MTM Lab's Accomplishments - Driven by Empowering Innovations

The MTM lab has experienced considerable growth over the last several years at the University of Illinois Chicago!

The growth has occurred with significant (> 2 fold) increases in research expenditures, mostly through NIH and NSF grant funding, the numbers of publications and citations, and the number of students being trained in the MTM Lab.


Our alumni have gone on to secure positions/jobs at prestigious universities as graduate or postdoctoral fellows, medical device industry, pharmaceutical/biotech industry, and startup companies.


We are grateful to the University of Illinois Chicago for providing us with ample lab space (almost 3000 square feet) and shared resources to conduct our research, federal funding agencies for supporting our research, and our students/staff and collaborators for their hard-work and dedication in making as much of an impact on human health as possible within the means available to us.


We look forward to many more years of our lab's training of students and research accomplishments.

Why building a liver is like solving a 3D puzzle—and how MTM Laboratory researchers are finally cracking the code

November 27, 2025
Recent advances in biofabrication are revolutionizing liver tissue engineering by enabling precise spatial patterning of liver cells to mimic the organ’s complex architecture. Techniques like 3D bioprinting, microfluidics, and self-assembled cell aggregates help recreate critical features such as metabolic zones, cell polarity, and vascular networks. These engineered liver models improve drug testing, disease research, and hold promise for regenerative therapies. Despite challenges in scaling and standardization, integrating multiple fabrication methods and emerging technologies like machine learning are driving progress. Ultimately, these innovations bring us closer to creating functional liver tissues for clinical and pharmaceutical applications. See full article here.

October 18, 2025
𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: This study explores how we can improve lab-grown liver cells for medical research and drug testing. The MTMLab team works with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) - special cells that can be transformed into liver-like cells - because real human liver cells are hard to obtain. However, these lab-grown liver cells don't function as well as mature adult liver cells. The research team discovered that the surface environment where these cells grow is crucial for their development. We created tiny fiber scaffolds made from different materials like collagen, decellularized livers, and chitosan that mimic the natural structure around liver cells. When liver cells were grown on these specially designed nanofibers for three weeks, they displayed higher function compared to cells grown on standard surfaces. Our key finding was that both the material composition and the nanoscale fiber structure were important - stiffer synthetic fibers or softer materials without the appropriate topography or composition prevented proper cell maturation. This research helps create better lab models of human liver tissue that can be used for testing new drugs and studying liver diseases more effectively.

2025 BMES Annual Meeting - MTMLab Member Presentations!

October 7, 2025
Owen Lally Modeling the synergistic effects of alcohol and fats on liver disease via engineered cocultures In Vitro Liver Toxicology Testing of Rat and Dog Hepatocytes to Reduce In Vivo Regulatory Requirements Nathan Shelton Enhancing the Functions and Hepatitis B Virus Infectability of Primary Human Hepatocytes Protein Microarrays to Probe Synergistic Effects of Extracellular Matrix Composition and Stiffness on Liver Macrophages Lesly Villarreal Engineering a 3D Placental Trophoblast Invasion Platform Via Droplet Microfluidics Gas-permeable Plates to Model Synergetic Effects of Oxygen and Endothelial Factors on Liver Zonation Emanuele Spanghero Modeling the Interplay Between Liver and Heart Diseases via a Human Dual-Organ Platform Engineering High Cell Density Beating Cords of Cardiomyocytes and Fibroblasts via Photopatterned Alginate