People
Principle Investigator
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Nirav Patel Ph.D. / Post-Doc
Education
Ph.D. Bioengineering, UCSD
B.S. Bioengineering, UCSD
Project
Atomic Force Microscopy, Oceanic Microbiology
The biological activity of marine microbes constitutes a significant fraction in the cycling of essential nutrients throughout the global oceans.
Spatio-temporal variations in nutrient distribution in the surface waters influence the adaptive strategies that microbes employ for their energy requirements. My research focuses on the application of high-resolution atomic force microscopy to marine microbial ecology for elucidating microbial interactions with colloidal dissolved organic matter and their ecological context.
Abhijith Karkisaval Ph.D.
Education
Ph.D. Engineering Physics, MAE Dept. UCSD
M.S. Engineering Physics, MAE Dept. UCSD
B.E. Mechanical Engineering, Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore
Projects
Atomic force microscopy based imaging and structural studies
Combined atomic force microscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (AFM-TIRF)
Simultaneous/combined atomic force microscopy and electrophysiology
Investigating membrane-protein interaction phenomena in Alzheimer's disease through multi-modal microscopy techniques.
Graduate Students
Grace Jang / Ph.D. Student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Education
Ph.D. candidate Mechanical Engineering, UCSD (current)
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, UCSD
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Project
Design of the array-AFM holder to actuate each probes independently to study mechanical and electrical properties of the sample
Torus Washington II / Ph.D. Student, Nanoengineering
Education
Ph.D. candidate Nanoengineering, UCSD (current)
M.S. Nanotechnology, University of Central Florida
B.S. Materials, Science, & Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Project
Drug delivery, Nanodelivery
I am working to develop nanoparticle-mediated cancer immunotherapies. With my background in in situ vaccination cancer treatment, I aim to bring a targeted approach to achieving anti-tumor immunity.
Tyler Bodily / Ph.D. Student, Bioengineering
Education
Ph.D. Bioengineering, UCSD (current)
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Utah
Project
Biosensors, Drug delivery
I am working on GFET sensors for detection of coronavirus and other viruses as well as GFET detection of Amyloid-ß for Alzheimer's disease.
Anirudh Ramanathan / Ph.D. Student, Material Science & Engineering
Education
Ph.D. Material Science & Engineering, UCSD (current)
M.S. Bioengineering, UCSD
B.Tech Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Project
AFM
Currently working on characterizing membrane layers, as well as studying the addition of peptides onto these layers
Samuel Yauk / Ph.D. Student, Material Science & Engineering
Education
Ph.D. Material Science & Engineering, UCSD (current)
M.S. Nanoengineering, UCSD
B.S. Biomedical Engineering, UC Davis
Project
Drug delivery
Designing nanobowls in order to better control the delivery of a drug to a targeted location in the body as well as the loading and release mechanism of the NGF drug.
Benjamin Balster / Ph.D. Student, Bioengineering
Education
Ph.D. Bioengineering, UCSD (current)
B.S. Bioengineering: Biosystems, UCSD
Project
AFM, Electrophysiology, Microscope Construction
My project revolves around characterizing membrane proteins by combining electrical activity from electrophysiology with structural data from AFM analysis.
Undergraduate Students
Armando Ramil / Bachelor's Student, Bioengineering
I am working with the GFET sensors and their application in protein detection for diseases, as well as characterizing defects in graphene using RAMAN Spectroscopy.
Prachi Heda / Bachelor's Student, Mathematics - Computer Science
I am working with the Biosensor Team to improve analysis methods on Python utilizing machine learning techniques.
Aengieline Sevilla / Bachelor’s Student, Bioengineering
I am working with the drug delivery team to design a nano-depot device that will use sensors to determine when to release nanobowls into the body for more targeted drug delivery.
Volunteers
Mikayla Leite
I am working with the Biosensor team to develop a method of detecting viral particles using Graphene Field Effect Transistors.