Author: Lightsey, Suzanne

On July 20th, Tolulope Ajayi successfully defended her PhD, titled ‘Application of Imaging Modalities and Animal Models to Advance Nanoparticle Technologies for Osteoarthritis’! This work is the culmination of the last five years of Tolu’s work in both the Sharma Lab and the Allen Lab. While at the University of Florida, Tolu published several research…

Be sure to check out the newest paper from our group, Drug Delivery Strategies and Nanozyme Technologies to Overcome Limitations for Targeting Oxidative Stress in Osteoarthritis, an invited review published in Pharmaceuticals. In this review, Jessica discusses the current state of nanozyme technologies for use as a therapeutic treatment for osteoarthritis. At this time, there…

Jessica was recently awarded an NIH Ruth L Kirschstein training grant for the completion of her research on Manganese Dioxide as a Nanozyme to Mitigate Oxidative Stress in Osteoarthritis. This competitive grant supports Jessica’s research on manganese dioxide nanoparticles as a therapeutic treatment for osteoarthritis. She will be working collaboratively with the Dr. Terence Ryan…

Matthew Rexroad, a Master’s student, was selected to be an HSF Scholar. The HSF selects 10,000 outstanding students as HSF scholars making this scholarship extremely competitive and prestigious. This is the second time Matthew has received this recognition, further validating all the hard work and effort Matthew has put into his education and research. Matthew’s…

Tucked away in West Gainesville, the Sharma Lab traveled to University of Florida’s facility, TREEO, to host a lab retreat. Our lab retreats comprise of scientific sessions where each lab member gives a presentation. This year, the focus was on considering new techniques, technologies, or methods needed to answer the elusive questions in our work.…

Earlier this summer, the Sharma Lab bid farewell to long-time lab member, Quincy Barton. Quincy will be working as a Research and Development Scientist at AstraZeneca. Congratulations to Quincy and we wish him the very best as he moves onto this exciting phase of his career!

This past year, Suzanne was elected Vice President of Education Outreach in Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society. Suzanne organized and led 10 free STEM-based experimental activities. These events were designed to complement the education received in Alachua County public schools for local K-12 students. Each activity had at least 35 kids signed up…

The Sharma Lab closed out the academic year with dinner at Dr. Sharma’s house where we laughed over funny memories and admired the many accomplishments achieved over the last year. Although we are sad to see such familiar faces go at the end of the year, we are excited about the future endeavors that await…

The Society For Biomaterials (SFB) hosted their 2023 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, themed “Rising the Translational Waves to the Future,” on April 19th-22nd. The meeting focused on breakthroughs in biomaterial science, translation of research to clinical application, next-generation medical devices, standards development, regulatory issues, and commercial realities. Suzanne, a third year PhD student,…

On April 12th, the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at UF hosted Undergraduate Research Day. Undergraduate Research Day is designed to showcase the quality of student research projects conducted during the academic year, as well as inspire classmates in biomedical engineer programs to pursue their research. Out of the thirty-two undergraduate poster…