Awarded in 2012
Home Department: Materials Science & Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Fan Yang (Bioengineering) and Sean Wu (Cardiovascular Medicine)

Research Title: Biophysical regulation of human pluripotent stem cells

Research Description: Pluripotent stem cells are promising cell sources for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; however, due to the lack of understanding of complex, multifunctional cell surroundings, it is difficult to direct the stem cell differentiation into functional, mature cell types. Working at the interface of biology, materials science & engineering, and medicine, Soah’s goal is to develop novel systems that allow her to rapidly test a variety of combinations of the surrounding signals using high-throughput strategies. The system will help to understand how the complex interplay of the signals influences stem cell fate in 3D and to optimize stem cell surroundings for stem cell differentiation into the cell types needed.

WHERE IS SHE NOW?

Soah has started her independent career as an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.