I am pleased to announce that Dr. Roshan James recently joined the Institute for Regenerative Engineering as a postdoctoral fellow. His current research focuses on the design and fabrication of novel biomaterials for musculoskeletal tissue engineering. His research interests include biomaterials, integrated tissues, and regenerative engineering.
Dr. James received his bachelor degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in India, and completed his doctoral thesis under my mentorship at the University of Virginia (UVa) in 2012. His Ph.D. thesis focused on the design of mechanically competent polyester-based matrices for tendon tissue regeneration. In addition, he worked on developing a growth factor delivery system that provided bioactive physiologically relevant doses to modulate cellular responses in adipose stromal cells along the tendonogenic lineage.
Dr. James received a number of awards from UVa where he presented at university-wide research competitions. In, 2012, he was a finalist in the UVa Presidential Research Competition. In addition, he was recently selected as a New Investigator Recognition Awards (NIRA) finalist at the 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society Conference in San Antonio. His talk was entitled ‘Combined Treatment of a Tendon Gap with a Biomimetic Electrospun Scaffold, Stromal Cells and GDF5,’ and his presentation focused on in vivo characterization of biodegradable biomaterials designed to mimic the structure of the tendon extracellular matrix.
It is worth noting that Dr. James has made a significant impact on tendon tissue engineering. He has successfully developed a novel tubular scaffold system to regenerate a large gap defect in tendon tissue due to severe injuries. The scaffold system can also deliver adipose stromal cells and growth factors that facilitate the regenerative process resulting in new tendon tissue formation.
Everyone in the Institute for Regenerative Engineering welcomes Roshan and looks forward to working with him here at UConn.