Our Team
Principal Investigator: Levi Wood
Dr. Wood completed his graduate training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While there he worked under the guidance of Drs. H. Harry Asada and Roger Kamm to develop and use microfluidics to identify mechanisms governing vascular geometry.
During his postdoc, Dr. Wood worked under Dr. Kevin Haigis (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School) and Dr. Douglas Lauffenburger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to use systems biology to identify novel signaling mechanisms driving neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease and epithelial cell death during intestinal inflammation.
Contact: levi dot wood at me dot gatech dot edu
Graduate Students
Laura Weinstock
Education: B.S. in Biochemistry, summa cum laude, Northeastern University
Research Topic: Prediction and control of the dynamic microglial response to injury
Awards: CTEng Trainee
Contact: lweinstock3 at gatech dot edu
Sitara Sankar
Education: B.S. in Biological Engineering, Cornell Unversity
Research Topic: The role of heme and hemoglobin in astrocyte activation and Alzheimer's disease
Contact: sitara dot sankar at gatech dot edu
Alyssa Pybus
Education: B.S. in Bioengineering, MIT
Research Topic: Identifying mechanisms driving neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in repetititive traumatic brain injury
Contact: afpybus at gatech dot edu
Junho Yoo
Education: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech
Research Topic: Assesment of prognostic potential of cerebral blood flow, oxygen metablism, and cerebral reactivity following closed head injury
Contact: jyoo84 at gatech dot edu
Jay McKinney
Primary Advisor: Nick Willet
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Education: B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology; M.S. in Medical Sciences, Boston University
Research Topic: Analysis of the therapeutic efficacy of human Mesenchymal Stem Cell paracrine signaling mechanisms in osteoarthritis
Contact: jmckinney at gatech dot edu
Lab Technician
Sara Bitarafan
Education: Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2019
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Research Topic: Quantifying changes in microglial activation in neuroinflammatory diseases
Mary-Catherine Bryant
Education: Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2020
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Research Topic: Characterizing heme signaling in glial cells and neurons in Alzheimer’s disease
Benjamin Ahn
Education: Biology, Class of 2023
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Research Topic: Modulating neuroimmune cell activity in Alzheimer's disease
Andy Begazo
Education: Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2020
Undergraduates
Alexis Wilkinson
Education: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Class of 2019
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Research Topic: Characterizing phenotypic differences in pericytes in pathological conditions​
Kajol Shah
Education: Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2020
Research Topic: Quantitative Characterization of Astrocyte and Microglial Activation in 2D and 3D Culture
Jimmy Forsmo
Education: Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2020
​Research Topic: Examining neuroimmune cell activity in Alzheimer's disease
