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A HUGE congratulations to Natalia for earning an engineering co-op position at Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, California. Natalia will be joining a team where she will continue the development of cutting-edge solutions for individuals battling cardiovascular disease. Although we are sad to lose Natalia this spring, we are excited to see the unique perspective she […]

In December, the Sharma lab celebrated the graduation of our fifth PhD graduate, Jessica Aldrich, and a superstar undergraduate student, Jillian Jacek, during the 2024 Fall Commencement. On a beautiful Florida day, Dr. Sharma was able to hood Dr. Aldrich during the graduate ceremony hosted at the O’Connell center! Congratulations, Jessica! Thank you for all […]

The Sharma Lab celebrated the end of a great semester with a White Elephant Gift Exchange Party at Dr.Sharma’s house where we all brought food to share that reminded us of home! Also, to whoever said Florida was way too warm for a fire– we happily proved you wrong. We hope that everyone has a […]

During the annual BME Holiday party, Suzanne Lightsey was awarded the Graduate Student Excellence Award for her contributions to the J Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering. This award is given to the registered BME graduate student who has excelled in her coursework, research, service to the department, and leadership– all of which Suzanne […]

Congratulations to Jillian Jacek, who successfully presented her undergraduate honor’s thesis on December 9th 2024! The title of her defense was “Evaluating the Chondroprotective Effects of MnO2” and reflected her work conducted as an undergraduate researcher in the Sharma Lab. Jillian has been a member of the Sharma lab since 2022, and will be graduating […]

Dr. Sharma was recently featured in the Gainesville Sun and UF News. Please see an excerpt from the article below: Equipped with a cutting-edge nanoparticle imaging technology, federal funds and a quest to quash pain, researchers at the University of Florida are working to revolutionize osteoarthritis treatments. Central to the research is the Magnetic Particle […]

On November 6th, Jessica Aldrich successfully defended her PhD, titled ‘Advancing a Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Nanomaterial Platform to Target Oxidative Stress In Osteoarthritis’! This work is the culmination of the last five and a half years of Jessica’s work in both the Sharma Lab and the Allen Lab. While at the University of Florida, […]

This Halloween, the Sharma Lab partnered with the Allen lab to recreate Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings. The Sharma Lab was transformed into the Shire and the Mirkwood Forrest lined the hallway that connected to Mordor (aka the Allen lab). This year’s theme idea came from Shane Priester, a PhD student in […]

At the end of October, Sharma Lab undergraduate students, Natalia and Victoria, attended the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Convention in Anaheim, CA! SHPE National Convention serves as the country’s largest, annual gathering of Hispanic STEM students and professionals. The convention brings together thousands of the best and brightest Hispanic scientists, mathematicians, and […]

On October 22nd, Suzanne presented her research at the main campus of the National Institute of Health (NIH) via both a poster and a talk. Her talk on “Engineering Hydrogels to Investigate the Role of Extracellular Matrix Cues on Natural Killer Cell Functions” was featured in the Cancer Therapies and Technologies session. NIH is the […]