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Hettiaratchi Lab

News

July 2022

NIH R35 MIRA, Baxter, and Department of Defense Awards

The lab receives three new awards! This funding comes from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense, and Donald and Delia Baxter Foundation. You can here more about all three new awards here!

Congratulations Jonathan!

Jonathan wins a travel award to the 2022 TERMIS Americas conference in Toronto!

June 2022

Congratulations Morrhyssey and Maddy!

Congratulations to both Morrhyssey and Maddy for each receiving a University of Oregon SPUR summer fellowship!

Congratulations Jonathan!

Congratulations to Jonathan for his advancement to bioengineering Ph.D. candidate!

May 2022

Congratulations Henry!

Congratulations to Henry for successfully defending his senior thesis and winning the Science Frontiers Thesis Award from the Honors College!

Congratulations Ireland!

Congratulations to Ireland for successfully defending her senior thesis!

Congratulations Simon!

Congratulations to Simon for successfully defending his senior thesis!

January 2022

Congratulations Lily!

Congratulations to Lily for being named a Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholar! She will be working on developing hyaluronic acid hydrogels for protein delivery.

Congratulations Henry!

Congratulations to Henry Hochstatter for winning an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Mini-grant! This funding will support his senior thesis project on developing affinity binding partners for controlled protein delivery.

December 2021

Our lab is featured with the Hosseinzadeh and Plesa labs on the Knight Campus website

Our research neighborhood is featured on the Knight Campus website for recent NIH grants awarded to our lab, the Plesa lab, and the Hosseinzadeh lab. We're grateful to work alongside such amazing researchers in the Knight Campus's unique research neighborhood setup! You can read more about all of our labs in this feature story.

Congratulations Yan!

Congratulations to Yan for winning the Knight Campus's Diversity Award for his outstanding contributions and exceptional commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion in our community!

Congratulations Henry!

Congratulations to Henry Hochstatter for winning an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Mini-grant! This funding will support his senior thesis project on developing affinity binding partners for controlled protein delivery.

November 2021

Hettiaratchi Lab members win awards at the Oregon Bioengineering Symposium!

Several Hettiaratchi Lab members won awards for their presentations at the 3rd annual Oregon Bioengineering Symposium! Congratulations to John O'Hara-Smith who won first place for his flash talk, Ireland John who won second place for her flash talk, and Henry Hochstatter who won first place for his poster!

October 2021

NIBIB R21 Trailblazer Award - Our Lab's First NIH Funding!

The lab receives an R21 Trailblazer Award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering! This $602,000, 3-year award will fund the lab's work in using directed evolution to identify novel binding partners for affinity-controlled protein release. You can here more about this new award here!

Welcome Chandler!

We're thrilled to welcome our new lab manager Chandler Asnes! Chandler will provide support to a variety of projects in the lab.

September 2021

Dr. Hettiaratchi wins a Faculty Research Mentor Award!

Dr. Hettiaratchi wins a Faculty Research Mentor Award from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Engagement! Thanks to our undergrad researchers for the nomination!

Welcome Yan Carlos Pacheco!

We are excited to welcome Yan Carlos Pacheco, our newest bioengineering graduate student, to the lab! Yan joins us from the University of Florida where he recently completed a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Yan is co-advised by Dr. Nick Willett and will be working on biomaterials for bone repair.

Welcome Lily and Simon!

We're excited to welcome two new undergraduate researchers to the lab: Lily Mozipo and Simon Oh. Lily will be working with Veronica on hydrogel chemistry, and Simon will be working with John on affinity binding partners.

July 2021

The Knight Campus Receives a Second $500 Million Gift from Phil and Penny Knight

See more details and the video of the official announcement here! This gift will fund the next phase of the new campus, enabling further expansion of bioengineering and applied scientific research at the University of Oregon, including training additional students, hiring new faculty members, and a second building.

June 2021

Congratulations John!

Congratulations to John O'Hara-Smith for being awarded a T32 fellowship through the Molecular Biology and Biophysics Training Program!

Welcome Veronica and John!

We're so excited to welcome Veronica Spaulding (Chemistry) and John O'Hara-Smith (Institute of Molecular Biology) as the newest graduate students in the Hettiaratchi Lab! They bring their unique expertise in chemistry and biology to our interdisciplinary work.

Congratulations Henry!

Congratulations to Henry Hochstatter for being granted a University of Oregon SPUR summer fellowship!

Congratulations Ireland!

Ireland Johnson is featured on the Knight Campus website as a Maybelle Clark Macdonald Scholar!

April 2021

Spring is here!

We welcome Veronica Spaulding and Ethan Kimmett as new graduate rotation students in the lab!

March 2021

Medical Research Foundation New Investigator Award

The lab receives a Medical Research Foundation New Investigator Award to develop a biomaterial to support re-vascularization of damaged tissues!

Congratulations Hons!

Congratulations to Hons Rajabzadeh for winning an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Mini-grant! This funding will support his senior thesis project on developing hyaluronic acid hydrogels for neuro-modulation.

January 2021

The Hettiaratchi Lab is 1 year old!

We published our first review paper, led by graduate student Jonathan Dorogin, in the 2021 Emerging Investigators issue of Biomaterials Science.

We welcome rotation students Andres Guerrero and Wyatt Parks from the department of chemistry and biochemistry to the lab!

Congratulations Jonathan and Ireland!

Congratulations to Ireland Johnson for being named a Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholar! This award will fund a full year of Ireland's research on biomaterials for bone regeneration in the Hettiaratchi Lab.

Graduate student Jonathan Dorogin is featured on the website for the new UO-OSU Bioengineering Graduate Program.

September 2020

The Hettiaratchi Lab moves into the new Knight Campus building

September was an exciting month for the Hettiaratchi Lab! The lab moves into the new Knight Campus building! We're very quickly getting set up to do science in our new space.

We welcome Jonathan Dorogin, our first graduate student in Bioengineering, and John O'Hara Smith, rotating graduate student from the Department of Biology! We also welcome undergraduate researcher Henry Hochstatter from the Clark Honors College, who is majoring in human physiology.

August 2020

Altered enzyme offers hope for spinal injury and stroke

Our new paper on re-engineering an enzyme to degrade the glial scar following stroke and spinal cord injury is published in Science Advances!

You can find the complete story in Around the O.

July 2020

Congratulations Ireland and Annie!

Congratulations to Ireland Johnson and her mentor Annie Gilbert for winning the Peter O'Day Fellowship in Biological Sciences!

Ireland's project will focus on improving the versatility of demineralized bone matrix as a treatment for bone injury.

June 2020

The lab receives a Collins Medical Trust grant!

The Hettiaratchi Lab receives a grant from the Collins Medical Trust to develop a biomaterial strategy to improve protein delivery to large bone fractures!

We're setting up in our temporary space

It's starting to look more like a real lab! We've been unpacking boxes and getting ready to get back to work.

March 2020

First shipment of equipment arrives in the lab!

We welcome rotation student, Dillon Willis, from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and undergraduates, Branden Henry, Hons Rajabzadeh, and Ireland Johnson to the lab!

The lab may be closed, but we're still receiving orders! Here's all the boxes have that arrived so far with new equipment to set up.

January 2020

First shipment of equipment arrives in the lab!

The lab officially opens its doors!

The Hettiaratchi Lab receives a UO-OHSU Collaborative Seed Grant to develop vascularized and innervated bone grafts with Dr. Luiz Bertassoni. We're looking forward to starting this collaboration!

Our new paper on heparin-based biomaterials for protein delivery to repair large bone defects in rats is out in Science Advances. Check out the story in Around the O!

November 2019

Oregon Bioengineering Symposium

Marian presents at the inaugural Oregon Bioengineering Symposium at Oregon State University.