People

Joshua C. Doloff

Assistant Professor

Joshua is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Oncology (Cancer Immunology) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine.

He was previously a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in the labs of Robert Langer and Daniel G. Anderson in Chemical Engineering and the David H. Koch Institute at MIT/Children’s Hospital Boston.

Prior, while earning his undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, he carried out biomaterials research, utilizing bioabsorbable calcium and phosphate-based silica sol-gel scaffolds to support bone matrix regeneration.

In an endeavor to better understand what happens when deliverables are introduced into the body, Joshua focused his PhD research at Boston University on host immune responses to varied therapeutics. His early work on genetic engineering of cancer-targeted viral vectors won technology development and University Provost awards. In the latter half of his Ph.D., he focused on chemotherapeutic modulation that elicited potent anti-tumor immune response. Highlighting his achievements, Joshua was awarded for Best Doctoral Research in his graduating class.

At MIT, Josh work on deciphering immune-mediated rejection of macroscale biomaterial and biomedical device implants has contributed to numerous publications, awarded or pending patents, a new lab startup—Sigilon, invited speaker engagements, and awards—including top presentation selections, a 1st place Immunoengineering prize at the 2017 SFB symposium, a co-chair honor at the 2017 BMES meeting, and most recently a Distinguished “Rising Star” Alumni Award from his PhD program at Boston University.

Lastly, Josh comes from a FLI background and welcomes everyone equally. Should you be interested, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Langer/Anderson Labs, Koch Institute, MIT (2011-2018)
• PhD, Molecular, Cellular Biology & Biochemistry (MCBB) (Synthetic Biology & Cancer Immunology), Boston University (2011)
• MA, Molecular, Cellular Biology & Biochemistry, Boston University (2011)
• BSE, Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania (2004)

Jamie Hernandez

Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Washington (2021)

B.S., Biomedical Eng. (minor: Math.), Univ. of Arizona (2016) 

Awards

• Academic Success via Postdoctoral Independence in Research and Education (ASPIRE) Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellowship 
• Achievement Reward for College Students (ARCS) Foundation Scholar Award
• Outstanding Female Engineer, Society of Women Engineers, University of Washington (2020)

Interests

Wound healing, biocompatibility, biomaterials, drug delivery

Stuart Bauer

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

M.S., Biomedical Eng., Johns Hopkins U. (2020)

B.S., Chemistry, Mount St. Joseph Univ. (2014)

Employment

• Research Assistant III, NMR-Based Metabolomics Lab, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, 2014-2018
• Chemistry Student Intern, Quality Control–Raw Materials, Patheon Pharmaceuticals. 2013-2014

Awards

• American Institute of Chemists Student Award, 2014 MSJU
• Cincinnati Co-op and Internship Award, 2014 MSJU
• Selected Speaker invitation & Poster Award, Drexel Immunoengineering Symposium (2022)

Interests

Regeneration, immune engineering, wound healing, cell/tissue engineering

Jonathan Daniel

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia (2022)

Interests

Regenerative Medicine, Biomaterials, Translational Medicine, Cost-Effective Medicine, Immunoengineering

Trevor Hatch

Graduate (Master’s) Student

Education

B.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, Arizona State University (2023)

Interests

Immunoengineering, Cellular Engineering, Synthetic Biology

Amanda Rakoski

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M (2020)

Employment

• Ugrad Research Assistant, McAllister Laboratory, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2018-2020

Awards

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Interests

Regenerative Medicine, Biomaterials, Wound Immunoengineering, cancer, chemotherapy, pharmacology, computational biology 

Elizabeth Schmitzer

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S.E., Biomedical Engineering (minor: Biochemistry), Arizona State University (2023)

Awards

• UC Berkeley Amgen Scholar (2022)

Interests

Cellular Engineering, Cellular Therapies, Immunoengineering, Synthetic Biology

Priya Shah

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S.E., Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania (2024)

M.S.E., Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania (2024)

Awards

• Noordergraaf Scholar (2022)
• NSF LSAMP Scholar (2023)

Interests

Cellular Engineering, Immunoengineering, Synthetic Biology, Regenerative Medicine

Vance Soares

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S./M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University (2016)

Awards

• NIH F31 Fellowship

Employment

• Mechanical Engineer, Proven Process Medical Devices (Mansfield, MA)
• R&D Engineer II, Ocular Therapeutix (Bedford, MA)
• Technical Associate, M.I.T. Langer Lab (Cambridge, MA)

Interests

Organ Transplants, Artificial Organs, Wound Healing, Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, Biomaterials, Bioprinting

Jessica Stelzel

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S., Materials Science & Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2019)

Awards

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
• NIH F31 Fellowship
• ARCS Fellowship

Interests

Biomaterials development, Regenerative Medicine

Victor Quiroz

Graduate (Doctoral) Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology (2020)

Awards

• NIH PREP Scholar, Johns Hopkins U.
• Top Poster Award, SFB Meeting (2022)

Interests

Regenerative Medicine, Biomaterials, Wound Healing 

Alexandra Gorham

Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2021-2025)

Awards

• JHU Hodson Scholar (2021)

Interests

Regenerative Medicine, cell therapies, biomaterials, drug delivery

Kaitlyn Pineros

Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2023-2027)

Interests

Cell & tissue engineering, Drug delivery, Biocompatibility, Immunoengineering, Regenerative Medicine

Neeti Prasad

Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2021-2025)

Awards

• PURA Award (2024)

Interests

Cell & Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, Non-Invasive Diagnostics

Valerie Wong

Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2022-2025)

Awards

• Leong Undergrad Research Fellowship (2022)
• PURA Award – instead accepted: Hawaii HPH SSRP (2023)

Interests

Cell and tissue engineering, immunoengineering, regenerative medicine, gene editing

Abigail Yoo

Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2022-2026)

Interests

Cell and tissue engineering, Gene Editing, Biomaterials

Carlos Buri

Pre-Med, School of Public Health, Global Health

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (expected 2022)

Interests

Immunotherapy, cellular/tissue engineering, regeneration

Tejasvi Desai

Relavo Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2021)

Employment

• Summer Research Intern, Noy Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2018

Interests

Immune engineering, autoimmune diseases, drug delivery, biomedical devices

Joshua Devier

MSTP (MD/PhD) student, UCSF/Berkeley

(Former) Lab Technician & Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2023)

Awards

• Leong Undergrad Research Fellowship (2020)

Interests

Synthetic Biology, Gene Editing, Gene Delivery

Sanjana Eranki

Medical School (Rutgers University)

(Former) Laboratory Technician & Ugrad.

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2020) 

Interests

Immunoengineering, Drug Delivery, Biomedical Devices

Anthony Han

PhD student, Stanford University

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2024)

Awards

• NSF GRFP (2024)

Interests

Drug Delivery, Biomaterials, Synthetic Biology

Min Jae Kim

(Former) Undergrad. Student, moved to Neuro lab (dual major)

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University (2022)

Interests

Neurological Disorders, Drug Delivery, Immunoengineering, Cell / Tissue Engineering

Victoria Lai

Research Outreach, Johns Hopkins University, EHS

(Former) Safety & Pharmacovigilance Associate @ Technical Resources International

Education

M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2020)

B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (2011)

Interests

My current research interests and academic focus are in biomaterials/biocompatibility, drug delivery, and immunotherapy. I have also previously done work in polymer rheology and process chemistry optimization.

Stephen Li

MSTP (MD/PhD) student, UConn

(Former) Post-bacc, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering & Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University (2021)

Interests

Immunoengineering, Cancer Therapy, Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials

Joshua Montano

PhD student, University of Pittsburgh, Immunology

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2024)

Awards

• Amgen Scholar (2023)
• GEM Fellowship (2024)
• NSF GRFP (2024)

Interests

Combinatorial Therapy, Cancer Immunotherapy, Biomaterials

Jody Mou

Ph.D. student (BE/Computation), Harvard HST

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2021)

Awards

• Charles R. Westgate Eng. Scholarship (2017)
• Vredenburg Scholarship (2019)
• PURA Award (2020)

Interests

Immunoengineering, biomaterials, synthetic biology

Sarah Neshat

Forbion, Associate (VC)

(Former) PhD Graduate Student

Education

B.S., Biochemistry (minors: Global Health & International Affairs), Northeastern Univ. (2019)

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Biomedical Engineering (2024)

Employment

• Vaxess Technologies (Cambridge, MA)
• Holt Laboratory of Glia Biology, (Leuven, Belgium)
• Next-Generation Tech Lab, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, MA)

Awards

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
• National GEM Consortium Associated Fellow
• Louis Strokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar
• Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowship (2022)
• P.E.O. Fellowship (2023)
• Siebel Scholars Award (2023)

Interests

Immunoengineering, biomaterials, tolerance

Bobby Ni

PhD student, Duke University

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2024)

Awards

• INBT Top Presentation Poster Award (2023)
• PURA Award (2023)

Interests

Biomaterials, Immunoengineering, Regenerative Medicine

Jimmy Pitingolo

Research Associate @ Gilead Sciences

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2022)

Awards

• Leong Undergrad Research Fellowship (2019)

Interests

Drug Delivery, Biocompatibility, Biomedical Devices

Aryaman Shodhan

(Former) Undergraduate Student, moved to computational lab

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2023)

Interests

Immunoengineering, Cell/Tissue Engineering, Regenerative medicine, Cancer research

Sebastian Tamayo

Associate at IQVIA (healthcare consulting)

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2022)

Interests

Drug delivery, Biomedical Devices, Immunoengineering, Cell/Tissue Engineering

Sixiang (Maggie) Wang

PhD student, CalTech

(Former) Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Molecular & Cellular Biology and Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Johns Hopkins University (2024)

Interests

Regenerative medicine, Synthetic Biology, Cell/Tissue Engineering

Yuanjia (Gina) Wang

Research Scientist I @NIBR (Novartis), Department: ONC OTR/ Oncology

Education

M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2020)

B.S., Bioengineering, UC San Diego

Interests

Fabrication of hydrogels, 3D imaging of the immune response around hydrogels.

Sam Zmily

Med School (Albert Einstein, NYC)

(Former) Lab Technician & Undergraduate Student

Education

B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2021)

Interests

Drug Delivery, Material Science, Biomaterials, and Biomedical Devices