School of Engineering
Showing 4,421-4,430 of 6,554 Results
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Rebecca Pinals
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
BioThe brain is a fascinatingly complex and delicate system of biomolecules, cells, and dynamic interactions that must be carefully maintained to support human health. When this balance is disrupted, disease can arise. Neurodegenerative dementias including Alzheimer’s disease are highly prevalent and profoundly devastating, yet remain largely untreatable or incurable.
The Pinals Lab engineers neuro-models and nano-tools to uncover mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease and intervene to halt—and even reverse—disease progression. A particular emphasis of our work is on the blood–brain barrier (BBB), the vascular interface that serves as the molecular gateway into the brain. We leverage human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to build 3D cellular systems, providing a platform to recapitulate human brain properties and pathologies. In parallel, we design nanoparticles to report on real-time neurochemical processes, enabling unprecedented access to dynamic and spatially resolved biomolecular phenomena, and to modulate disease states. By integrating advanced human brain tissue models with rationally designed nanotechnologies, we aim to generate fundamental insights and tools that translate into meaningful impacts for human health. -
Minerva Suhail Pineda
Undergraduate, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design
Program Coordinator, Student Learning SupportBioUpcoming frosh @ Stanford
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Peter Pinsky
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
BioPinsky works in the theory and practice of computational mechanics with a particular interest in multiphysics problems in biomechanics. His work uses the close coupling of techniques for molecular, statistical and continuum mechanics with biology, chemistry and clinical science. Areas of current interest include the mechanics of human vision (ocular mechanics) and the mechanics of hearing. Topics in the mechanics of vision include the mechanics of transparency, which investigates the mechanisms by which corneal tissue self-organizes at the molecular scale using collagen-proteoglycan-ion interactions to explain the mechanical resilience and almost perfect transparency of the tissue and to provide a theoretical framework for engineered corneal tissue replacement. At the macroscopic scale, advanced imaging data is used to create detailed models of the 3-D organization of collagen fibrils and the results used to predict outcomes of clinical techniques for improving vision as well as how diseased tissue mechanically degrades. Theories for mass transport and reaction are being developed to model metabolic processes and swelling in tissue. Current topics in the hearing research arena include multiscale modeling of hair-cell mechanics in the inner ear including physical mechanisms for the activation of mechanically-gated ion channels. Supporting research addresses the mechanics of lipid bilayer cell membranes and their interaction with the cytoskeleton. Recent past research topics include computational acoustics for exterior, multifrequency and inverse problems; and multiscale modeling of transdermal drug delivery. Professor Pinsky currently serves as Chair of the Mechanics and Computation Group within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford.
