Big day for #harleylab at #sfb2026

We've got 4 talks today from Joel (an undergrad), Victor, JJ, and Genesis. Check them out!

Harley lab Friday at SfB 2026

Friday afternoon @ #sfb2026.

Check out #harleylab endometriosis projects led by Hannah Theriault! Two posters!

More #harleylab science tomorrow at #sfb2026.

Please come check out a great talk creating synthetic vasculature to study brain cancer progression and two posters describing our models of endometriosis!

Harley lab Wednesday schedule at sfb2026

Day 1 of #sfb2026 & #harleylab has a bunch of great science to share.

Starting with Ali Nunes talk today about a new composite biomaterial for craniofacial bone repair. 2:15 in Centennial 1.

Then posters this evening from, Sohjeong, Runing, Brittany, Delaney, and Anagha. See you there!

Heading to Ann Arbor! Looking forward to connecting with colleagues and sharing some of the ongoing #NIHfunded work by the #harleylab.

Any good coffee shop suggestions in a2?

Congrats to #HarleyLab PhD#20, Dr. Gunnar Thompson, on his successful defense: Advancing techniques for engineered tissue models of the bone marrow! Cool work blending hematopoietic stem cells, granular materials, & rheology.

Thanks to committee members Simon Rogers, Mary Kraft, & Andres Garcia

The Harley that bmes 2025

#bmes2025 with #harleylab past and present.

These folks work hard and care about each other.

Such a privilege to be able to work with them

Harley lab BMES presentation schedule

Check out the fantastic #harleylab research at #bmes2025! See you in San Diego

Shaping the mechanical properties of a gelatin hydrogel interface via amination Injuries to musculoskeletal interfaces, such as the tendon-to-bone insertion of the rotator cuff, present significant physiological and clinical chall…

🧪🚨New #harleylab publication:
"Shaping the mechanical properties of a gelatin hydrogel interface via amination" out in J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. Great collab with Simon Rogers at @chbeillinois.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Matrix Tropism Influences Endometriotic Cell Attachment Patterns The influence of substrate stiffness and multicellular coculture on endometriotic cell attachment to extracellular matrix-laden microarrayed islands is reported. This model investigates early endomet...

Manuscript Monday with the #harleylab!

So excited for "Matrix Tropism Influences Endometriotic Cell Attachment Patterns" out in #AdvFunctMater:

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Creative work led by Hannah Theriault & Hannah Kimmel. Collab w/ @kateclancy.bsky.social & GregUnderhill

Influence of Hypoxia on a Biomaterial Model of the Bone Marrow Perivascular Niche Hypoxia is a key factor in bone marrow physiology and hematopoietic stem cell behavior. Lower oxygen tension influences the secretion of vasculature-derived hematopoietic regulatory factors and alter....

Manuscript Monday withe the #harleylab

"Influence of Hypoxia on a Biomaterial Model of the Bone
Marrow Perivascular Niche" now out in Advance Healthcare Materials.

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This was jointly funded by 3 institutes within NIH: NIDDK, NIDCR, and NCI.

Second annual #harleylab undergrad poster fair.

Over the past year, our grad students & postdocs have mentored over 20 undergrad researchers. Today we had 18 posters showing work at all stages of development. Some have worked all 4yrs. Exceptional.

Mentoring is such a powerful force for good.

#harleylab own Genesis Rios-Adorno! Congratulations on the well deserved recognition!

Busy week for #harleylab at #sfb2025. Check out a whole lot of great biomaterials research from our group!

This is a rough day. But I'm also reminded of the fantastic people I work with in the #harleylab

Journal of Advanced Age indeed 🤣

We are in certain times & many are scared. For me it is important to celebrate collective efforts that benefit our science, patients, and communities.

Finding purpose and joy are an integral part of my role leading #harleylab.

Take care of those around you these days.

Glioblastoma drives protease-independent extracellular matrix invasion of microglia Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and lethal form of primary brain cancer. Microglia infiltration into the tumor microenvironment is associated wi…

Wanted to stat today with some new #harleylab science.

ChiaWen Chang is leading efforts to understand immune cell patterning in the brain in glioblastoma. He started w/ the inverse question: how do GBM cells influence microglia (brain-resident immune cells)?

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

California morning

Run done. Looking forward to a great day of science. #UCIrvine x #harleylab

It snowed this afternoon in Urbana (😱😱) but I am excited to finally be on my way to visit @herdelineardona.bsky.social and #UCIrvine Chemical & Biomolecular Eng tomorrow to give a seminar tomorrow.

Cool #harleylab work+ CA sunshine. See you there!

😎🌴🧪

Grad students at the SACNAS annual meeting 2024

Many thanks to #harleylab grad students Genesis Rios Adorno and Brittany Payan for being part of the #UIllinois cohort who attended the annual SACNAS meeting.

Thank you for being a force for growing our research!

Image of zoom meeting participants

NCI CTEC Career Panel Today is a #harleylab reunion!

Of the 5 panelists:
Dr. Sara Pedron (Res. Asst. Prof., U. Illinois; past postdoc)
Dr. Emily Chen (Eli Lilly; past grad student)

Co-organized by Dr. Chia-Wen Chang (current postdoc).

To see their professional growth is EVERYTHING.

#harleylab undergraduate researchers presenting their work today at the Dept of Molec & Cell Biology research symposium.

Congrats Katie (trophoblast invasion w/ Hannah's mentoring) and Joel (GBM progression w/ Brittany & Sheridan's mentoring)!

A new #harleylab preprint. Work by Dr. Chia-Wen Chang that adapts one of our biomaterial systems to look at microglia activity in the context of brain cancer. Funded by #NIH/NCI

Photo of two scientists getting to hang out - mask off for the picture :)

A moment of joy today - visiting U. Wisconsin for the Big10 Academic Alliance Leadership Program, but got to visit #harleylab alum Prof. Mai Ngo. She just started as Asst. Prof. at U. Wisconsin Chemical & Biological Engineering.

Congrats Mai!! Can't wait to see tee cool stuff your lab does!

new #harleylab 🧪: We're building granular biomaterials to study bone marrow cell behavior. New work creating cell-laden hydrogel droplets led by Gunnar Thompson & collaborating with Andres Garcia (GTech). Out in J Biomed Mater Res PtA: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Funding: NIDDK (NIH)

New #harleylab 🧪: We are developing a 3D engineered model of acquired temozolomide resistance in glioblastoma. New tools to study brain tumor progression and treatment response. Out in Adv Healthc Mater:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Funding: NCI (NIH) & Cancer Center at Illinois

Paracrine signals influence patterns of fibrocartilage differentiation in a lyophilized gelatin hydrogel for applications in rotator cuff repair Rotator cuff injuries present a clinical challenge for repair due to current limitations in functional regeneration of the native tendon-to-bone enthesis. A biomaterial that can regionally instruct un...

#harleylab 🧪🚨: Can we use paracrine signals from adjacent tissues to drive regenerative repair of the interface between them? Is this a biomaterial design principal? Kyle Timmer leads new work just out in BioMaterSci - pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Funding NIAMS & NIDCR (NIH)

Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial microvascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels - npj Women's Health npj Women's Health - Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial microvascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels

#harleylab 🧪🚨: Spiral arteries are a key feature of the endometrium. They form, regenerate, & remodel. Are endometrial cells chiral? Could that contribute to vessel complexity? We're using tissue engineering tools to study it - out now in Adv Healthc Mater: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial microvascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels - npj Women's Health npj Women's Health - Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial microvascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels

#harleylab collaboration with @kateclancy.bsky.social 🧪🚨: Tissue engineering models of the decidualized endometrium to study crosstalk between endometrial microvascular complexity & trophoblast outgrowth. Great work by Dr. Zambuto, out now in npj women's health: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Donor Sex and Passage Conditions Influence MSC Osteogenic Response in Mineralized Collagen Scaffolds Bone healing can vary as a function of sex, age, or pre-existing health conditions. Yet over 95% of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine studies using in vitro models fail to report donor sex....

#harleylab 🧪🚨: Considering ways to start parsing the effect of donor-reported sex in tissue engineering experiments? Check out new work from Dr Kolliopoulos & Dr Tiffany, just out in Adv Healthc Mater: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Funding: NIDCR and NIAMS (NIH)