Bioengineering
Showing 1-20 of 20 Results
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Paul Täufer
Ph.D. Student in Bioengineering, admitted Autumn 2026
BioPaul is a graduate physics student from Germany interested in research at the intersection of biology, medicine, engineering, and physics.
At Stanford, he is researching the biophysics of immune cells, focusing on NETosis, a process by which certain immune cells, particularly neutrophils, release extracellular traps (NETs) composed of DNA, histones, antimicrobial and cytotoxic proteins to capture and neutralize pathogens. This process plays a crucial role in the immune system's defense against infections but can also damage the host and correlate with the worsening of chronic inflammatory diseases. In particular, Paul investigates how membrane fluidity impacts membrane tension and the downstream cellular process of NETosis. He ultimately aims to comprehensively characterize NETosis and its influence on plasma membrane biophysics, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms of immune response. -
Sindy Tang
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Radiology and of Bioengineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Sindy K.Y. Tang develops engineering platforms that measure biological systems and convert these measurements into quantitative datasets. Her research focuses on experimental systems that probe biological processes across cellular and tissue scales, particularly how physical context—geometry, mechanics, and spatial organization—shapes biological function. Current work spans immune diagnostics, spatial tissue sampling for multi-omics analysis, and single-cell perturbation studies.
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Hawa Racine Thiam
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and of Microbiology and Immunology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur current work has two branches. Branch #1 is building a quantitative and predictive understanding of how neutrophils initiate and complete NETosis. Branch #2 is identifying the molecular and biophysical mechanisms that regulate high deformability in neutrophils. These branches converge onto understanding and harnessing the impact of nuclear biophysics on immune cell functions to re-engineer neutrophils for improved health.
