Mary Wade

Started:January 2017

Mary Beth received her bachelor of science in Biomedical Engineering – Mechanics Track with a Mathematics minor from The University of Akron. In that time, she worked in a cooperative opportunity with Boston Scientific to develop lithotripsy devices and assisted in secondary attribute test method validation efforts. She also performed research in a summer fellowship at Akron General Medical Center to study cell and tissue responses to a new biomaterial for bone tissue regeneration.1 From there, Mary Beth continued to work at The University of Akron to obtain her doctorate in the Integrated Biosciences program under the direction of Dr. Matthew Becker, where she developed novel engineering strategies for functionalization of polymer materials with extracellular matrix in soft tissue applications, and helped with the investigation of cellular and tissue responses to new biomaterials.2,3,4 Her work in the Osteo Engineering Laboratory will be to develop a clinical translation strategy for 3D-printed poly(propylene fumarate) scaffolds that can be used for craniofacial repair, and to further optimize our current tissue engineering approach to develop a stronger clinical platform for bone repair.