People
Principal Investigator
Alex Hughes, Ph.D.
Office: 371B Hayden Hall
Phone: (510) 219-5206
Email: ajhughes@seas.upenn.edu
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania
Secondary Faculty, Cell & Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Member, Penn Bioengineering graduate group
Member, Cell & Molecular Biology graduate group (Developmental, Stem Cell, and Regenerative Biology program)
Postdoc: Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, UC San Francisco
Graduate: UC Berkeley
Undergraduate: University of Auckland, New Zealand
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Alex Hughes is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from California and New Zealand, he graduated with a B.E./B.Sc. in Chemical & Materials Engineering/Pharmacology at the University of Auckland, NZ in 2008. He completed his graduate studies at UC Berkeley in 2013 working with Amy Herr on microfluidic and single-cell proteomics. Dr. Hughes then completed a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellowship with Zev Gartner at UC San Francisco, where he developed DNA-based cell patterning technologies to model the mechanical and cell collective basis of curvature at tissue interfaces during embryonic development.
Dr. Hughes's research focuses on engineering organogenesis. Most recently the Hughes lab has studied the cellular, signaling, and mechanical basis of kidney development using human kidney organoids, advanced cell patterning and imaging technologies, and dynamic tissue scaffolds. Dr. Hughes's honors and awards include a 2023 BMES-CMBE Rising Star Junior Faculty Award, 2021 NSF CAREER Award; Jane Coffin Childs, American Cancer Society and NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowships; and a Society of General Physiologists Scholarship at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.
POSTDOCS
Louis Prahl, PhD, NIH F32 Fellow
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: lprahl@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am studying how signaling interactions between epithelial and mesenchymal tissues sculpt kidney collecting ducts during development and how congenital kidney defects arise. I use DNA-based cell patterning to create spatially defined interfaces between tissues and then observe and interpret the results using live imaging and mathematical modeling.
Graduate students
Catherine Porter, Bioengineering, NSF GRFP Fellow
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: cmporter@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am developing methods to produce and characterize human-cell-derived kidney organoids that are amenable to high-throughput disease modeling as well as drug and genetic screening.
Zheyuan (Aria) Huang, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: pikaria@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on understanding physical cues that determine kidney development at organ scale.
Sam Grindel, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: sgrindel@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on nephrogenesis pace-making in kidney organoids.
Sachin Davis, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: sacdavis@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on rhythmic nephron formation and synthetically reconstituting planar cell polarity.
Ronald Canlla, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: rcanlla@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on remote control of branching morphogenesis for large-scale epithelial engineering.
Sophia Zhou, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: zhousoph@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on single-cell proteomics technologies for interrogation of tissues in development and disease.
Emma Warrner, Bioengineering
Location: 390 Towne
Phone: (215) 573-6260
Email: warrner@seas.upenn.edu
Research: I am working on large-scale patterning of nephron organoid connectivity and function.
Alumni
Mariia (Masha) Alibekova Long, Ph.D. (2024, ASN fellow). Completing Penn M.D. training.
John Viola, Ph.D. (2024). Scientific advisor, Riverside Law.
Jiageng Liu (NSF GRFP fellow). Powell lab, Penn.
Nathan Petrikas. Tempus AI.
Ananya Gupta. Clinical research coordinator, Penn Medicine.
Trevor Chan. Penn BE PhD student.
Gabriela Hayward-Lara. Penn CDB PhD student.
Marysol Chu Carty. Cornell PhD student.
Michael Foster
Siera Rosen. Penn CDB PhD student.
