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Our Team

Welcoming students with diverse backgrounds, the Sharma Lab creates an environment for all to follow their interests when working on projects. Interested in joining the Sharma Lab?  

Postdoctoral Fellows

Folly Patterson, Ph.D.

B.S. in Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University

M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State University

Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State University

Dr. Patterson focuses on immunomodulatory therapeutics for knee OA. Pro-inflammatory macrophages in the joint perpetuate a cycle of cartilage degradation and further inflammation. Polarizing macrophages in the joint to an anti-inflammatory state can mitigate OA progression. Dr. Patterson focuses on testing these therapeutics, including CD200 microparticles, in cell culture and animal models. Additionally, she is working on isolating and characterizing synovial cells from tissues donated by OA patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Using these primary cells will improve translatability of potential OA therapeutics to future clinical use.

Graduate Students

Tolu Ajayi, Ph.D.

Doctoral Candidate

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Research Interests: Characterization of animal models for osteoarthritis, Engineering nanoparticles as a drug delivery system

Jessica Aldrich

Doctoral Candidate

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Wichita State University

M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Wichita State University

Research Interests: Drug delivery, nanoparticles, osteoarthritis

Suzanne Lightsey

Doctoral Candidate

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia

Research Interests: 3D tumor models, immunotherapy, biomaterials, in vitro modeling 

Rylee Newport

Doctoral Student

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Oklahoma

Research Interests: 3D tumor models, immunotherapy

Matthew Rexroad

Master’s Student

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida

Research Interests: Characterization of non-invasive animal models for osteoarthritis

Tomas Clavijo-Garcia

Master’s Student

B.E. in Materials Engineering, University of Florida

Research Interests: Natural killer cells, biomaterials

Undergraduate Students

Victoria Consalvo

Biomedical Engineering

Gabriella Flinn

Biomedical Engineering

Rachel Griffin-Cohan

Biomedical Engineering

Natalia Munetones Martinez

Biomedical Engineering