Principal Investigator Tania Lopez-Silva
Project Start Date July 2025
The Biomimetic Materials and Immunoengineering Lab develops material-based technologies to address critical health challenges and enable advanced bioengineering models. Our approach involves the rational design of supramolecular synthetic materials composed of naturally occurring building blocks (such as peptides, sugars, and lipids) that can interact with biological systems and create modular microenvironments. We employ a multi-scale strategy, spanning from molecular design to control nanostructure and bulk material properties, ultimately influencing the biological response to our materials. The BMI Lab research focuses on three main areas:
(1) Understanding key factors, properties, and interactions that can be leveraged to control biological systems using materials.
(2) Integrating that knowledge for the targeted rational design of bioactive materials, initially focusing on materials for immunomodulation.
(3) Develop advanced biomaterial for several biomedical applications, including cancer immunotherapy, cell-based therapeutics, and tissue engineering.