Congratulations Sareum, Keyu, and Gokul on Passing your Thesis Proposals!

A big congratulations to our three 2nd year lab members for presenting and passing their Thesis Proposal Presentations! We celebrated their accomplishment by sharing a meal at Mestizo. Leading up to this moment were several practices, a lot of pizza, and, of course, a lot of effort from our three PhD students.

Dinner at Mestizo.

Left side of the table, front to back: Jose, Nick, Layla, Yuxuan, Xinyi.

Right side of the table, front to back: Mackenzie, Clover, Keyu, Sareum, and Gokul.

Sareum’s Thesis Summary

Sareum’s thesis proposes the development of a rapid and scalable 3D histopathology platform for clinical diagnosis. His work aims to overcome the long turnaround times, labor demands, and sampling bias of traditional histopathology by enabling comprehensive 3D architectural and molecular analysis of intact core biopsies. By integrating fast tissue processing, advanced imaging, and AI-driven analysis, he envisions improving diagnostic accuracy and supporting better clinical decision-making.

Gokul’s Thesis Summary

Gokul presented his thesis proposal on developing minimally invasive devices for cell based modulation of bioactive molecules. These devices are built to sustain any therapeutic tissue in the long term within the patient and address a wide range of diseases. He believes that his never-ending curiosity and unwavering support from the Chung lab will help him bring the proposed project to life!

Keyu’s Thesis Summary

Keyu's thesis project aims to create next generation cell therapy delivery platforms that enables the treatment of chronic disease. He takes inspiration from biology and combines unique approaches from additive manufacturing and polymer chemistry to create compact and vascularized cellular encapsulation devices capable of delivering therapeutically relevant cell cargos into live hosts. He aims to tackle diabetes as a proof of concept, integrating various therapeutic cells into the device and testing their ability to secrete insulin in response to elevated glucose levels in a laboratory setup. Ultimately, he will establish the blood sugar controlling ability of his cellularized device within large animal models to pave the way for the translation of his technology for human use.