The Aguado iBiomaterials Research Group develops precision biomaterials as tools to determine how sex, age, and ancestry impact health and disease at multiple length scales. Our current focus is investigating how sex chromosome linked genes modulate sex differences in cardiovascular disease progression and treatments. Our long-term goal is to achieve sex and gender equity in our understanding of cardiovascular disease and move toward equitable treatments and outcomes.
Congratulations to Rayyan Gorashi for publishing her Science Advances paper entitled "Y chromosome linked UTY modulates sex differences in valvular fibroblast methylation in response to nanoscale extracellular matrix cues!"
Congratulations to Nicole Félix Vélez on her first author paper “Secreted Cytokines From Inflammatory Macrophages Modulate Sex Differences in Valvular Interstitial Cells on Hydrogel Biomaterials” published in JBMR-A as part of a Special Issue on "Biomaterials for Women's Health!"
Warmest welcome to Sarah Broders (PhD winter rotation student) and Vivian Zheng (MS winter rotation student) to the lab!
Brian is thrilled to receive a Rising Star Award from the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) society!
Submit your research to a special issue in Biomedical Materials Research Part A (JBMR-A) called "Biomaterials for Women's Health" - super excited to guest edit with Jessica Weaver and working with Kent Leach to put together an exciting issue!
Our labs are so thankful for each other! Loved the opportunity to celebrate together and eat some great food!
The goal of AIMBE’s Emerging Leaders Program is to increase AIMBE’s engagement with exceptional professionals that are underrepresented in medical and biological engineering (MBE), recognize outstanding rising leaders in MBE, and serve as a pipeline for leaders to AIMBE’s College of Fellows.
Brian Aguado joins the leadership team of the HUB, which aims to support the next generation of innovative biomaterials researchers and accelerate the rapid dissemination of new technologies for commercial and clinical use.
LatinXinBME is thrilled to receive the 2024 BMES DIversity Award! Co-founders Brian Aguado and Ana Maria Porras delivered the award lecture on behalf of our growing organization!
Happy to report we had another successful LatinXinBME Symposium! Thank you to everyone who joined us, and a special thanks to our co-host Johns Hopkins BME! We were so happy to be surrounded by so many great Latinx scientists and learn all about their work!
The lab welcomes Rayyan Ayoub (PhD fall rotation student), Kimmy Wennerholm (MS student), June Akpata (MS student), Rene Peña (UG), and Kati Richter (UG)!
Brian is thankful to be listed on this prestigious list of scholars!
Amazing news from Rayyan - congratulations on your F31 Notice of Award! A remarkable distinction of your research prowess!
Huge congrats to Nicole and Rayyan on this big milestone in their PhD careers!
Check out our special issue in GEN Biotechnology focused on improving DEI in Biotech through our collective science and advocacy efforts. Honored to guest edit with Dr. Ana Maria Porras and Dr. Karmella Haynes!
Brian shared our lab's research on X and Y chromosome biology to the GRC STEEM community! Brian was also awarded the inagural STEEMie Conference Mascot Award!
The lab visited Knott's Berry Farm for team building and rollercoasters!
Nicole presented her research and Brian chaired the Tissue Engineering session as a co-organizer for the meeting.
Nicole presented her research and Brian chaired the Tissue Engineering session as a co-organizer for the meeting.
Huge congratulations to 3 of our undergraduate students for graduating from UCSD with their BS degrees in Bioengineering! Sarah is moving on to finish her PhD at Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering, Mason Faust is sticking around to finish his MS in our lab as a UCSD Bioengineering Alum, & Kristi Tu is moving on to GenMark Diagnostics.
Huge congratulations to 3 of our undergraduate students for graduating from UCSD with their BS degrees in Bioengineering! Sarah is moving on to finish her PhD at Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering, Mason Faust is sticking around to finish his MS in our lab as a UCSD Bioengineering Alum, & Kristi Tu is moving on to GenMark Diagnostics.
Brian Aguado and Marianna Alperin have co-launched a new Institute for Engineering in Medicine center focused on facilitating scientific collaborations to solve problems in women's health!
Brian Aguado and Ana Maria Porras received the award on behalf of LatinXinBME and gave the award lecture at the World Biomaterials Congress meeting in Daegu, South Korea!
Brian discussed the importance of using hydrogels to determine sex-specific mechanisms of cellular biology and paths to sex-specific treatments for heart valve disease!
Wonderful catching up with friends and sharing our research and JEDI initiatives supported with CZI funds!
We are excited to welcome Dr. Nguyen! She joins us from Sydney, Australia, where she worked in the Laboratory for Advanced Biomaterials & Matrix Engineering (LAB&ME), led by Professor Kristopher Kilian in the School of Chemistry at UNSW. Super stoked she will blend her supramolecular chemistry expertise with sex differences research!
Thrilled to welcome our newest Staff Research Associate, Meaghan Loud! Meaghan joins us from the Patapoutian Lab at Scripps and will be managing the day to day operations of our lab. Welcome, Meaghan!
Huge congratulations to Brandon for his Best Poster award and his all expenses paid trip to attend the SLAS 2024 meeting to present his sex differences in drug combinations research!
Brian is honored to be recognized for his teaching efforts and thankful to the undergraduate/graduate students that nominated him for the award!
Thankful to everyone who helped celebrate our lab's awards for our commitment to diversity and inclusion through our science and community efforts with LatinXinBME!
Huge congratulations to Rayyan for her ARCS Foundation Award to support her sex differences research!
Check out our fruitful collaboration with the McKinsey Lab at CU Anschutz where we explored the role of photo-stiffening hydrogels in regulating cardiac fibroblast activation and senescence!
Brian was awarded the NIH Director's New Innovator Award to support our lab's research understanding how sex chromosomes contribute to sex differences in myocardial fibrosis. Thrilled for this new direction for our budding research group!
Thank you kindly to Prof. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic for the invitation! Join us virtually on Wednesday, Oct 4th (12 pm PT / 3 pm PT) to hear about our lab's latest work on determining sex differences in cardiovascular disease using biomaterials!
Excited to welcome Maria Samaritano to the Aguado Lab team as our lab's 5th PhD student to join! Maria is a first year PhD student in the Bioengineering department, and joins us after completing her BS at the University of Virginia and spending time as a staff scientist at Columbia University. Welcome!
Brian and Nicole were selected as the 2023 GEMINI Faculty Mentor and GEMINI Graduate Fellow! Thank you to the Institute for Engineering in Medicine for the recognition - we're excited to celebrate with you at the awards ceremony in the Fall!
Wonderful working with Prof. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez and the rest of the co-authors to put together a roadmap for equitable hiring practices as a strategy to diversify the academic workforce. Check it out!
Brian will be presenting our lab's research at the upcoming Nature Conference focused on Bioengineering for Global Health! Don't miss this awesome event!
Brian had a blast representing the lab and catching up with old friends and colleagues at the GRC in Biomaterials - his Best Faculty Poster was selected for a platform talk!
Our lab has accomplished so much in 2 years - we all took the day off to have an adventure at the San Diego Safari Park! Happy anniversary, team!
After a fun quarter teaching BENG 160, the teaching team enjoyed a nice evening out at Din Tai Fung. Thanks for all your efforts, TAs (Rayyan Gorashi, Talia Baddour, Maria Karkanitsa, and Sam Park)!
Warmest welcome to our new SRA Courtney Cheng! The whole lab enjoyed an afternoon at the Mesa Rim Climbing Gym to welcome her to the lab and celebrate the end of Spring quarter!
Congratulations to Talia on her T32 fellowship awarding her research in understanding sex-specific differences in valve tissue architecture!
Congratulations to Rayyan on discussing the need to radically transform academia to retain the younger generation of scientists - your voice and advocacy are greatly needed!
Congratulations to Rayyan for her presentation on her latest research exploring sex differences in cellular responses to hydrogels!
The Aguado Lab made a big splash at the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting! Rayyan gave a fantastic talk, and Brian co-chaired the 3rd annual Black and Latinx Voices in Biomaterials session!
Thank you to UCSD for the feature and excited to continue our collaboration with the Poulikakos Lab!
Talia and Nicole represented the Aguado lab at this new and important GRC meeting - we look forward to continue building this community!
Thank you to UCSD for the feature and excited to continue our collaboration with the Poulikakos Lab!
Brian met wonderful new friends and colleagues at the new grantee annual meeting - excited for future science and JEDI collaborations!
HUGE congratulations to Nicole and Brandon for your NSF GRFP awards - such a well deserved distinction of your research prowess!
Brian represented the lab and presented our latest research at the International Conference of Heart Valve Tissue Engineering as part of the Heart Valve Society Annual Meeting in Malaga, Spain!
Aguado Lab members Rayyan, Talia, and Nicole hosted fun science demos at the San Diego Festival of Science in Petco Park!
Brian will serve as a BMES Track Chair for the Biomaterials Track at the 2023 BMES Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. Submit your abstracts!
Congratulations to the Aguado and Poulikakos lab teams for landing our first collaborative grant on studying sex-specific collagen structures in aortic valve tissue!
Happy birthday and congratulations to Rayyan! She was featured for BlackInBME's #BlackExcellence campaign for her work in the Aguado Lab!
Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis to FIU's BME department for Miami Heart Month! Thank you to the BME department for the invitation!
Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis to the NIH BME Special Interest Group! Thank you to the Bioengineering department for the invitation!
Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis at the 2023 CMBE Annual Meeting!
Happy holidays all! The Engler and Aguado labs came together for our annual Labsgiving. Thanks for hosting, Adam!
Congratulations to Brandon for publishing his work on how inflammatory serum factors from aortic valve stenosis patients drive sex-specific valvular cell phenotypes!
Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis at the 2022 ABRCMS Annual Meeting!
Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis to the NIH BME Special Interest Group!
The Aguado Lab is thrilled to be supported with a $1.15 million grant from CZI and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to support our research proposal entitled "Addressing Sex and Ancestral Disparities in Aortic Valve Stenosis" and support our LatinXinBME Community!
Huge congrats to the lab on all their amazing presentations as part of the BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio!
Exciting news! Nicole will be a new leader in LatinXinBME as the Professional Development Chair - congrats!
Nicole and Brian participated as mentors and speakers at the NextProf event at UC San Diego in collaboration with the University of Michigan!
Another paper cake to celebrate Brandon's most recent publication entitled "Precision biomaterials as tools to determine sex-specific mechanisms of cardiovascular disease!"
Major congratulations to Nicole and Rayyan who secured two years of funding each to support their graduate research in the Aguado Lab!
Huge congratulations to Nicole and Rayyan who published their Perspective article entitled "Chemical and molecular tools to probe biological sex differences at multiple length scales" as part of the Emerging Investigator Issue! We celebrated with our lab's traditional Paper Cake!
Warmest congratulations to Steven Robles who completed his summer REU! We will miss you, Steven!
Warmest congratulations to Talia Baddour, Rayyan Gorashi, and Nicole Félix-Vélez for passing their 1st year qualifying exams in the Bioengineering department!
Rayyan Gorashi and Steven Robles presented posters at the annual BIC Symposium, hosted by UC Santa Barbara!
Check out our Twitter post highlighting our greatest accomplishments in the past year! To celebrate, we all took the day off for a boat ride around Mission Bay!
Warmest welcome to Steven Robles, summer REU student from the University of Florida! He will be working with Nicole Félix-Vélez to investigate the role of serum factors in regulating persistent myofibroblast activation.
Congratulations to Rayyan for receiving an EMBO-FEBS Travel Award to present her research on how valvular interstitial cells respond to nano-scale stiffness cues in Spetses, Greece!
Brandon presented his research on how aortic valve stenosis patient serum biomarkers regulate sex differences in valve myofibroblast activation and osteoblast-like differentiation at the biomaterials approaches to address health and healthcare disparities session.
Congratulations to Talia for receiving an AIMBE Travel Award to attend the Public Policy Institute meeting in Washington, DC!
The Aguado lab receives funding from the AHA to investigate the role of X chromosome dosage in regulating sex differences in valvular interstitial cells!
Check out Brian's interview with Northwestern Intersections on "Why It's Important to Bring Your Full Self to the Lab"!
Check out Brian's latest pop science article "The sex of your cells matters when it comes to heart disease," published in The Conversation!
Nicole took over the Letters to a Pre-Scientist Instagram page to talk about her experiences as a graduate student at UCSD!
Check out our latest work focused on understanding the role of genes that escape X chromosome inactivation in regulating sex-specific myofibroblast activation in VICs cultured on hydrogel biomaterials!
Warmest welcome to Bianca Peña, 1st year PhD student in Bioengineering! Bianca will help launch our animal work in the lab to study sex differences in inflammation. Welcome, Bianca!
Warmest welcome to Rayyan Gorashi, 1st year PhD student in Bioengineering and a current Jacobs School Racial Equity Fellow! Rayyan will be developing protocols for studying sex-specific iPS cell differentiation. Welcome, Rayyan!
Thank you to ThisWeek@UCSD for profiling our lab's research on sex differences in cardiovascular disease, as well as our efforts in co-founding LatinXinBME!
Brian will participate in the editing and review process for the new GEN Biotechnology journal at the forefront of biotechnology research. Check it out!
Another super warm welcome to Talia Baddour, recent Lafayette College graduate from the Mechanical Engineering department! Talia will be using spatial transcriptomics to understand sex differences in valve myofibroblast heterogeneities. Welcome, Talia!
Super excited to welcome Nicole Félix-Vélez, recent Cornell University graduate from the Biomedical Engineering department! Nicole will be researching sex differences in persistent myofibroblasts cultured on hydrogels. Welcome, Nicole!
Brian will participate in the editing and review process for one of the leading journals in the biomaterials field.
Thrilled to welcome Brandon Vogt, recent CU Boulder graduate from the Chemical and Biological Engineering department! Brandon will be assisting with setting up the laboratory and helping manage our research in the laboratory. Welcome, Brandon!
Super excited to announce the Aguado iBiomaterials Lab is officially open! We are a part of the Bioengineering department at UC San Diego and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.
Cierra, Megan, and Brian worked together to write a comprehensive review on the current knowledge of sex differences in the cells of the heart. Check it out!
Congratulations to Cierra Walker and co-authors! Together, we explored the nuclear mechanosensing mechanisms that drive persistent myofibroblast activation.
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 is honored to be recognized with the Outstanding Postdoc Award at CU Boulder. Thank you to Kristi Anseth for your nomination!
Check out our latest Research Article on "Secreted Factors From Proinflammatory Macrophages Promote an Osteoblast-Like Phenotype in Valvular Interstitial Cells!"
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 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 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.
Check out our latest review on "Designing Microgels for Cell Culture and Controlled Assmebly of Tissue Microenvironments"
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.
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 will be attending the annual BMES meeting in Philadelphia, PA this week! Check out his talk info below:
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
3:30pm - 5:30pm in the Exhibit Hall
Thursday, October 17, 2019
1:30 PM - 1:45 PM Room 118A
Thursday, October 17, 2019
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM Room 115A
Saturday, October 19, 2019
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Room 120A
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 presented his "Effective Science Communication" lecture as part of the NSF MRSEC Pathways to the Workforce program.
Brian presented his work on developing precision biomaterials for probing valvular fibroblast activation as part of the Distinguished Young Seminar Series at the University of Washington.
Brian's proposal entitled "Investigating sex differences in persistent valvular myofibroblast activation using hydrogel culture substrates" was awarded funding from the NIH NHLBI!
The Gordon Research Seminar and Conference in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering took place on July 27 to August 2 in Castelldefels, Spain.