I am a PhD student in the department of biomedical engineering! My research interests are at the intersection of bone regeneration and immune modulation. My current project is the design of polymers for cell-specific degradation through the incorporation of protease-sensitive peptides, with the ultimate goal of improving the resorption of polymeric scaffolds for bone regeneration. Degradation of the peptide-polymers is being evaluated through both enzyme- and osteoclast-mediated means. The osteoclast-polymer interface has also been explored using high resolution confocal microscopy to visualize the modes of resorption in real time. In addition, I am characterizing macrophage response to our new libraries of Tyrosol-derived polymers to better understand how macrophage-mesenchymal stem cell interactions can better predict performance of our polymers in vivo.