Tejal Desai, PhD

Professor and Chair of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences
+1 415 514-4503

Dr. Desai’s research brings together advanced micro and nanotechnologies, fundamental insight into cellular behavior in engineered environments, and novel pharmacologic delivery approaches to address disease treatment and clinical translation. Currently, her laboratory focuses on four highly interdisciplinary directions: 1. Hierarchical devices for enhanced cellular adhesion and paracellular drug transport; 2. Injectable and flexible nanoporous devices for rate-controlled long term release of therapeutics; 3. Nanostructured coatings and scaffolds for pro-healing implants and in vivo modulation of fibrosis, and 4. Cell-based delivery platforms for autoimmune disease applications. She envisions a future of precision medicine, enabled by advances in nanotechnology, engineering, and cell biology directed to clinical challenges in disease treatment. By taking advantage of our understanding of how cells respond to engineered materials and our ability to fabricate precise structural domains, her lab seeks to design new platforms to overcome existing challenges in therapeutic delivery.

Interests: Therapeutic Microtechnology, Nanotechnology Laboratory, nonporous devices for long term drug delivery, tissue engineering, three dimensional scaffold and matrix fabrication, medical devices, surface modification and biocompatibility

Publications

Grand Challenges at the Interface of Engineering and Medicine.

IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology

Subramaniam S, Akay M, Anastasio MA, Bailey V, Boas D, Bonato P, Chilkoti A, Cochran JR, Colvin V, Desai TA, Duncan JS, Epstein FH, Fraley S, Giachelli C, Grande-Allen KJ, Green J, Guo XE, Hilton IB, Humphrey JD, Johnson CR, Karniadakis G, King MR, Kirsch RF, Kumar S, Laurencin CT, Li S, Lieber RL, Lovell N, Mali P, Margulies SS, Meaney DF, Ogle B, Palsson B, A Peppas N, Perreault EJ, Rabbitt R, Setton LA, Shea LD, Shroff SG, Shung K, Tolias AS, van der Meulen MCH, Varghese S, Vunjak-Novakovic G, White JA, Winslow R, Zhang J, Zhang K, Zukoski C, Miller MI

Equitable hiring strategies towards a diversified faculty.

Nature biomedical engineering

Cosgriff-Hernandez EM, Aguado BA, Akpa B, Fleming GC, Moore E, Porras AM, Boyle PM, Chan DD, Chesler N, Christman KL, Desai TA, Harley BAC, Hudalla GA, Killian ML, Maisel K, Maitland KC, Peyton SR, Pruitt BL, Stabenfeldt SE, Stevens KR, Bowden AK

Fund Black scientists.

Cell

Stevens KR, Masters KS, Imoukhuede PI, Haynes KA, Setton LA, Cosgriff-Hernandez E, Lediju Bell MA, Rangamani P, Sakiyama-Elbert SE, Finley SD, Willits RK, Koppes AN, Chesler NC, Christman KL, Allen JB, Wong JY, El-Samad H, Desai TA, Eniola-Adefeso O

Leadership.

Cell systems

Bowdish D, Desai TA, DePace A, Haswell ES, Baltrus D, García AJ, Deans T, Lage K, Wittkopp P

Micro and nanoscale technologies in oral drug delivery.

Advanced drug delivery reviews

Ahadian S, Finbloom JA, Mofidfar M, Diltemiz SE, Nasrollahi F, Davoodi E, Hosseini V, Mylonaki I, Sangabathuni S, Montazerian H, Fetah K, Nasiri R, Dokmeci MR, Stevens MM, Desai TA, Khademhosseini A

The Psychiatric Cell Map Initiative: A Convergent Systems Biological Approach to Illuminating Key Molecular Pathways in Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

Cell

Willsey AJ, Morris MT, Wang S, Willsey HR, Sun N, Teerikorpi N, Baum TB, Cagney G, Bender KJ, Desai TA, Srivastava D, Davis GW, Doudna J, Chang E, Sohal V, Lowenstein DH, Li H, Agard D, Keiser MJ, Shoichet B, von Zastrow M, Mucke L, Finkbeiner S, Gan L, Sestan N, Ward ME, Huttenhain R, Nowakowski TJ, Bellen HJ, Frank LM, Khokha MK, Lifton RP, Kampmann M, Ideker T, State MW, Krogan NJ