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Department: Biomedical Engineering More Information
PI: Dr. BonassarDr. Bonassar’s research laboratory stands out among research labs at Cornell; it is one of the only true “tissue engineering” laboratories on campus, it is highly interdisciplinary in its work with researchers at Cornell’s Hospital for Special Surgery, and undergraduates have the potential to create meaningful research projects. The lab focuses on the regeneration and analysis of musculoskeletal tissues, including bone and cartilage. This involves mechanical testing of engineered tissues, examining in what environment cartilage cells (chondrocytes) and stem cells grow best, and determining interactions of cells with biomaterials. Techniques range from mechanical testing of artificial ears, to creating tissue injection molds, to measuring fluorescence due to calcium signaling, to mathematically modeling characteristics of cell growth.Students interested in joining this lab should be well-versed in both engineering and advanced biology. Material from “Mechanics of Solids” (ENGRD 202) was absolutely necessary in my project to determine how the mechanical properties of Achilles tendons were altered with new kinds of sutures, while material from “Principles of Biochemistry” (BIOBM 330) was key in my experiment involving protein-protein interactions. Students looking to join the lab should also be very self-motivated, passionate about research, and not squeamish about working with real tissues. Students should also have good time management skills, as lab work can be quite time-consuming and mentally demanding. Personally, I found that working during the summer was much easier than during the schoolyear, and I found the best balance between lab work and school work by working mostly on weekends during the academic year so that I could focus on schoolwork during the week. I have found working in Dr. Bonassar’s lab very rewarding. A day in the lab is never the same for me; this summer, I have been determining protein binding kinetics using advanced optics at NBTC (including surface plasmon resonance and imaging ellipsometry), creating alginate disks for controlled-release studies, and culturing 3T3 fibroblasts for cell proliferation tests. Over the past six months, I have had my peptides (the focus of my summer research) denatured and ruined, had immortalized cells die, and have taken months to get good data. However, through working in Dr. Bonassar’s lab, I have learned an incredible amount about tissue engineering, about cells, about research, and about myself. |