Biography
Matthew was born and raised in South Florida. He competed the BS/MS program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami in 2015 and then completed his PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Ashu Agarwal. His doctoral research focused on combining microfluidics and tissue engineering to develop organ-on-chip devices with the goal of developing new models of human organ function to improve methods for studying diseases. His work developing a glomerulus-on-chip was funded by a National Research Service Award Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Additionally, Matthew co-founded a Bio-Vitro, a startup aimed at commercializing the organ-on-chip technology he helped developed. In the summer of 2020, Matthew joined the Millman Lab with the goal of applying his skills toward engineering stem cell-derived ß-cells.
Research Interests
Static cell culture systems and animal models are sometimes insufficient to recreate the complex, dynamic processes of human physiology and disease progression. However, the integration of microfluidics and tissue engineering provides an avenue to develop dynamic in-vitro systems that model the function of human organs. Matthew’s current research focuses on incorporating the functional, stem cell-derived ß-cells developed by his mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Millman, into microfluidic systems to improve maturation and model the dynamic pathophysiology of diabetes. His other research interests include engineering kidney organoids, which can be combined with stem cell-derived ß-cells to potentially model diabetic kidney disease.
Lab