Deymier Lab

Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering in the School of Dental Medicine

Member of the Institute of Materials Science and the Biomedical Science Program at UConn Health

Education:

• Postdoc in Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University/Washington University 2012-2017
• Postdoc in Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University 2011-2012
• Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University 2012
• B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona 2006

Ph.D. Student 

Stephanie is a Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Sciences who joined the Deymier lab in Summer 2019. Her thesis centers on the dissolution, structure, and mechanics of bone mineral in physiological aqueous environments, specifically focusing on the effect of mineral maturation and carbonate locations in apatite. During her 2021 Chateaubriand fellowship in the Lab of Dr. Christophe Drouet in Toulouse, France, she studied the influence of sodium and potassium on mineral maturation as well as created novel A-type carbonated apatites with increasing carbonate content in controlled calcination processes.

Ph.D. Student 

Mikayla is a Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Engineering who joined the Deymier lab in the Fall of 2019. Their focus is on recovery of acidosis induced changes on the structure, composition, and mechanics of bone.

Ph.D. Student 

Sobhan is a Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Engineering who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2022. His focus is on interfacial structure and mechanics of the Dentin-enamel junction in healthy and pathological teeth, specifically those affected by dentinogenesis imperfecta..

Masters Student 

Kennedy is a Masters Student in the Young Innovative Investigator Program who joined the Deymier lab in the Fall of 2023. Her thesis focus is the interaction between biomimetic apatite and Co/Cr heavy metals in the context of bone mechanics.

Masters Intern 

Julianna is a Masters Student in Biomedical Engineering who joined the Deymier lab for an internship in the Fall of 2022. Her focus is on characterization of apatites with heavy metal substitutions.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Sydney is an undergraduate student in Biological Sciences at the University of Connecticut who joined the Deymier lab as an HRP awardee in the Summer of 2022. Her focus is using femoral explants to understand the role of cellular behavior on bone loss during acidosis.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Caroline is an undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2023 through the Health Research Program. Her research focuses on the role of apatite maturation and the presence of labile carbonate on apatite structure and chemistry.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Michael is an undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut who joined the Deymier lab in the Fall of 2023. He is working on examining the effect of sexual dimorphism on the skeletal response to acidosis.

Dental Student Researcher 

Katie is a Dental Student at UConn Health who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2023 as a summer researcher. Her focus is on probing  compositional gradients via Raman Spectroscopic Mapping across the Dentin-Enamel Junction of murine molars with Dentinogenesis Imperfecta.

Dental Student Researcher 

Nora is a Dental Student at UConn Health who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2023 as a summer researcher. Her focus is on measuring mechanical deformation across the Dentin-Enamel Junction of murine teeth with Dentinogenesis Imperfecta.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Tyler is an undergraduate student at Dartmouth University who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2023. He developed methods for precipitating apatites with Co/Cr substitutions.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Christina is an undergraduate student in at Brandeis University who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2023. She studied the effect of sexual dimorphism on the murine skeletal response to acidosis.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Isabelle was an undergraduate student in at UConn who recently transfer to Georgia Tech. She joined the Deymier lab in the Spring of 2022. She designed and executed a study examining the effect of bisphosphonates on the the rotator cuff during paralysis.

Dental Student Researcher 

Michael is a Dental Student at UConn Health who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2022 as a summer researcher. His focus is on probing  compositional gradients via Raman Spectroscopic Mapping across the Dentin-Enamel Junction.

Dental Student Researcher 

David is a Dental Student at UConn Health who joined the Deymier lab in the Summer of 2022 as a summer researcher. His focus is on applying novel histological techniques to determine the presence of basement membrane collagens at the dentin-enamel junction.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Trey is an undergraduate student in the school of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut who joined the Deymier Lab in the Fall of 2022. He has been studying the effect of sodium and potassium substitution on the composition and mechanical properties of bone mineral.

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Brad is a senior undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut who joined the Deymier Lab in the Summer of 2022 . Interested in dental medicine, his focus is on elucidating the compositional and structural features responsible for the high crack-resistance of the dentin-enamel junction (DEJ).

Undergraduate Student Researcher 

Marla is a senior undergraduate student of Biomedical Engineering at UConn. They joined the Deymier lab in August of 2022 as a research intern. Their focus is the effects of botox-induced rotator cuff paralysis on humoral bone loss and potential preventative treatments.

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Margaret joined our lab in Spring 2021 as an UConn undergraduate student. Her work focuses on examining the physiochemical effects of acid exposure on the structure, composition, and function of cell-free whole bone. She is also assisting Stephanie Wong with her work looking at biomineral dissolution. We are proud to cheer her on as she starts he Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in the lab of Prof. Matt Fischer at UNC/NCState.

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Ashley joined our lab in August 2020 as a UConn undergraduate student. She decided to continue on as a volunteer researcher even after graduation. On top of her volunteer hours in the lab examining the effect of acidosis on the structure and mechanics of the enthesis, Ashley is an engineer at Medtronics.

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Nayara joined the Lab in June 2021 as an UConn Undergraduate student. She has been assisting Mikayla Moody in studying the effect of acidosis on the murine body. Most recently, she has been investigating the effect of metabolic acidosis on liver health.

Ph.D. Student 

Anna was a Ph.D. Student in Biomedical Science who joined the Deymier lab in Summer 2018. Her focus was on the relationship between osteoclasts and the composition of the substrates on which they sit. Anna is a wonderful addition to the lab and the first Ph.D. Student. She graduated in July 2021 and just completed her  postdoc in the lab of Prof. Archana Sanjay.

Dental Student Researcher 

Kat joined the lab in the summer of 2021 as part of the summer dental research program. She examined the effect of salivary salt content on the structure, composition, and dissolution of biomimetic dental mineral.

Undergraduate Student

Jay was a student of Biomedical Engineering at UConn. He joined the lab in May 2019 as a volunteer researcher. He examined the effects of mechanical loading on the deposition of mineral in collage matrices. He is now a dental student at the UConn School of Dental Medicine and rejoined the lab in Summer 2021 to complete his dental research program. There he studies the effect of different treatments for tooth sensitivity on dentin permeability.

Medical Student

Saparja Nag is a 2nd year Medical student at UConn Health. She was awarded a fellowship to join the Deymier lab through the Medical School Summer Research program to investigate the effect of metabolic acidosis in the tendon-to-bone enthesis. Saparja went above and beyond despite COVID restrictions was able to investigate compositional and mechanical differences to the tissue. She continues to help with this project.

Dental Student

Mikayla is a student in the UConn School of Dental Medicine. She joined the lab in May 2019 through the dental research program. She has been examining the effects of different dry-mouth mouth rinses on the dissolution of enamel-like and dentin-like mineral. She is now a resident in pediatric dentistry.

Undergraduate Student

Anthony is a student of Biomedical engineering at UConn . He joined the lab in May 2019 as a volunteer researcher. He examined the effects carbonate content on the composition of biomimetic apatites. He recently completed his masters in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University and is now a Surgical Robotics Test Engineer at Medtronic.

Undergraduate Student

Ron is an undergraduate student at UConn in the department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Ron joined the lab in May 2019 as part of the HRP program. He has been examining the effect of metabolic acidosis on the composition and mechanics of bones. Ron is now in Medical School at LECOM Bradenton.

Undergraduate Researcher 

Masashi is a junior in the biomedical engineering department at UConn. Following a desire to develop skills outside of coding and computer sciences, Masashi joined the Deymier lab in Oct 2017. He worked on examining the mechanics of carbonated apatite crystals as well as the effect of cyclic loading on the mineralization of collagen matrices. Masashi is now in Medical School at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.

Undergraduate Researcher 

Katya Morozov is a B.S. student in Biomedical Engineering at UConn. She joined the lab in May 2018 through the HRP program. Her work focuses on the effects of chronic metabolic acidosis on the musculoskeletal system. She is now a project manager at Philips in ultrasound acoustics.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Brian obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida with Prof. Laurie Gower. He is interested in characterization techniques and examining bone structure and mineralization. Worked with us from Jan 2017-2018. He is now the assistant director  of the Materials Science and Engineering Research Facility at the University of Northern Florida.

Masters Intern from Quinnipiac University

Marvi is a masters student from Quinnipiac University. Her interest in medicine and hands on research brought her to the Deymier lab in Oct 2017. She is working on the acidosis project determining the effects of metabolic acidosis on the composition and structure of bones. Marvi is quickly becoming a histology expert in the lab. Marvi joined the lab in October 2017 and left in May 2018 to pursue a career as a BSN through the accelerated BSN program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. We wish her the best of luck!