Dr. Stroka was recently invited to give a talk in the "Future of Biophysics" Symposium at the 2016 Biophysical Society Meeting, which will take place in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Stroka's talk will be entitled "Engineering Biomimetic Matrices to Understand Brain/Tumor Interactions during Metastasis." We hope to see you there!

Read more about the Future of Biophysics Symposium here.

Read more about the 2016 Biophysical Society Annual Meeting here.

PhD student Marina Shumakovich presented her poster, entitled, "Effects of Astrocytes from Brain Microenvironments on Motility and Morphology of Tumor Cells" at the 2015 Bioscience Research Day. Thanks for representing the lab, Marina!

Read more about Bioscience Research Day here.

Dr. Stroka recently joined the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the School of Medicine and was invited to give a talk by Center Director Dr. Curt Civin. Dr. Stroka's talk, entitled "Engineering Biomimetic Matrices and Cell-on-Chip Systems to Understand Cell Mechanobiology" summarized the lab's current efforts in developing a model blood-brain barrier and understanding tumor cell metastasis into the brain. Thanks to Dr. Civin for the invitation, and thanks to Center members for great discussions about potential collaborations!

We are excited to welcome Michelle Baird from the Biophysics PhD Program, to our lab for a rotation! Michelle will be working on moving forward our mesenchymal stem cell mechanobiology project. Welcome, Michelle!

Dr. Stroka was invited by Dr. Herb Geller to give an invited talk at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the NIH. Her talk, entitled "Physical and Biochemical Cues from the Brain Microenvironment Influence Tumor Cell Migration and Extravasation" summarized the lab's current efforts in developing a blood-brain barrier model and understanding metastasis across the blood-brain barrier. Thanks to Dr. Geller for the invitation, and thanks to everyone at NIH for productive and insightful conversations!