Our Team

Ying joined the Tissue Mechanics and Mechanobiology Lab at WPI in January 2017 as a postdoctoral fellow. She is investigating how different biomaterials affect the mechanical environment that cells can sense, and how cells react to and modify the mechanical extracellular environment. She earned a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), where she built a biaxial stretch bioreactor, and studied how mechanical stimulation can influence the extracellular matrix remodeling in native and engineered aortic heart valve tissues. Ying also got a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Beihang University (BUAA), where she researched the simulation of fluid-structure interactions and bone fractures.

• Email Ying Lei, Ph.D.

Juanyong joined the Billiar Lab in August 2019. He earned his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 at Central South University in China. In 2018, he earned his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University and continued working there as a visiting researcher. Before coming to WPI, his research consisted of investigating the effects of different factors on the ability of multicellular clusters to maintain tensional homeostasis.

Rozanne earned her Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017 and moved on to work at Tufts University as a Research Technician. At Tufts, she studied extracellular matrix remodeling and the host-graft response using iPS cell-seeded silk scaffolds for regenerative cardiac tissue engineering. She joined the Billiar Lab in August 2019 where she has been studying the role of the heart valve microenvironment in influencing cellular repopulation of tissue-engineered heart valves. Her research is focused on uncovering the role that cyclic stretch plays in cell invasion.

Alexandra is a master’s student, who received her B.S in Biomedical Engineering at WPI in 2023, continuing at WPI to receive her M.S in 2024 in the same discipline. She joined the lab in 2022 as an MQP student and is continuing the project to complete her Master’s Project. Her project is manufacturing and validating a microfluidic bioreactor to study the effects of shear stress within the environment of a tissue engineered heart valve. She is passionate about the research and development of cardiovascular devices.

Ava, an undergraduate student at WPI, joined the Billiar lab in the spring of 2023. She is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering, expected to graduate in 2025. In addition to her research in the lab, Ava is actively involved in various campus activities. She serves as a campus tour guide and is active with WPI’s Electric Guitar Innovation Lab. Ava also plays the cello in WPI's orchestra. Her current role in the lab involves investigating the impact of stiffness and dynamic stretching on cells.

Owen joined our lab as an undergraduate in February 2023. He will be graduating in May 2025 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. In the lab, Owen's research focuses on cell death induced by mechanical stimuli,  although he spent the summer at Dana Farber in a cancer immunotherapy lab. There, he studied how natural killer cells demonstrate enhanced function when exposed to cytokines in the tumor microenvironment.

Jessica first joined the Billiar Lab in December 2022 as an undergraduate student at WPI. She is working towards her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. In the lab, she is currently working on cell migration in microfluidic chips.

Sam joined the Billiar lab in June 2021. She graduated in May 2023 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. In addition to our lab, she worked in the Student Activities Office and was a Community Advisor. Her research focused on a microtissue conditioning device.

Monika graduated in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. In addition, she was an active member of the school’s varsity swimming and diving team. As part of our team, she explored the topics of tissue mechanics and mechanobiology as well as the chemical and mechanical signals associated with them.

Taylor graduated in May of 2022 with her Bachelor of Science in both Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. She worked in the lab during the Summer of 2021 studying anisotropic indentation of biomaterials.

Samantha joined the Billiar lab in June 2021 as an undergraduate student at WPI. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Biology in May 2023. As part of the team, Samantha worked on showing the correlation between apoptosis and calcification in our existing 2D model.

Ranya Basma graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Insititute in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. She also pursued a minor in Global Public Health. Ranya was a member of the Women's Varsity Soccer Team and spent the summer of 2021 in our lab working on updating the existing system for the biaxial testing device.

Colin joined the Billiar lab in May 2020. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2020 and his master's degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2021, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Colin joined our team for his master's studies, where he studied the calcification of the aortic heart valve in 3D models.