Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Cole Dwiggins (BIOE '22) who has been awarded an ASPIRE Fellowship from MTech to support his research in Spring 2021! Cole joined the lab last fall and is working on developing methods to quantitatively analyze local permeability maps for iPSC-derived brain microvascular endothelial cells. Congratulations, Cole!

Thank you to the Clark School of Engineering, who selected Dr. Stroka to receive this year's E. Robert Kent Teaching Award for Junior Faculty! The award will be presented at the 2020 virtual winter commencement.

Dr. Stroka presented the lab's work in a talk at this year's virtual AICHe-organized Regenerative Engineering Symposium. Thanks to the organizers for the invitation to share our work, and to the other speakers for a great panel discussion after the session!

Dr. Stroka, her TI-83 calculator costume (made in 2005!), and her little sidekicks are this year's winner of the 2020 BIOE virtual Halloween costume contest! 

A new paper in collaboration with Dr. Joe Huang's lab has been accepted for publication as an invited manuscript in a special issue of Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics! This paper is titled "Photodynamic Priming Modulates Endothelial Cell–Cell Junction Phenotype for Light-activated Remote Control of Drug Delivery." Congratulations to first author Collin Inglut, second author Dr. Kelsey Gray (Stroka Lab PhD '19), and the rest of the team!

The Stroka Lab welcomes Ian Smith, a first-year PhD student, into the lab! Ian joins us after completing his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry from Georgia Tech in December 2019. You can read more about Ian on the "Team" page. Welcome to the lab and UMD BIOE, Ian!

Dr. Stroka recently published a commentary "New and Notable" article in Biophysical Journal. She noted in the title, "Swimming cells can stay in shape" because the swimming motion across non-adhesive surfaces is not powered by dynamic shape changes of cells, but rather by a molecular paddling motion. The paper described in the commentary was recently published in the same issue of Biophysical Journal by Olivier Theodoly's lab. 

Congratulations to Dr. Mary Doolin, who will be moving on to a postdoc position at Astrazeneca! Dr. Doolin was an NIH F31 fellow in the lab and defended her PhD in June.  We are extremely sad to see her leave the lab, but we know even greater things are ahead for her!

Dr. Stroka has received a teaching innovation grant from the Office of the Provost to redesign her Biomechanics (BIOE404) course!

BIOE Honors student Samantha Kraus ('21) was chosen as a 2020-2021 Phillip Merrill Presidential Scholar and named Dr. Stroka as the "faculty mentor who has had the greatest impact on her academic achievement." Congratulations to Samantha!

This highly selective program is made possible by the generosity of the Philip Merrill family. It recognizes students’ academic excellence and the important role that teachers and faculty have as mentors. In addition to recognizing the seniors, the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars program honors the K-12 teachers and University of Maryland faculty selected by the students themselves. For more information about the Merrill Scholars Program, visit their website.