Jessica Stelzel

Research Interests

Some serious injuries, such as burns and radiation wounds, trigger excessive inflammatory responses that exacerbate tissue damage and impede repair. As a co-advised postdoc in the Anseth and Bowman labs, Jessica’s work leverages stimuli-responsive biomaterials to reversibly induce cellular biostasis. By reversibly pausing cellular activity through intracellular hydrogelation, she seeks to control these excessive inflammatory responses to improve wound healing. This research utilizes polymer synthesis, immunoengineering, and tissue engineering to (1) understand how biomaterial properties modulate the immune response in the context of biostasis, (2) investigate the mechanisms by which biostasis alters wound healing, and (3) develop a platform to regulate disproportionate immune responses.