Patterned Biomaterials: New Tools to Mimic, Quantify, and Understand Disease Mechanisms

Abstract:
Infections are a significant risk to patients who receive medical implants, and can often lead to implant failure, tissue necrosis, and even amputation. So far, although various surface modification approaches have been proposed for the prevention and treatment of microbial biofilms on indwelling medical devices, most are too expensive/complicated to fabricate, unscalable, or limited in durability for clinical use. In this talk, I will present two complementary research efforts in biomaterials and biointerface engineering that advance personalized medicine: (i) nature-inspired, nanopatterned coatings with dynamically tunable surface topography for long-term antibacterial activity, and (ii) integrated bioanalytical sensing technologies for the early, point-of-care detection of sepsis. Together, these studies demonstrate how chemical and materials engineering can be tightly integrated with clinical science to enable scalable, translational diagnostics and therapeutic strategies, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.

Bio:
Dr. Jouha Min is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Michigan. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 2010 and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT, where she was advised by Paula Hammond and Richard Braatz. She conducted her postdoctoral research with Ralph Weissleder at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she worked at the interface of engineering, biology, and clinical translation. Dr. Min’s research group applies core principles of chemical and biological engineering—including transport phenomena, reaction kinetics, materials synthesis, and systems-level analysis—to develop new methodologies for probing and controlling material–biology interactions across three-dimensional space and time. Her work aims to establish a quantitative and mechanistic foundation for transformative advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. She is the recipient of several honors, including the NSF CAREER Award (2025), the NIH R35 MIRA Award (2025), and the V Foundation V Scholar Award (2023).