Post-doctoral Fellow
Vanderbilt
Dr. Brian O'Grady is a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University. I earned my B.S. and M.S. in neurobiology at the University of Texas at San Antonio and my Ph.D. in Materials Science at Vanderbilt University. During mypredoctoral training, I developed pump perfusion systems and bioreactors to control the spatiotemporal differentiation of stem cells in 3D hydrogels. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ethan Lippmann’s Lab, I developed several applications for a biomimetic hydrogel including 3D culture of single-cell suspensions of iPSC-derived neurons into mature and synaptically connected networks, and supporting human ex vivo capillary maturation and arteriogenesis. My ongoing work aims to accurately mimic the anatomical architecture of the neurovascular unit to study the mechanisms of pathologies affecting the blood-brain barrier and screen novel therapies for various diseases. My research has been supported by an NIH T32 postdoctoral fellowship, and he was recently awarded an NIH MOSAIC K99/R00 grant to develop a platform for studying blood-brain barrier pathology mechanisms and screening promising therapeutics. Iam interested in establishing an independent research group that develops innovative platforms for disease modeling and drug discovery in the field of tissue engineering, and am committed to increasing diversity in biomedical research.