Three New Faculty To Join the Bioengineering Department
Mark Skylar-Scott
Mark Skylar-Scott joined the Stanford Bioengineering Department as an Assistant Professor in July 2020. He was most recently a research fellow at Harvard University. Mark is the first faculty member hired into the Stanford Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Research Initiative supported by the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (http://www.med.stanford.edu/base.html). His research lies at the intersection of molecular, cellular, and tissue engineering, developing novel biofabrication pipelines for making functional heart tissues and blood vessels using complex 3D printing with biological inks. Mark’s laboratory will be located in the new Biomedical Innovations (BMI) building. Mark recently shared with us: “I love building things. Even more so, I love building things that build things. While my lab will focus on building cardiovascular tissues for pediatric patients, I believe that almost all research can benefit from fabrication technologies.”
Jenn Brophy
Jenn Brophy is currently a postdoc in the Biology department and will be joining the Stanford Bioengineering Department as an Assistant Professor in 2021. Her research will focus on the interface between plant biotechnology and synthetic biology, pioneering innovative foundations for how 21st-century engineers will program plants and their associated microbes to address climate change issues for a sustainable future. Jenn’s laboratory will be in the Shriram Center. Jenn tells us that the communities are what excites her most about working at Stanford. “Stanford has vibrant plant biology, microbiome, ecology, and synthetic biology communities. It’s rare to find a university with strong research in all of these areas, and it will be great for me and my lab to be surrounded by experts in these fields.”
Todd Coleman
Todd Coleman will be joining the Stanford Bioengineering Department in 2021 as an Associate Professor. He brings with him an exciting research program in neuroengineering, and a vision of how advancing this field with principles of applied mathematics, engineering, and synthetic biology has the potential to improve health, reduce healthcare costs, and advance science. Most recently, Todd has developed wearable recording devices and statistical processing algorithms for noninvasive analysis of gastrointestinal electrical activity. Todd was recruited to Stanford in collaboration with the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute and his lab will be housed in the new Neurosciences building. Todd shares with us: “Along with research, I really enjoy teaching and working with students. I have a reputation of teaching tough classes in bioengineering but also of genuinely caring about the long term best interests of the students. As my former students go along in their careers, in many cases our roles reverse and they educate me on things, making me the ‘student’ and them the ‘professor’. I am also a big fan of mentorship more broadly, because I look at my training and career trajectory and find myself extremely lucky that I had wonderful mentors at every step. So I try to ‘pay it forward’ by doing my part for the next generation.”
Read more about Mark, Jenn, and Todd in their profile stories: Mark Skylar-Scott, Jenn Brophy, Todd Coleman
