Our Team
Welcoming students with diverse backgrounds, the Sharma Lab creates an environment for all to follow their interests when working on projects. Interested in joining the Sharma Lab?
Postdoctoral Fellows
Folly Patterson, Ph.D.
B.S. in Biological Engineering, Mississippi State UniversityM.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State UniversityPh.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State UniversityDr. Patterson focuses on immunomodulatory therapeutics for knee OA. Pro-inflammatory macrophages in the joint perpetuate a cycle of cartilage degradation and further inflammation. Polarizing macrophages in the joint to an anti-inflammatory state can mitigate OA progression. Dr. Patterson focuses on testing these therapeutics, including CD200 microparticles, in cell culture and animal models. Additionally, she is working on isolating and characterizing synovial cells from tissues donated by OA patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Using these primary cells will improve translatability of potential OA therapeutics to future clinical use.
Graduate Students
Jessica Aldrich
Doctoral CandidateB.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Wichita State UniversityM.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Wichita State UniversityResearch Interests: Drug delivery, nanoparticles, osteoarthritis
Suzanne Lightsey
Doctoral CandidateB.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of VirginiaResearch Interests: 3D tumor models, immunotherapy, biomaterials, in vitro modeling
Touraj Amrabadi
Doctoral StudentM.S. in Biotechnology, Amirkabir University of Technology – Tehran PolytechnicB.S. in Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology – Tehran PolytechnicResearch Interests: drug delivery, nanoparticle synthesis
Rylee Newport
Doctoral StudentB.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of OklahomaResearch Interests: 3D tumor models, immunotherapy
Matthew Rexroad
Master’s StudentB.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of FloridaResearch Interests: Characterization of non-invasive animal models for osteoarthritis
Tomas Clavijo-Garcia
Master’s StudentB.E. in Materials Engineering, University of FloridaResearch Interests: Natural killer cells, biomaterials, nanoparticles
Mattison McKenzie
Master’s StudentB.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Mercer UniversityResearch Interests: Drug delivery, nanoparticles, osteoarthritis
Undergraduate Students
Victoria Consalvo
Biomedical Engineering
Gabriella Flinn
Biomedical Engineering
Rachel Griffin-Cohan
Biomedical Engineering
Natalia Munetones Martinez
Biomedical Engineering
Angels Vasquez
Microbiology and Cell Science