Principal Investigator
Dr. Shuichi (Shu) Takayama, PhD
Professor, GRA Eminent Scholar
Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Regenerative Engineering and Medicine
Dr. Shu Takayama earned his BS and MS in Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Tokyo. He earned a PhD in Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California studying bio-organic synthesis with Dr. Chi‐Huey Wong. He then worked as a postdoc with Dr. George Whitesides at Harvard University where he focused on applying microfluidics to studying cell and molecular biology.
Dr. Takayama began his career at the University of Michigan, where led his lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Macromolecular Science & Engineering for over 17 years. In 2017, the lab moved to Georgia Tech where Shu became the Georgia Research Alliance Price Gilbert Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Dr. Takayama’s research interests are diverse and motivated by clinical and biotechnology needs. He is always interested in hearing from stakeholders in these areas who are seeking engineering collaboration.
Research Scientists
Soojung Lee, PhD
Research Scientist II
Joined: Fall 2018
Research Interests: Organoids, organotypic microenvironments, cancer
Education: BS, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholars
Cameron Yamanishi, PhD
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2013
Research Interests: ATPS, Bioassays
Education: BS Bioengineering, UCLA; PhD Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
EBICS Fellow, NSF-IGERT Fellow, NSF-GRFP HM
Graduate Students
Ge-Ah Kim
Bioengineering, Materials Science & Engineering
Joined: Fall 2015
Research Interests: Organoids, organotypic microenvironments, intestinal physiology
Education: BS, Materials Science & Engineering
Midori Maeda, MS
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2017
Research Interests: Biomaterials, inflammation, organotypic microenvironments
Education: BS Materials Engineering, Univ. of Florida, MS Macromolecular Engineering, Univ. of Michigan
Tas Ahmed
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: 2016
Research Interests: ATPS, bioassays, cell & molecular biology
Education: BS University of Michigan
Eric Parigoris
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Spring 2018
Research Interests: Cancer, organoids, mechanobiology
Education: BS Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Jon Chang
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2018
Research Interests: Microfluidics, bioassays, organotypic microenvironments
Education: BS, Biomedical Engineering, THE Ohio State University
Hannah Viola
Bioengineering, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Joined: Fall 2018
Research Interests: Pulmonary physiology, inflammation, organotypic microenvironments
Education: BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
BioMAT Trainee, President’s Fellow, CPTR Scholarship, Grand Challenges Facilitator, NSF-GRFP Honorable Mention
Ji Hoon Lee, MS
Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2018
Research Interests: Microfluidics, pulmonary physiology, organoids
Education: BS, MS Electrical Engineering, Imperial College London
Vishwa Vasani, MS
Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2019
Research Interests: Pulmonary physiology, microfluidics, mechanobiology
Education: BS, MS Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Katherine Nguyen
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2019
Research Interests: Neutrophil extracellular traps, Biomaterials, organotypic microenvironments
Education: BS Bioengineering, University of California San Diego
Undergraduate Students
Kelsey Brew
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Spring 2020
Mentor: Jon Chang
Pallavi Ekbote
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2019
Mentor: Midori Maeda
Varun Kumar
Amy Liu
Alec Pfeffer
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Spring 2019
Mentor: Cameron Yamanishi
Cauviya Selva
Jason Sentosa
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2019
Mentor: David Mertz, Ji Hoon Lee
Noriyuki Shinagawa
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Spring 2020
Mentor: Ji Hoon Lee
Kendra Washington
Biomedical Engineering
Joined: Fall 2019
Mentor: Hannah Viola