Faculty

Dr. Gonzalo Arce’s fields of interest include computational imaging and spectroscopy, signal processing, machine learning, and data science. His active fields of research are: compressive sensing, computational imaging, graph neural networks, and graph signal processing. He is the Charles Black Evans Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the JPMorgan Chase Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Financial Services Analytics. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and SPIE. He holds over fifteen US and international patents.

Kenneth E. Barner is the Charles Black Evans Professor of Electrical Engineering. His research interests include statistical signal and image processing, nonlinear and sparse signal processing, machine learning, and human-computer interaction, with an emphasis on information access for individuals with disabilities. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (magna cum laude) from Lehigh University and master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Delaware. Prof. Barner, who joined the UD faculty in 1993, is a Fellow of the IEEE. He has served as associate editor for numerous signal processing journals and was the Founding Editor in Chief of the journal Advances in Human-Computer Interaction. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Phi Sigma Kappa.

A trained cell biologist with experience in Single Molecule RNA imaging for 15 years. Interested in exploring the role of RNA in regulating gene expression in the cell and in maintaining cell-cell communication.

My research examines the relationship between motor and other system impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Currently I am working on 3 projects: a) motor differences in children with ASD, b) effects of creative and general motor interventions in children with ASD, and c) more broadly the services received by children with ASD and how those were negatively impacted following the COVID-19 pandemic. My lab visualizes and analyzes large datasets in children with autism and related disorders. I am looking to work with students who are interested in applying data visualization and analytical approaches to understand long-term trends in quantitative and qualitative datasets with the broader goal of understanding patterns of impairment and how that impacts daily functioning and future outcomes of children with developmental disorders.

Biological systems have been used for the production of value-added compounds for centuries; however, our ability to read and write DNA make it possible to engineer biology to far exceed its natural capabilities. My research group addresses big problems in sustainability, human health, national defense, and space exploration – using synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, genomics & systems biology, and protein engineering. We work mostly in eukaryotic systems (non-model yeast and mammalian cells) as well as bacteria. We are increasingly interested in the use of systems-scale data for better informing biological design decisions.

The research in the Caplan lab focuses on the role of organelle dynamics during plant innate immunity. Specifically, we are interested in how and why chloroplasts dramatically change their morphology by sending out stroma-filled tubules called “stromules.” We are studying their function during chloroplast movement and localized release of signals, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), during innate immune responses to pathogens.

Dr. Chandrasekaran’s research interests include exploring high-level directive-based parallel programming models for heterogeneous HPC and embedded systems, exploring strategies to migrate scientific applications to current and future platforms, creating benchmark suites representing real-world applications to measure performance of computing systems, building validation and verification suites for validating parallel programming models and its conformance to the standard.

The Day Lab develops innovative nanomaterials that enable high precision therapy of cancer and other diseases, and elucidates how nanoparticle architecture impacts function by studying nano/bio interactions from the subcellular to whole organism level. The nanoparticles we develop enable high precision by: (1) inhibiting molecules that are expressed exclusively in diseased cells through nucleic acid or antibody delivery, (2) facilitating light-triggered release of therapeutic payloads, or (3) using cell-derived membranes as coatings to avoid detection by the immune system and deliver cargo to specific cells. Our research is at the forefront of nanomedicine, and is advancing the field by revealing important information regarding the design and implementation of nanoparticles for therapeutic applications. In the future, the technologies we develop may transform the way we manage diseases such as cancer, blood disorders, pregnancy-related conditions, and more.

The Duncan lab uses anatomical, genetic, molecular and cell biology methods to investigate the molecular basis of blinding eye conditions, most notably cataracts. Diverse bioinformatic methods are used in this research as well. A current focus of the lab and possible topic for a research MS thesis in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology is the bioinformatic analysis of RNA-seq data generated from tissues with highly non-normal distributions of gene expression.

The Gleghorn Lab is an interdisciplinary research group that studies lung and placenta development to treat congenital birth defects, conditions associated with preterm birth, and maternal-fetal health complications. Or focus relies on deciphering physicochemical intercellular communication, spatial gene regulation, cellular and microbial ecology and interactions with mammalian cells and viruses using developing organ models, microfabricated 3D organotypic culture models, quantitative analysis, and computational methods.

Jennifer Horney is Professor and Founding Director of the Program in Epidemiology and Core Faculty at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Dr. Horney’s research focuses on measuring the health impacts of disasters. She received her PhD in Epidemiology and MPH from the UNC at Chapel Hill. She has led interdisciplinary research projects funded by the NIEHS, NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal, state, and local agencies. Dr. Horney was a member of a team of public health practitioners who responded to Hurricanes Isabel, Charley, Katrina, Wilma, Irene, and Harvey where she conducted rapid assessments of disaster impact on the public health of individuals and communities. She has also provided technical assistance to public health agencies globally around disasters, emerging infectious disease outbreaks, and pandemic influenza planning and response.

Arthi Jayaraman is a Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware. She is also an editor for two ACS journals – Macromolecules and ACS Polymers Au. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and conducted her postdoctoral research in Materials Science and Engineering at UIUC. After holding the position of Patten Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering at University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder, in 2014 she joined UD. Her research expertise is in the development of modeling, theory, simulation, and machine learning methods and their application to study synthetic and biologically relevant soft materials. Her research has been recognized with the AIChE COMSEF Impact Award (2021), American Physical Society (APS) Fellowship (2020), Dudley Saville Lectureship at Princeton University (2016), ACS PMSE Young Investigator (2014), AIChE COMSEF division Young Investigator Award (2013), CU Provost Faculty Achievement Award (2013), and the DOE Early Career Research Award (2010).

Dr. Johnson uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the mechanics of tissues in the body and how they can be used to understand the structure, function, and health of various organs, with a specific focus on the human brain. In particular, Dr. Johnson uses the magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) technique, which noninvasively probes tissue viscoelasticity through the imaging of shear waves generated in the body. His research includes the development of high-resolution MRE imaging protocols through MRI pulse sequence design, image reconstruction schemes for accelerated MRE, and incorporation of advanced tissue models such as anisotropy and poroelasticity. Dr. Johnson explores using the MRE technique for a variety of applications in neuroscience, neurology, and neurosurgery, such as better understanding the structure-function relationship of the hippocampus and evaluating meningiomas prior to surgical resection.

The April Kloxin Group seeks to understand important biological signals in tissue regeneration and disease using both a materials- and engineering-based approach. They design materials to mimic soft tissues, such as brain, muscle, and connective tissue, and whose properties can be modified at any location and time. These novel biomaterials are used as a flexible platform for cell culture to ask fundamental questions about how the environment surrounding a cell influences cell function and fate for tissue regeneration or disease progression. These findings are utilized to develop better strategies for tissue repair or disease treatment towards improving human health.

I am an associate professor originally from Trinidad and Tobago. I did my undergraduate schooling at North Carolina Central University (HBCU), masters and PhD training at The Ohio State University, and postdoctoral study at the University of Michigan Medical School. My research interests concerns stress and learning and memory. Peripheral hormones and central ascending arousal systems contribute to emotional learning and memory. These systems are also sensitive to stress, and under certain circumstances, may contribute to emotional memory processes that contribute to psychiatric disorders (e.g. PTSD, substance abuse). My research interests concern exploring how stress-induced changes in peripheral hormonal, ascending arousal, and emotional circuit systems contribute to stress-induced effects that model specific symptoms in psychiatric disorders.​

Our research focuses on the mechanobiology in musculoskeletal system, in particular how cartilage and bone cells sense the mechanical forces generated from our physical activities and transfer the signals into orchestrated cellular activities. Using advanced mechanical methods, microscopy techniques, nanotechnology, proteomics and computational modeling, the mechano-chemical conversation between cartilage and bone at both molecular and cellular levels are investigated to understand the etiology of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, and to find new therapeutic interventions aimed at the mitigation or treatment of these diseases.

Research in the Medina lab is committed to understanding how we represent the body, how we integrate body representations with spatial, attentional, and motor systems, and how we represent the location of stimuli in our environment. The research uses behavioral testing with brain damaged and neurologically intact individuals, along with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques.

A key theme of Dr. Perilla’s research is to explore fundamental cell processes across multiple scales. Dr. Perilla’s primary technique is molecular dynamics (MD). During the past three decades, MD simulations have emerged as a “computational microscope”, which has provided a unique framework for the study of the phenomena of cell biology in atomic (or near-atomic) detail. Remarkably, due to the the ambitious nature of Dr. Perilla’s research, his lab has developed novel MD
approaches for computation, data analysis, and interface to experiments. In addition, the synergistic interplay between Dr. Perilla’s computational work and state-of-the-art experimental work performed by experimental collaborators, has resulted in a robust framework for
elucidating accurately and quantitatively the physical mechanisms of biomolecular function.

Dr. Ilya Safro received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Achi Brandt and Dorit Ron. In January 2021, he joined the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Delaware. In 2012-2020, Dr. Safro held assistant and associate professor positions in the School of Computing at Clemson University. He was also a Faculty Scholar of the Clemson University School of Health Research. Before that he was a postdoc and Argonne scholar at the Division of Mathematics and Computer Science at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Safro research is funded by NSF, DARPA, DOE, BMW, and Greenville Healthcare Systems. His research interests include algorithms and models for AI, machine learning, NLP, network science and graphs, quantum computing and large-scale optimization.

Mircoorganisms are among the most innovative chemists, catalyzing powerful chemistries at ambient conditions with high specificity. With emerging techniques from systems and synthetic biology, my lab characterizes and harnesses these capabilities to address grand challenges in sustainability, human health, and food safety. We also create novel synthetic biology tools via protein and genetic engineering to accelerate development of these platforms for industry.

The yield potential of agricultural crops is limited by the ability of plants to support their own weight and withstand external forces. The failure of plants to stay upright, termed lodging, can have a dramatic impact on crop yields. Lodging can occur when the stem breaks (stalk lodging) or when the root system loses contact with the soil and is up-rooted (root lodging). Although stalk lodging has been the focus of much research attention, it is suggested that root lodging is more prevalent. In some crops (e.g. corn and sorghum) specialized aerial roots, called brace roots, are thought to play an important role in stability to prevent root lodging. Yet, the benefit of brace roots to the plant and what makes a good brace root is unknown. Our lab focuses on understanding the development and function of brace roots in crops. We leverage techniques from engineering, computational biology, genetics, genomics, and molecular biology to address these research questions.