Rahul Upadhya

Rahul is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University. He obtained a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester in 2017. Some of Rahul's prior research included a project involving polymeric gene therapy, and he hopes to focus his graduate work on studying drug delivery and nanomaterials. He hopes to one day utilize the skills and techniques he learns in academic research to pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Travis Meyer

Travis Meyer joined the Gormley lab as INSPIRE Postdoctoral Fellow in September 2019. He received a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory University, where he worked on designing DNA origami nanostructures for various biomedical applications. He is interested in using high-throughput polymer synthesis to engineer protein-mimicking nanostructures for therapeutic and research purposes, including computational modeling of these nanoparticles. 

Shashank Kosuri

Shashank is a PhD student in Biomedical engineering department at Rutgers University. He has a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering Technology from Osmania University (2014) and a Masters degree in Chemical and Biochemical engineering from Rutgers University(2016). He has a passion towards nanotechnology and  believes there is a vast scope for nanotechnology in drug delivery. His Masters thesis focused on synthesizing polymer nanoparticles for heavy metal ion removal purposes from waste water and is am planning to pursue his doctoral degree in the field of drug delivery using nano-inspired biomaterials. 

Heloise Mugnier

Heloise is a Master's student studying biomedical engineering. She also received her Bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in biomedical engineering in Spring 2020. She is interested in the development of nanoparticles and adapting it to the field of drug delivery.

Catherine Miles

Catherine is a fifth year chemistry and chemical biology PhD student in the lab of Dr. Joachim Kohn. Her work which is being completed in the Gormley Lab focuses on the development of polymeric microparticles for delivery of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. In particular, she focuses on how polymer properties such as thermal properties, hydrophobicity, and molecular weight affect drug loading and release. Microparticles are prepared using a continuous flow method that was established upon joining the lab which involves a water/oil/water emulsion to form beads with controlled uniform size. In addition, her projects have included analytical chemistry techniques to identify trace impurities, investigating polymer degradation, and performing polymer characterization.

Rebecca Risman

Lab Technician 2020-2021

Rebecca is a PhD student in Dr. Valerie Tutwiler’s lab, studying biomedical engineering. She received her B.S. in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University in 2019. Rebecca’s research interests include diagnostics and treatments, specifically targeting blood disorders and thrombotic conditions in cancer patients.

Zeeta Abubakar

Summer 2021

Zeeta is an undergraduate student at Washington College studying Computer Science and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, and she is interested in the research, development, and distribution of medical robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Her ultimate goal is to make clinical AI systems more accessible in underdeveloped countries, reducing the prevalence of diseases of poverty and death.

Dr. Supriya Atta

Postdoc 2019-2020

Supriya joined the group as a postdoc in Jan 2019. Supriya received his BSc in Chemistry from Bankura Sammilani College in 2010. He obtained his MSc in Chemistry in 2012 from IIT Madras, India. He then moved to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Rutgers University. Supriya received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry on December 2018 from Rutgers University where his research was focused on plasmonic nanoparticles syntheses and catalytic applications. His current research interest involves designing experiments to synthesize biopolymers to mimic the natural protein functionality.

Kelsey Farbanish

Undergraduate Student 2018-2020

Kelsey Farbanish was an undergraduate student studying Chemical Engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering.  She was also a member of the Rutgers’ Women Cross Country and Track Teams.

Jason DiStefano

Undergraduate Student 2017-2020

Jason DiStefano was an Undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering on a Pre-Medical track at Rutgers School of Engineering. He is interested in the advancement of cancer research with nanoparticles. His goal is to find a way to make Helper T cells fight cancer. This would allow patients to fight cancer without harming other tissues in their body.

Mythili Kanagala

Undergraduate Student 2019-2020

Mythili Kanagala was an undergraduate student on the pre-medical track majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Health Administration and Chemistry at Rutgers School of Engineering. She is interested in research relating to nanomedicine and drug delivery and is fascinated to see how this will shape the treatments for different types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Tim Mahon

Masters Student 2018-2019

Tim is an MS student in Biomedical Engineering. He obtained his BS degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University in 2017. His past research experience is in the development of pH-responsive liposomes for enhanced penetration of chemotherapeutic drugs in solid tumors. He hopes to continue studying nanoparticles for use in drug delivery and regenerative medicine while in graduate school and hopes to one day earn a PhD specializing in this area.

Kelsey Swingle

Summer 2017

Kelsey is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio who is majoring in Biomedical Engineering on the biomaterials track. She is intrigued by research in drug delivery and is thrilled to be interning in the Gormley lab for the summer of 2017.

Trupti Deshpande

2018-2019

Trupti was a Masters student in Biomedical Engineering department at Rutgers University. She has a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology from Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology(2015). She is interested in research and development of drug delivery systems using nanoparticles for treatment and application in medicine. She graduated from the Gormley Lab in May 2019.

Philip Binaco

Summer 2017

Philip is currently studying biomedical engineering at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and will be a senior in the fall. He is very interested in the field of nanomedicine and the applications it can have to illnesses such as cancer but also the problems that are developing with antibody resistant bacteria. Currently, he is pursuing a BS degree in a field of biomedical engineering.

Reem Eldabagh

Summer 2018

Reem is a biology and chemistry double major with a French minor from William Paterson University of New Jersey. She has previous experience doing research on gene expression using bioinformatics, physical chemistry, and Python. With interests in genetics and nanotechnology, Reem is interested in drug and especially gene therapy using nanomaterials. She has done literature surveys on the use of nanomaterials in biology, with a special focus on the use of gold nanoparticles for gene delivery and the safety and toxicity of nanomaterials for in vivo applications.

Farida Shawkat

Summer 2018

Farida is an undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering. Farida’s interest in medicine, and more specifically nanoparticle drug delivery, has inspired her to pursue a pre-medical track in conjugation with her engineering degree. She has always been fascinated by prenatal development and hopes to one day apply her research experience in synthetic bioparticles, to the development of nanoparticles that specifically target the drug barrier during gestation.