The Matrix Biology and Engineering Laboratory (MBEL) is located in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia. Our physical space is located within the U.A. Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Building on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology. We conduct research ranging from protein engineering and mechanobiology to molecular cell biology and pre-clinical animal studies focused on understanding and treating Extracellular Matrix (ECM)-centric processes such as tissue patterning/regeneration and disorders such as fibrosis and metastasis.

Our research focuses on the intersection of mechanobiology, traditional cell and molecular biology and the extracellular matrix. At a fundamental level we are interested in the role of mechanical forces on protein fiber networks within the ECM. Specifically, whether mechanical forces derived from resident cells alters the biochemical nature of the proteins comprising fibers. Our focus is on understanding the ECM protein fibronectin which is known to display reversible domain unfolding under tension. Are the flexible domains within fibronectin simple energy-storage domains or does their unfolding trigger more complex phenomena? This is the fundamental question that drives us and we use a number of emerging biotechnology and nanotechnology methods to address the question. Through our increasing understanding of these phenomena and the cell biology they direct, we strive to develop new technologies that harness the power of ECM mechanics to direct or influence cellular behavior in both developmental (regenerative medicine) and pathological systems (tissue fibrosis).