Profile

Nanoscale sensing of substrate topography and stem cell differentiation

Whilst in the Gautrot lab, my project focused on the exploration of the use of the novel polymer brush-based nanofibrous substrates (fabricated via electrospun nanofiber lithography) as a topographical model to study the cell adhesion, spreading and cytoskeleton assembly of mesenchymal stem cells at different stages of their osteogenic differentiation process. Generally, my scientific interests focus on the cell-biomaterial interface and more specifically on the development of novel types of (i) scaffolds for tissue engineering applications and (ii) cell culture platforms for in vitro studies to address cell biology questions. Accordingly, I have developed biofunctionalized electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for neural tissue engineering applications and I have studied the effect of discontinuous topographical cues of the local microenvironment on neuronal and neuroglial cells using silicon-based cell culture platforms.

Interests: Reading, music.