Congratulations Dr. Austin Jenk on a Successful Thesis Defense!
October 05, 2026
Congratulations to Dr. Austin Jenk on a stellar PhD defense! Austin is Dr. Gullbrand's first co-mentored student with our long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Mauck, and we are so proud of the strides Dr. Jenk has made in the continued development of our labs' Mechanically-Activated MicroCapsules (MAMC) for tunable drug delivery in the knee and spine.
The University of Utah Invites Dr. Gullbrand to Speak
September 16, 2026
Dr. Gullbrand spoke to the University of Utah's Department of Biomedical Engineering today in a talk entitled: "Understanding Multi-Tissue Interactions in Spinal Degeneration and Following Disc Repair."
Alexandra Baranyai Presents at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Annual Symposium
September 14, 2026
Undergraduate researcher Alexandra Baranyai presented work from her second summer in the lab at UPenn's CURF Annual Symposium exploring how we can pattern cell gradients for improved cartilage endplate engineering.
Dr. Hunter Levis Receives VA T-TERM Fellowship
August 31, 2026
Congratulations to postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hunter Levis for earning a two-year Fellowship Training in Translational Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (T-TERM). The fellowship is awarded by the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs CReATE Motion Research Center, and his proposal aims to develop a localized drug delivery platform for repairing the annulus fibrosus after disc injury. The core innovation is a tunable NorHA-ST hydrogel that independently controls mechanical stiffness and drug release, now being adapted to deliver biotinylated mRNA-LNPs so nucleic acid therapies like anti-inflammatory mRNA can be sustained and localized at the injury site.
Dr. Hunter Levis Receives NIH T32 Training Grant
August 24, 2026
Congratulations to postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hunter Levis for receiving a T32 grant from the National Institutes of Health's Training Program in Rheumatic Diseases. This award will investigate how loss of tension and initiation of inflammatory signaling cascades affect the annulus fibrosus following injury, probing how the interaction of mechanical and inflammatory cues block natural repair processes. Furthermore, the project with investigate how anti-inflammatory molecules may be used to restore annulus fibrosus homeostasis following these events.