Micro/Nano Biomechanical Characterization Lab

My current research interests lie in two arenas:

Novel Methods to Characterize Soft Hydrogel Contact Lenses: Successful characterization of contact lenses is necessary for user comfort and preventing ocular pathologies. These experimental methods, such as Laser Aided Topography (LAT), can extract useful information about the hydrogel lens mechanical and adhesive properties, and can potentially be applied to various length scales offering new means of mechanical characterization in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and materials sciences.

Strain-directed Collagen Organization by Enzymatic Cleavage This project collaborates closely with Dr. Jeffrey Ruberti/EMERL to utilize the novel "strain-stabilzation" property of type I collagen to create organized collagen constructs for tissue engineering.