Our Team

Rebecca Lynn Carrier, Ph.D.

Professor & Associate Chair of Research,  Chemical Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,  Bioengineering
Affiliated Faculty,  Biology
https://coe.northeastern.edu/people/carrier-rebecca/

Prof. Rebecca Carrier is a professor at the Northeastern University College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2008 for mechanistic studies and modeling of lipid based drug delivery systems in the GI tract, the NU “Outstanding Teacher” and “Faculty Fellow” Awards in 2011 and 2014 for excellence in teaching and research leadership, and the Soren Buus Outstanding Research Award in 2017. She was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering (2016) and Frontiers of Engineering Education (2013) Symposia. She served as the Member-At-Large for the Society for Biomaterials from 2018-2019, and was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2019.

Victus Kordorwu

Ph.D. Candidate

The role of mucus in performance of formulations is wholly overlooked in bio relevant dissolution systems. Victus’ research focuses on understanding the science behind the potential of mucus and its components to modify drug precipitation behavior in vitro by investigating the mechanism of precipitation inhibition using isothermal titration calorimetry and size exclusion chromatography under a range of different experimental conditions.

Chia-Ming (Charles) Wang

Ph.D. Candidate

Charles focuses on understanding modulation of the intestinal mucus barrier by food-associated stimuli which potentially disturbs the gut-microbiome-immune homeostasis, leading to intestinal inflammation. In addition, He is developing an intestine-on-a-chip model (mesofluidic gut tube) that enables in situ microscopy of the mucosal interface, and thus visualization of the acute impact of food-associated stimuli on the mucus barrier integrity and transportation/penetration of bacteria, particulates, and signaling molecules through the mucus layer to the underlying intestinal epithelium.

Joshua Luchan

Ph.D. Candidate

Joshua is working on the development of tissue engineered systems that incorporate the epithelium, immune system, and bacteria. He is interested in the differences between healthy and IBD predisposed tissues and the effects of probiotic intervention on gut health. He is also a member of the Bioengineering Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council.

Ian Smith

Ph.D. Candidate

Ian’s work focuses on improving our understanding of the transport mechanisms to exploit
lymphatic absorption for oral drug delivery by developing an in vitro model capable of recapitulating small intestinal lipid metabolism and lipoprotein synthesis. A cell-based assay that can predict the extent of lymphatic transport and the impact of co-delivered lipids would therefore be useful for developing more effective therapeutics.

Peng Zhao

Ph.D. Candidate

Peng’s work focuses on (1) Developing a synthetic extracellular matrix system to promote human retinal progenitor cell transplantation into the subretinal space. He is studying retinal cell response (survival, migration, and differentiation) within oxidized alginate hydrogels. (2) Investigating an in vitro retinal cell injection model to better mimic the bolus retinal cell injection present in the clinic. (3) Establishing a model to accomplish live imaging of pig retinal tissue slice.

Ronak Ansaripour

Ph.D. Candidate

Ronak’s work focuses on investigating retinal development and disease modeling in vitro. She is working on developing a retina-on-a-chip model to study retina development as well as the interaction between retinal tissue and vasculature in a disease state. In addition, she is working on implementing biomaterials in patterning retinal organoid tissue formation to understand how different microenvironments would affect the proper orientation of different cell types in the neural retina. 

Yuan Li

Ph.D. Candidate

Yuan’s research interests include modeling the duodenal tissue with human primary epithelial stem cells and selected commensal bacterial consortia on the microfluidic device and then using the chip model to measure the effects of gastrointestinal fluid mimics as well as different nutritional interventions on the duodenal epithelial inflammatory and metabolic responses.

Angelie Dumornay

Undergraduate Researcher

Angelie is a 3rd year Bioengineering Major in the Carrier Lab.

Whitney Hansberry

Undergraduate Researcher

Whitney (she/they pronouns) is in her final year of her (first?) chemical engineering degree. She has been working on Dr. Carrier’s “gut team” since the beginning of 2023 with PhD candidate, Matt Fernez, on his project looking at the effects of increased sulfide concentration on the mucosal lining of the microbiome.

Simran Malhotra

Undergraduate Researcher

Simran is a 3rd year Bioengineering/Biochem Major in the Carrier Lab.