
Ardoña Research Group
Laboratory of Biomimetic and Adaptive Materials

Welcome to the Ardoña Research Group!
The Ardoña Research Group at UC Irvine develops responsive and adaptive bio-inspired materials, which can be used as tools for unraveling biological mechanisms that involve action potential propagation and cellular mechanotransduction in contractile tissues, and pharmaco-/toxicokinetics across biological barrier tissues. We will capitalize on the biocompatibility and synthetic versatility offered by biomacromolecules to impart sensing or stimuli-responsive function on these materials.
FEATURED NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
2023 NSF CAREER AWARD FOR THE GROUP!
12/12/2022
The Ardoña Research Group has been awarded the 2023 NSF CAREER grant, to support our efforts in developing adaptive biomaterials for in situ visualization of biological forces, as well as towards helping strengthen an equitable training pipeline for researchers in biomaterials! We are very excited on the research and educational activities that will be supported by this NSF CAREER award! https://tinyurl.com/hardona-CAREER
CONGRATS CAT ON RECEIVING THE UROP FELLOWSHIP!
12/8/2022
Congratulations to Catherine (Cat) Ngo for being selected as an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) fellow at UCI! She will continue to work on developing responsive biomaterials with graduate student mentor, Yuyao Kuang.

SCTEC OPEN HOUSE!
10/28/2022
Congratulations to the group along with the Adams, Smith, and Watanabe groups for a successful first Stem Cell & Tissue Engineering Core (SCTEC) Open House! The four groups showcased their ongoing research projects and had some live demonstrations for the public.

WELCOME KATHRYN!
8/01/2022
Welcome to our newest graduate student Kathryn! She most recently completed her Master's degree at Cal Poly State University - San Luis Obispo and worked in Manufacturing and Design at Apple in fulfillment of her degree. She will be focusing on spatially engineering bioscaffolds through photo-induced reactions. She joins UCI as a part of the Competitive Edge Program.

WELCOME CHRISTIAN!
6/27/2022
Welcome to our summer intern - Christian! He is a rising senior undergraduate student in Albany State University. He is joining the group as part of the Access to Careers in Engineering and Sciences (ACES) program hosted by the UCI Beckman Laser Institute.

CONGRATULATIONS, EMIL!
6/02/2022
Congratulations to Emil for being selected as a recipient of the Cardiovascular Applied Research and Entrepreneurship (CARE) Fellowship through the UCI CIRC's NIH/NHLBI T32 Training Grant! Emil will be part of the CARE Program, which aims to cross-train students in the synergistic disciplines of engineering, cardiovascular science, and entrepreneurship. Congrats, Emil!


Welcome to our new graduate student - Emil Lundqvist, and two undergraduates - Catherine Ngo and Thomas Wakuta! Emil joins our group from the UCI BME department after completing his first-year rotations. He will be focusing on biomaterials platforms for cardiovascular tissue engineering and maturation of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Catherine is a second-year and Thomas is a fourth-year student; both are majoring in CBE.
WELCOME EMIL, CATHERINE, AND THOMAS!
3/28/2022


JOIN OUR RESEARCH GROUP!
Please contact Professor Herdeline Ardoña if you are interested to join our group. More details about our research group can be found on this page.