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Congratulations to Matthew Rexroad, who successfully defended his Master’s thesis on Friday, October 20th, 2023! The title of his defense was “Adapting a Non-Invasive Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury Model for ACL Mid-Substance Tears in Rats” and reflected his work conducted as a researcher in the Sharma Lab. Matthew has been a member of the […]

From October 11-14, 2023, the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) held its annual meeting in Seattle, Washington. Jessica and Dr. Sharma traveled across country to participate in the conference. Once in Seattle, they were able to reconnect with former undergraduate student, Ethan To, who was presenting his work in the Sharma Lab! Together, the Sharma Lab […]

Congratulations to Dr. Sharma and collaborators for receiving an NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases grant for her project titled “ROS scavenging nanoparticles for mitigating oxidative stress in osteoarthritis”. The team of investigators includes Dr. Kyle Allen (BME), Dr. Terrence Ryan (Applied Physiology and Kinesiology), and Dr. Hari Parvataneni (Orthopedic Surgery). […]

In August, the Sharma lab celebrated the graduation of our fourth PhD graduate during the 2023 Summer Commencement! On a beautiful Florida day, Dr. Sharma was able to hood Dr. Ajayi during the graduate ceremony hosted at the O’Connell center! Congratulations, Tolu! Thank you for all of your hard work in the Sharma Lab. We […]

Congratulations to Nahis Cruz-Delgado for completing the University of Florida’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) through the Department of Chemical Engineering, with the support of the National Science Foundation. Participants in the REU program benefit from conducting research on a broad range of topics relevant to chemical engineering in a diverse and inclusive environment. Nahis […]

Congratulations to Gabby Flinn for completion of the UF BME Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Gabby was one of ten students selected to participate in this program. This summer, Gabby engineered 3D hydrogels of varying stiffness to interrogate cancer cell behavior under Suzanne Lightsey’s mentorship. At the end of the summer, Gabby disseminated her findings from […]

Jessica recently traveled to Lake Placid, New York (Home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics) to complete her first full distance Ironman. Jess started competing in triathlon during grad school and has already completed four Ironman 70.3 races and competes for the University of Florida Trigators club triathlon team.   Jess completed the race consisting […]

On July 20th, Tolulope Ajayi successfully defended her PhD, titled ‘Application of Imaging Modalities and Animal Models to Advance Nanoparticle Technologies for Osteoarthritis’! This work is the culmination of the last five years of Tolu’s work in both the Sharma Lab and the Allen Lab. While at the University of Florida, Tolu published several research […]

Be sure to check out the newest paper from our group, Drug Delivery Strategies and Nanozyme Technologies to Overcome Limitations for Targeting Oxidative Stress in Osteoarthritis, an invited review published in Pharmaceuticals. In this review, Jessica discusses the current state of nanozyme technologies for use as a therapeutic treatment for osteoarthritis. At this time, there […]

Jessica was recently awarded an NIH Ruth L Kirschstein training grant for the completion of her research on Manganese Dioxide as a Nanozyme to Mitigate Oxidative Stress in Osteoarthritis. This competitive grant supports Jessica’s research on manganese dioxide nanoparticles as a therapeutic treatment for osteoarthritis. She will be working collaboratively with the Dr. Terence Ryan […]