Focused at the interface of engineering, neuroscience and medicine, my research in the Department oof Biomedical Engineering at UT-Austin seeks to develop clinical therapies for injury and disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), including spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and brain cancers. Using biomaterial microenvironments, my research aims to identify differences between the extracellular environment of diseased and healthy or developing and adult CNS tissues and exploit these mechanistic discoveries to develop novel therapies that target the local environment. Engineered microenvironments enable ex vivo investigation of key physiological players within conditions approximating those in vivo so that physiologically relevant data can be obtained in a simplified context. Ultimately, this approach enables development of new therapeutic strategies based on controlled manipulation of these players. The long-term goal of my research is to use biomaterial microenvironments to create new therapies.