biosciences (IBiS) Program successfully defended her thesis. Miranda is the first graduate of our lab! Her thesis was titled, “Investigating How Membrane Mechanical Properties Affect the Expression, Folding, and Function of a Model Mechanosensitive Channel Protein.”