Current Members
Principal Investigator
Nenad Bursac
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
nenad_dot_bursac_@_duke_dot_edu
(919) 660-5510
Embryonic and adult stem cell therapies for heart and muscle disease; cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue engineering; cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias; genetic modifications of stem and somatic cells; micropatterning of proteins and hydrogels.
Research Scientists
Alastair Khodabukus
I work on developing more physiologically relevant tissue engineered skeletal muscle to study both healthy and diseased muscle physiology in human and rat cells.
Laboratory Staff
Ian Levitan
ian.levitan@duke.edu
I am interested in the role of fibroblasts in cardiac regeneration.
Sumie Okuwa
Lab Manager
I am the lab manager for the Bursac Lab, and I also assist lab members with molecular biology and cell culture.
Flora Yang
I work on molecular cloning, NRVM isolation, iPSC-CM differentiation to understand cardiomyocyte proliferation.
Post-Doctoral Associates
Zhaowei Chen
I am interested in developing organ-on-chip platforms containing engineered cardiac and skeletal muscle microtissues to enable high throughput pharmacological and genome editing screening.
Ke Huang
I am a postdoctoral associate in biomedical engineering at Duke University. My research focuses on the application of cell therapy, cardiac tissue engineering, and genetic engineering to improve heart repair after myocardial infarction.
Ethan Lotz
ethan.lotz@duke.edu
I am interested in developing functional neuromuscular junctions in vitro, the roles immune and glial cells play in the innervation of skeletal muscle, and regenerative strategies for the reinnervation of skeletal muscle following volumetric muscle loss in vivo.
Jordan Pomeroy
I am interested in the fidelity of the electrical system and the role of fibroblasts in cardiac regeneration.
Graduate Students
Torie Broer
I am studying how the presence of immune cells affects the development and function of engineered skeletal muscle tissue.
Abbi Helfer
I work on human cardiac tissue engineering from pluripotent stem cells, and gene editing.
Binjie Li
I am currently working on designing a stretch device to enhance the development and maturation of cardiac muscle tissue.
Nicholas Strash
I am currently interested in studying the role of polyploidy in the context of proliferation and maturation of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
Jason Wang
I am exploring methods to improve the regenerative capacity of engineered tissues derived from human skeletal muscle cells.
Tianyu Wu
My research focuses on developing prokaryotic voltage-gated sodium channels (BacNav) based gene therapies for cardiac arrhythmias.
Undergraduate Students
Geovanni Janer Carattini
geovanni.janer.carattini@duke.edu
I am studying the proliferation of cardiomyocytes.
Anya Gupta
anya.gupta@duke.edu
I help with DNA mini and midi preps, the aliquoting of solutions, lab cleanup and maintenance, restocking items, and autoclaving standard laboratory materials.
Lillian Hiser
I am currently working on the improvement of the structure and function of primary human and induced pluripotent stem cell engineered skeletal muscle tissues, which will be used for improved disease modeling of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and dysferlinopathy.
Emma Quigg
My role is to assist with lab cleanup and maintenance, restocking items, and DNA mini and midi preps.
Maya Suzuki
maya.suzuki@duke.edu
I assist with DNA midiprep and miniprep, cleaning/maintenance, and restocking lab items.
Sabrina Tran
I am studying the treatment of Pompe’s disease in engineered tissues derived from human skeletal muscle cells.
Chris Zhou
I’m currently working on macrophage induced human skeletal muscle regeneration and developing an in vitro model for glycogen storage diseases using engineered human muscle.