Dr. Diane Hoffman-Kim, Ph.D

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Hoffman-Kim, Ph.D is an Associate Professor of Medical Science and Engineering in the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University, the Carney Institute for Brain Science, the Center for Biomedical Engineering, and the Center for Alternatives to Animals in Testing. She studied optics and biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester and Brown University, with postdoctoral training in neurobiology at MIT and Harvard University. Following a fellowship as a Science Scholar at the Bunting Institute, she returned to Brown as one of the founding faculty in the Center for Biomedical Engineering. Professor Hoffman-Kim holds 10 patents, teaches courses in Tissue Engineering, and directs a multidisciplinary research program.

Liane Livi, MS

liane_livi@brown.edu

Liane’s role in the Hoffman-Kim lab is to facilitate collaborations with other research groups, manage lab purchases and maintenance, train undergraduate and graduate students, and work alongside students to support their research. After working for various labs across the world, including the Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Weismann Institute of Science, Israel, Liane came to the Hoffman-Kim Lab in 2001 and has been working here for the last twenty years. When she is not in the lab, she enjoys gardening, drawing, traveling, reading, playing squash, volunteering, or cooking for family and friends.

William Renken

william_renken@brown.edu

Will graduated from Brown University in 2019 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Neuroscience. During his time at Brown, Will was a member of the Men’s Varsity Water Polo Team, an EMT for Brown EMS, and a research assistant at the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Rhode Island Hospital. After completing his undergraduate degree, Will went on to help start a non-profit organization, The Farmlink Project, to fight hunger and food waste by redirecting surplus produce to people in need. In addition to his administrative responsibilities for the lab, he is currently working on the TBI model and biomimetic substrate projects and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in the near future.

Dr. Rafael D. González Cruz, Ph.D

rafael_gonzalez_cruz@brown.edu

Dr. Rafael D. González Cruz, Ph.D is a postdoctoral fellow that is developing a three-dimensional, in vitro traumatic brain injury platform to study the effects of compressive strain and strain rates on neuronal damage, reactive astrogliosis, and inflammation-induced injury in 3D neurospheroid cultures. He received his Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, his Masters of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, and completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University in 2018. As a result of pursuing these studies, Dr. González Cruz has a strong foundation in cellular mechanotransduction, hydrogel fabrication, stem cell isolation, expansion, and differentiation, and gene expression analysis. He plans to use this expertise to investigate morphological and biomarker expression changes in 3D neurospheroid cultures as a function of strain and strain rate within the range of real world blunt impact and rotational acceleration injuries. Also, as part of his NIH-funded, postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Gonzalez Cruz is examining the effects of stiffness and topographical cues on the phenotypes of endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells using microfabrication techniques to develop an in vitro, cellular-scale model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that allows the study of endothelial to mesenchymal transition and smooth muscle dedifferentiation phenomena in early PAH. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. González Cruz is affiliated with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), both local and at national level, since 2015. As part of his work with SACNAS, he is involved in university-supported efforts to increase the presence of Latinx and student of colors in STEM PhD programs as well as building a supportive community at Brown University for their recruitment, retention, professional development, and success in coordination with the Graduate School, the Leadership Alliance Program, and the Brown Center for Students of Color.

Dom Calvao received his Bachelor’s of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic University in 2015 where he worked on 3D cartilage tissue scaffolding. After graduating, he came to Brown University to work in Dr. Edith Mathiowitz’s lab on sustained drug delivery while earning his Master’s of Science in Biomedical Engineering. Upon completion, he spent three and a half years working for MilliporeSigma in a variety of business functions. He returned to Brown University to complete his PhD in Biomedical Engineering and joined Dr. Diane Hoffman-Kim’s lab in the Summer of 2021.

Medical Student

Amanda Laguna

Amanda Laguna received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Brown University in 2021.  As an undergraduate student, she completed her Honors thesis in the Hoffman-Kim lab.  She worked with Rachel McLaughlin, focusing on the development of an ischemic stroke model through quantitatively characterizing the effects of oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion on capillary-like networks in the three-dimensional cortical microtissue model.

Harrison Katz is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Harrison joined the Hoffman-Kim laboratory in the fall of 2019 and has worked primarily on image and data analysis projects. Outside of the lab, he enjoys writing, traveling, and spending time with his dogs.