Congrats to our newest PhD graduate, Ghiska Ramahdita, who defended her PhD last week. Ghiska's work on tensional anisotropy sensing paved the way for some critical technical and scientific advances in the lab. Congrats Ghiska!

We are excited for the excellent work Sydney is now doing with @jeffreymillman.bsky.social
and for the new science that comes from Sydney's discovery.

With this "polymer nanopatterning" approach, Sydney found that BOTH peptide density AND the proximity between cell adhesive and growth factor mimicking peptides drive cell fate decisions (here, MSC osteogenesis).

In this work, Sydney studied how integrin-binding adhesive peptides and growth factor mimicking peptides work together to push cell fate decisions. Sydney used orthogonal chemistries to graft these unique peptide types to a common polymer.

Congratulations to @sydneal123.bsky.social‬
on publication of the main body of work from her PhD thesis, now out in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A! dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbm....

Headed to SFB 2025 conference to see the latest work in our field. Excited for presentations from Ganesh Malayath, PhD, Yasaman Kargar Gaz Kooh and Huanzhu(Harper) Jiang from our lab.

Excited to share our latest work through our collaboration with Guy Genin, led by @faridalisafaei.bsky.social !

source.washu.edu/2025/03/the-...