Rayyan Gorashi awarded NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship

Amazing news from Rayyan - congratulations on your F31 Notice of Award! A remarkable distinction of your research prowess! 

Nicole Félix Vélez and Rayyan Gorashi pass their PhD Candidacy Exams!

Huge congrats to Nicole and Rayyan on this big milestone in their PhD careers! 

Brian served as co-guest editor for the GEN Biotechnology special issue on "DEI in Biotech"

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 gives an invited talk at the Gordon Research Conference: Signal Transduction in Engineered Extracellular Matrices

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 Aguado Lab celebrates our 3rd year anniversary! 

The lab visited Knott's Berry Farm for team building and rollercoasters!  

Brian moderates the Plenary Panel Session on "Inclusive Research Strategies" at the TERMIS World Congress 

Nicole presented her research and Brian chaired the Tissue Engineering session as a co-organizer for the meeting. 

Aguado Lab attends the 2024 Bioengineering UC-Wide Symposium

Nicole presented her research and Brian chaired the Tissue Engineering session as a co-organizer for the meeting. 

Sarah Chittle, Mason Faust, and Kristi Tu graduate with their BS degrees

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.

Sarah Chittle, Mason Faust, and Kristi Tu graduate with their BS degrees

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 appointed co-director of the Women's Health Innovations through Scientific Development, Engineering, and Medicine (WHISDEM) Center

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! 

LatinXinBME receives the 2024 Society for Biomaterials Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award

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 featured on Drug Discovery News podcast!

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! 

Brian attends annual Chan Zuckerberg Initiative meeting for Science Diversity Leaders

Wonderful catching up with friends and sharing our research and JEDI initiatives supported with CZI funds!

Welcome to the Aguado Lab's first postdoc researcher, Dr. Ashley Nguyen! 

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!

Warmest welcome to Meaghan Loud! 

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!

Brandon Vogt receives SLAS Best Poster and the Tony B. Travel Award to attend the SLAS Conference in Boston

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 Aguado receives the 2023 Teacher of the Year award from the Jacobs School of Engineering

Brian is honored to be recognized for his teaching efforts and thankful to the undergraduate/graduate students that nominated him for the award! 

Nicole Félix Vélez receives the GEMINI Fellowship, and Brian Aguado receives the GEMINI Faculty Mentor 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!

Rayyan Gorashi receives the ARCS Foundation Scholar Award

Huge congratulations to Rayyan for her ARCS Foundation Award to support her sex differences research! 

Paper published in AJP: Heart and Circulatory Physiology

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 Aguado receives the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2)

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!

Brian Aguado gives a Tissue Talk at Columbia University

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!

Warmest welcome to Maria Samaritano!

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! 

Congratulations to Brian and Nicole for being awarded the GEMINI Faculty Mentor Award and GEMINI Graduate Fellowship!

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! 

Paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering

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 Aguado invited as a plenary speaker for the Nature Conference in "Bioengineering for Global Health"

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 Aguado selected for a platform talk at the Gordon Research Conference in Biomaterials! 

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! 

Aguado Lab celebrates our 2nd Lab-iversary!

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!

BENG 160 Teaching Team enjoys Din Tai Fung

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)!

Courtney Cheng joins the Aguado Lab!

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!

Talia Baddour awarded an NHLBI T32 Graduate Research Fellowship and a San Diego Match Fellowship

Congratulations to Talia on her T32 fellowship awarding her research in understanding sex-specific differences in valve tissue architecture! 

Rayyan Gorashi serves as a panelist at the 2023 STAT Breakthrough Summit

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!

Rayyan Gorashi awarded Best Poster at the annual UCSD Jacobs Research Expo

Congratulations to Rayyan for her presentation on her latest research exploring sex differences in cellular responses to hydrogels!

Rayyan Gorashi presents platform talk at the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA

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!

Aguado Lab featured in UCSD Today for the Jacobs School Early Career Faculty Development Award

Thank you to UCSD for the feature and excited to continue our collaboration with the Poulikakos Lab! 

Talia Baddour and Nicole Félix Vélez present posters at the Gordon Conference on Sex Differences in Immunity 

Talia and Nicole represented the Aguado lab at this new and important GRC meeting - we look forward to continue building this community! 

Aguado Lab featured in UCSD Today for the Jacobs School Early Career Faculty Development Award

Thank you to UCSD for the feature and excited to continue our collaboration with the Poulikakos Lab! 

Brian Aguado attends CZI Science Diversity Leadership Grantee meeting

Brian met wonderful new friends and colleagues at the new grantee annual meeting - excited for future science and JEDI collaborations!

Nicole Félix Vélez and Brandon Vogt awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

HUGE congratulations to Nicole and Brandon for your NSF GRFP awards - such a well deserved distinction of your research prowess! 

Brian Aguado presents invited talk at the Heart Valve Society Annual Meeting in Malaga, Spain

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!

Rayyan, Talia, and Nicole at the San Diego Festival of Science! 

Aguado Lab members Rayyan, Talia, and Nicole hosted fun science demos at the San Diego Festival of Science in Petco Park! 

Brian Aguado selected to serve as BMES Track Chair

Brian will serve as a BMES Track Chair for the Biomaterials Track at the 2023 BMES Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. Submit your abstracts! 

Aguado and Poulikakos Labs receive the UCSD Jacobs Early Career Faculty Development Award

Congratulations to the Aguado and Poulikakos lab teams for landing our first collaborative grant on studying sex-specific collagen structures in aortic valve tissue!

BlackInBME features Rayyan Gorashi

Happy birthday and congratulations to Rayyan! She was featured for BlackInBME's #BlackExcellence campaign for her work in the Aguado Lab! 

Brian Aguado presents an invited seminar at Florida International University for Miami Heart Month 

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 Aguado presents an invited seminar at the University of Washington 

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 Aguado presents a selected talk at the 2023 CMBE Anuual Meeting

Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis at the 2023 CMBE Annual Meeting!

The Engler and Aguado labs celebrate Labsgiving!

Happy holidays all! The Engler and Aguado labs came together for our annual Labsgiving. Thanks for hosting, Adam!

Brandon Vogt's original research article is published in Biomaterials Science and featured on the back cover

Congratulations to Brandon for publishing his work on how inflammatory serum factors from aortic valve stenosis patients drive sex-specific valvular cell phenotypes!

Brian Aguado presents an invited talk at the ABRCMS Anuual Meeting

Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis at the 2022 ABRCMS Annual Meeting!

Brian Aguado presents an invited seminar at the NIH

Brian presented our work engineering sex-specific models of aortic valve stenosis to the NIH BME Special Interest Group! 

The Aguado Lab receives the Chan Zuckerberg Science Diversity Leadership Award

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!

Congrats to Talia, Rayyan, and Steven for presenting their research at BMES!

Huge congrats to the lab on all their amazing presentations as part of the BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio!

Congratulations to Nicole on being elected to the Executive Board of LatinXinBME

Exciting news! Nicole will be a new leader in LatinXinBME as the Professional Development Chair - congrats! 

Thank you Nicole for serving as a mentor to future professors in the NextProf Program

Nicole and Brian participated as mentors and speakers at the NextProf event at UC San Diego in collaboration with the University of Michigan!

Congratulations to Brandon on his contribution to our Roadmap article on Biomaterials to Study Women's Health published in the Journal of Physics Materials!

Another paper cake to celebrate Brandon's most recent publication entitled "Precision biomaterials as tools to determine sex-specific mechanisms of cardiovascular disease!"

Congratulations to Nicole and Rayyan on their NIH R00 Diversity Supplement Awards!

Major congratulations to Nicole and Rayyan who secured two years of funding each to support their graduate research in the Aguado Lab! 

Congratulations to Nicole and Rayyan for their publication in the Journals of Materials Chemistry B!

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! 

Congratulations to Steven for completing his summer REU

Warmest congratulations to Steven Robles who completed his summer REU! We will miss you, Steven! 

Congratulations to Talia, Rayyan, and Nicole!

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 present at the BIC Symposium in Santa Barbara

Rayyan Gorashi and Steven Robles presented posters at the annual BIC Symposium, hosted by UC Santa Barbara! 

Happy 1st Anniversary to the Aguado Lab! 

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!

Welcome to Steven Robles!

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. 

Rayyan Gorashi presents at the EMBO-FEBS Lecture Course, "Molecular mechanisms of interorgan crosstalk in health and disease"

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 Vogt presents at the Society for Biomaterials annual meeting

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.

Talia Baddour attends the AIMBE Public Policy Institute annual meeting

Congratulations to Talia for receiving an AIMBE Travel Award to attend the Public Policy Institute meeting in Washington, DC!

Aguado Lab receives the American Heart Association Career Development Award

The Aguado lab receives funding from the AHA to investigate the role of X chromosome dosage in regulating sex differences in valvular interstitial cells! 

Brian interviewed for the Northwestern Intersections podcast

Check out Brian's interview with Northwestern Intersections on "Why It's Important to Bring Your Full Self to the Lab"! 

Article published in The Conversation

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 Félix-Vélez hosts Letters to a Pre-Scientist

Nicole took over the Letters to a Pre-Scientist Instagram page to talk about her experiences as a graduate student at UCSD! 

Paper published in Circulation

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! 

Bianca Peña starts Winter quarter rotation

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!

Rayyan Gorashi starts Winter quarter rotation

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!

Aguado Lab featured in ThisWeek@UCSD

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 invited to serve on the Editorial Board for the GEN Biotechnology journal

Brian will participate in the editing and review process for the new GEN Biotechnology journal at the forefront of biotechnology research. Check it out! 

Talia Baddour starts Fall quarter rotation

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!

Nicole Félix-Vélez starts Fall quarter rotation

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 invited to serve on the Early Career Editorial Board for the Journal of Biomedical Materials - Part A

Brian will participate in the editing and review process for one of the leading journals in the biomaterials field. 

Brandon Vogt starts his position as Staff Research Associate

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!

The Aguado iBiomaterials Lab opens today!

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.

Paper published in the Journal Of Molecular And Cellular Cardiology

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!

Paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering

Congratulations to Cierra Walker and co-authors! Together, we explored the nuclear mechanosensing mechanisms that drive persistent myofibroblast activation.

Paper published in Nature Reviews Materials

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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

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

Brian presenting at BMES

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

(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

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 UC Santa Barbara

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

Brian visits the University of Washington - Distinguished Young Seminar Series

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 receives NIH K99/R00 Career Transition Award

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 and Tissue Engineering

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