Zeyu and Angelica presented at the 2026 BMES Annual Meeting last week! Zeyu gave a platform session titled “Stroma-inspired Topographical Confinement Reshapes Migration Decision-Making and Metabolic Adapation of CD8+ T Cells” and Angelica gave a poster presentation titled “Macrophage Responses to an Accellular Interwoven Dermal Extracellular Matrix.” Awesome job!
Dylan recently presented a poster titled “Sequential Backbone Resonance Assignment of HisSUMO Tag” at the 9th Annual Cancer Research Symposium and won 1st place for it! Congratulations Dylan!
Archita has been honored with the 2026 The Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research from the Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School, presented at the annual Academic Awards Ceremony hosted by Faculty Affairs.
This prestigious award recognizes exceptional doctoral research and academic excellence, highlighting her commitment to impactful scholarship and meaningful contributions to her field.
Congratulations!
Archita received Texas A&M’s Microscopy and Imaging Center (MIC) Picture of the Month award for “Architectures Within: Actin Reflections.” The image captures an acellular, interwoven extracellular dermal matrix produced by human dermal fibroblasts cultured on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropatterned substrate and imaged using an Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope (20× objective). A digital mirroring technique was applied to create a striking, symmetric geometric pattern. Congratulations!
Archita was awarded the Graduate Mentoring Academy (GMA) Mentoring Fellowship and the G.R.A.D Aggies Mastery Certificate (Individual Development Plan Career Exploration Series) at the 2026 Graduate and Professional School Awards Ceremony. These programs foster effective mentoring and build advanced, self-directed career skills for professional success. Congratulations!
Archita’s research paper titled “Human Cell-Derived Dermal-Specific Interwoven Extracellular Matrix for Diabetic Wound Healing” has been published in Acta Biomaterialia. Dhavan Sharma, Staci J. Horn, Zeyu Wen, Jeffrey Ock, Jonathan Bova, Fred Clubb, Jason T. George, Yuxiao Zhou, and Feng Zhao are co-authors of this article. Congratulations!
After a successful round of undergrad and master’s students’ end-of-semester presentations, the whole lab went out to dinner at King Buffet to celebrate, and we had a great time! We are so proud of everyone’s dedication and progress in their research this semester, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store next semester!
Yujie just recently passed her qualifying exam! Congrats Yujie!
The Zhao Lab participated in the 2025 TERMIS–AM Conference held in Detroit, Michigan.
Archita Sharma presented both a poster and a rapid-fire talk on her doctoral research titled “A Bioengineered Dermal-Inspired Interwoven Extracellular Matrix Wound Patch Recapitulating Nativity for Promoting Diabetic Wound Healing.”
Prof. Zhao served as the session chair for the Cardiac & Vascular Tissue Engineering track.
Archita Sharma’s artwork was awarded fourth place (tie) in the Fifth Annual Artistic Engineering Contest hosted by . This initiative aims to provide students, faculty, and staff with opportunities to showcase how they perceive beauty in engineering and medicine. Congratulations!
