ENGINEERING BIOMATERIALS FOR PRECISION MEDICINE

WELCOME!

The long-term vision of the future Aguado iBiomaterials Research Group will be to develop personalized biomaterials as tools to evaluate a patient’s unique biology to treat disease based on sex, age, and/or ancestry. We will first focus on sex as a biological variable and investigate mechanisms governing sex differences in cardiovascular diseases.

PAPER PUBLISHED IN NATURE REVIEWS MATERIALS

October 20, 2020

LatinXinBME Co-founders Brian and Ana Porras published a Comment entitled "Building a virtual community to support and celebrate the success of Latinx scientists" in Nature Reviews Materials! Please contact us for an invitation to join our vibrant LatinXinBME community!

BRIAN SELECTED FOR THE OUTSTANDING POSTDOC AWARD AT CU BOULDER!

September 17, 2020

Brian is honored to be recognized with the Outstanding Postdoc Award at CU Boulder. Thank you to Kristi Anseth for your nomination!

PAPER PUBLISHED IN ARTERIOSCLEROSIS, THROMBOSIS, AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY

September 17, 2020

Check out our latest Research Article on "Secreted Factors From Proinflammatory Macrophages Promote an Osteoblast-Like Phenotype in Valvular Interstitial Cells!"

BRIAN NAMED ONE OF 100 MOST INSPIRING HISPANIC/LATINX SCIENTISTS IN AMERICA BY CELL PRESS!

September 15, 2020

Brian is honored to have been named one of the 100 most inspiring Latinx scientists by Cell Press! He will continue his leadership efforts with LatinXinBME and build community among Latinx biomedical engineers and scientists. Be sure to check out the full list of inspiring scholars at the link below!

BRIAN JOINS SANFORD CONSORTIUM FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE!

September 15, 2020

Brian has joined the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine faculty! "The mission of Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine is to advance stem cell research through collaborative, multi-disciplinary interactions. This “collaboratory” enables scientists from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scripps Research, and the University of California, San Diego to work side by side in a facility specifically designed to achieve breakthrough discoveries."

BRIAN ACCEPTS FACULTY POSITION AT UC SAN DIEGO!

April 22, 2020

Brian will join the Department of Bioengineering as an Assistant Professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego! Brian will start his position in July of 2021.

PAPER PUBLISHED IN ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS

December 17, 2019

Check out our latest review on "Designing Microgels for Cell Culture and Controlled Assmebly of Tissue Microenvironments"

BRIAN PRESENTS AT SACNAS 2019

October 31, 2019

Brian gave an invited talk as part of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Special Session entitled "Increasing Understanding of Diverse Scientific Approaches in Designing Therapeutic Solutions" at the SACNAS Annual Meeting in Honolulu, HI.

LATINXINBME MEET UP AT BMES

October 17, 2019

Come join LatinXinBME at El Rey restaurant on Thursday, October 17 for a casual meet-up during the conference! Dr. Ana Maria Porras and I will be at the BMES registration table at 6:30 pm.

BRIAN PRESENTING AT BMES 2019

October 14, 2019

Brian will be attending the annual BMES meeting in Philadelphia, PA this week! Check out his talk info below:

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(1) Meet the Faculty Candidates Poster Session 

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

3:30pm - 5:30pm in the Exhibit Hall

(2) Talk: Sex-specific Valvular Myofibroblast Activation on Engineered Hydrogel Substrates  
Thursday, October 17, 2019
1:30 PM - 1:45 PM Room 118A
 
(3) Talk: Sex-specific Valvular Myofibroblast Activation in Response to Nano-scale Stiffness Cues  
Thursday, October 17, 2019
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM Room 115A
 
(4) Talk: TAVR Alters Circulating Serum Factors to Mediate Valve and Cardiac Myofibroblast De-activation  
Saturday, October 19, 2019
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Room 120A     

PAPER PUBLISHED IN SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

September 11, 2019

CU Boulder engineers and faculty from the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation (CFReT) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus have teamed up to develop biomaterial-based “mimics” of heart tissues to measure patients’ responses to an aortic valve replacement procedure, offering new insight into the ways that cardiac tissue re-shapes itself post-surgery.

BRIAN VISITS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

August 14, 2019

Brian presented his "Effective Science Communication" lecture as part of the NSF MRSEC Pathways to the Workforce program.

BRIAN VISITS UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOR DYSS

August 12, 2019

Brian presented his work on developing precision biomaterials for probing valvular fibroblast activation as part of the Disntinguished Young Seminar Series at the University of Washington.

BRIAN RECEIVES NIH K99/R00 CAREER TRANSITION AWARD

August 1, 2019

Brian's proposal entitled "Investigating sex differences in persistent valvular myofibroblast activation
using hydrogel culture substrates" was awarded funding from the NIH NHLBI! 

BRIAN CHAIRS GORDON RESEARCH SEMINAR IN BIOMATERIALS

July 27, 2019

The Gordon Research Seminar and Conference in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering took place on July 27 to August 2 in Castelldefels, Spain.