Montclare Lab Group

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Help us in welcoming Nada as a new addition to our lab!

Nada's background is in Biomedical Engineering, having received her B.S. from Case Western Reserve University, M.S. from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. from the City College of New York. Her areas of expertise involve biomaterial development of naturally-derived and synthetic polymeric scaffolds for a variety of tissue engineering applications. Prior to graduate study, she held research positions in industry R&D and clinical trials of investigational biomedical devices. She will be conducting research developing protein-based biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering and drug delivery with an emphasis on orthopedic tissue repair under the Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowship program.

Another publication under our belts: "Engineered protein–iron oxide hybrid biomaterial for MRI-traceable drug encapsulation"

By: Jessica Wong

When I was young, I would come home after school and spend hours in my living room, captivated by the guppies in my fish tank. My mother and I had bought three red-yellow hybrid males and two silver females. Within a few months, there were around a hundred guppies with many colors and black-patterned tails, none of which looked the same. I didn’t have the terminology or conceptual knowledge to understand what was going on at the time, but one day I would learn in science class that genetic mutations occurred with each generation.

In high school, my biology teacher had terrariums with frogs, a leopard gecko, and a betta fish. It easily became my favorite classroom and my favorite class. We learned about the Krebs cycle, the chi-square test, and levels of biological organization. In one of our experiments, we used micropipettes to observe antibiotic resistance in E. coli, and I loved seeing the tangible results and confirmation of my hypotheses. The kinesthetic and visual factors of science experiments always stuck with me, and I applied what I had learned to my daily observations and current events on the news. 

I spent a summer in the Dominican Republic teaching English, and we lived across a hospital. There was one day when the hospital’s parking lot was crowded with motorcycles, and my friend explained that the clinics were offering free walk-in services for those who could not afford to regularly seek medical attention. I devoted my senior year to researching the lack of access to affordable healthcare and realized that I wanted to personally contribute to engineering a solution, specifically in personalized medicine. 

Knowing that science, particularly biomaterials, was a consistent and growing interest of mine, I took a step toward the fields of biomolecular science and biomedical engineering at NYU. Since then, I have gained experience in lab techniques in advanced molecular biology and organic chemistry labs. I’m currently studying abroad at NYU Abu Dhabi and conducting research in the Laboratory for Immuno Bioengineering Research and Application, running T-cell exhaustion tests on polyacrylamide hydrogels and studying interactions between macrophages, fibroblasts, and myofibroblasts on collagen hydrogels. My time in the lab involves fabricating hydrogels, refreshing cell cultures, and fluorescence-activated single cell sorting with the cytometer. In addition, the support that I have received from my labmates and the support that I extend to new researchers spurs a driven, inquisitive, and friendly research environment. 

In honor of #womenengineeringday . 

We’ve been a little busy over here ….. 

A little late, but Happy birthday Julia !! 

Yesterday we were able to celebrate our RA Appys’s birthday. #happybirthday !!