Professor Alptekin Aksan
Laboratory Director
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
I am interested biostabilization, biotransport, and biothermodynamics. I received my Ph.D. from Michigan State University, and worked as a post-doc at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. I like hiking, biking, snorkeling, cooking, traveling, teaching thermodynamics, and listening to genre of music not many people enjoy.
Julian Preciado
Ph.D. Candidate
Julian completed his B.S. in Bioengineering from Oregon State University. He is currently attempting to develop 3D in vitro models to study cancer dormancy and tunneling nanotube formation. Cancer dormancy is a stage of cancer progression where cells that metastized to a secondary organ are in a quiescent state while they evolve to survive in the new microenvironment. No currently known in vitro models to study cancer dormancy exists and being able to study dormancy in vitro would eluminate reasons and possible treatments to prevent cancer metastasis and resurgence. Tunneling nanotubes are nanometer-scale actin-based connections between cells. They are currently being studied as a way of chemotherapy resistance of tumor cells.
Beatriz de Souza
Ph.D. Student
Beatriz received her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD in 2016 and 2018 respectively. She is a Brazilian student currently pursuing her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at University of Minnesota. She joined Professor Aksan's Bioencapsulation and Biostabilization in the summer of 2018. Her research focuses on the area of bioencapsulation, specifically on encapsulation of bacteria and enzymes to be used in bioremediation and biocatalysis. Her initial project focuses on developing and translating a cyanuric acid bioremediation system in a flow-through setting.
Mian Wang
Ph.D. Student
I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering Department and I have joined professor Aksan’s group since 2017. I am currently working in Biostablization lab, studying the cellular molecular changes (such as lipid cell membrane phase change and denaturation of cellular protein) associated with freeze/thaw during cryopreservation of biospecimens. My hobbies include hiking, photography and classical guitar.
Advitiya Mahajan
Ph.D. Student
Advitiya completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from The Ohio State University. He worked as a research assistant in cardiovascular medicine for two years before joining University of Minnesota. He is currently a first year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering and is working on biostabilization. He is a huge soccer fan and loves watching his favorite premier league team Chelsea. His hobbies include playing tennis, table tennis, cooking, and listening to music.
Ezgi Evcik
Laboratory Assistant
Ezgi is currently a senior at University of Minnesota Twin Cities who is originally from Turkey. She is majoring in Chemical Engineering and her minor is in Chemistry. She joined Professor Aksan's Bioencapsulation and Biostabilization in May 2018. Her research focuses on conducting bioencapsulation and immobilization methods for bacteria, measuring adsorption, and degradation kinetics in different substrates using different bacteria in a flow-through setting.