María M. Coronel, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
mcoronel@umich.eduDr. Coronel is a Biological scholar and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her lab is centered on engineering biomaterials for perturbing and investigating immunological responses. Dr. Coronel received her BS degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami, and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida. She also obtained a certificate in Clinical Translational Research from Emory University Public Health School. She finished her postdoctoral fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she received funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, NIH T31, and Georgia CTSA to support her training. CV.
Graduate Students
John-Paul Pham
Cellular Biotechnology Training Program (CBTP) T32 Trainee
jppham@umich.eduJohn-Paul Pham is a 2nd year Biomedical Engineering PhD student from Menifee, CA. He completed his undergraduate degree in Bioengineering (Biotechnology) at the University of California San Diego, where he worked under Dr. Shengqiang Cai and Dr. Karen Christman. In Cai Lab, he developed and mechanically characterized composite biomaterials for bone grafting applications. His work in Christman Lab entailed in-vivo validation of a cardiac infarct-homing protein-like polymer (PLP) nanoparticle and investigating regenerative decellularized myocardial matrix hydrogels using single-cell transcriptomics.
At Coronel Lab, John-Paul is engineering microfluidics-based platforms for making polymeric nanoparticles that can be functionalized with immunomodulatory ligands. His work would enable minimally invasive, targeted strategies for inducing tolerance of allogeneic organ transplants. John-Paul is also a current trainee of UM’s Cellular Biotechnology Training Program, a NIH T32 training grant. When he’s not looking for the stepstool in lab, John-Paul enjoys hiking, blasting music through his earbuds so other lab members have to throw things at him to get his attention, and yes, graphic design is his passion. If he was an immune cell, he would be a neutrophil because he gets into lab early, accidentally breaks things, and leaves the crime scene for adaptive immunity (Dr. Coronel) to fix later.
Nicole Racca
UM BME Derek Tat Award Recipient
nmracca@umich.eduNicole M. Racca is a 2nd year Biomedical Engineering PhD student originally from Warwick, Rhode Island. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where she worked in Dr. George Pins’s laboratory. Her undergraduate research was focused on developing a novel technique to make micropatterned fibrin scaffolding for volumetric muscle loss repair. She was a participant in the NSF Bioactive Interfaces and Devices REU at the University of Kentucky in the summer of 2021 working of biotin/streptavidin micropatterning of surfaces for cellular adherence.
Nicole’s work in the Coronel Lab focuses on developing a dynamic polymeric linker that can be functionalized with immunomodulatory ligands to be attached and delivered via a micron-sized polymeric particle (microgel) platform. Her work would enable the use of a minimally invasive strategy for locally inducing tolerance in allogeneic islet transplants. When she is not zoned in using the biosafety cabinet, you can often find Nicole out at a concert in Detroit, playing card games with friends, doing puzzles to destress, or at her favorite happy hour at Maiz in Ypsilanti. If she was an immune cell, Nicole would be a T helper cell because she often finds herself being a helping hand both in lab and in her daily life.
Kayle Riley
UM Rackham Merit Fellow
kayleril@umich.eduKayle Riley is a second year Biomedical Engineering PhD student from Kansas City, MO. Interestingly, Kayle has never lived in Missouri despite being born there and instead has lived half of her life in Indiana and the other half in Michigan. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at a tiny college known as Trine University in Angola, IN (Kayle’s cohort of graduating BME students was a total of 18 people). After graduation, Kayle participated in an NIH funded Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at the University of Cincinnati, where she got to work with Dr. Jim Wells. During her time there she learned to culture iPSCs and even took the time to learn how to reprogram PBMCs into iPSCs. She spent a great deal of time differentiating human intestinal organoids and insulin producing beta-like cells to use for her experiments.
Kayle’s work in the Coronel Lab focuses on developing a semi-synthetic mucin-based MAP gel functionalized with bioluminescent cytokine probes as a monitoring tool for graft rejections. Her work would enable stem-cell-derived beta cell grafts to be monitored via a minimally invasive approach. When Kayle isn’t reorganizing the lab in her free time, she likes to watch K-dramas and be a couch potato. If she is feeling adventurous, she likes to hang out with friends, go to Maiz with Nicole, and go to raves because EDM music is life (except for techno). If Kayle was an immune cell, she would be a plasma B cell because she is always the last to arrive in lab.
Jean-Pierre Pierantoni
GEM Fellow
jppieran@umich.eduJean-Pierre Pierantoni is a 1st year Biomedical Engineering PhD student originally from Tampa, FL. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida where he worked in Dr. Benjamin Keselowsky’s lab. His undergraduate research project focused on developing a novel glycosylated synthetic protein for modulating immune cell responses in the liver. He was a participant in the NSF SURE REU program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the summer of 2022. As a GEM fellowship recipient, he completed an internship at Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, CA during the summer of 2023.
Jean-Pierre’s work in the Coronel Lab focuses on developing strain-stiffening hydrogels utilizing novel chemistries to understand the relationship of mechanical force on immune cell identity. By creating this platform, we are able to investigate if mechanical forces determine cell identity and if cells embedded within these hydrogel networks can contribute to stiffening. In his free time, Jean-Pierre enjoys cooking, playing soccer, going to new places, and also attending concerts. If he was an immune cell, he would be a Memory B Cell because he enjoys learning new knowledge and helping others remember things if they forget.
Rory Heizelman
rheizel@umich.eduRobert Joseph Heizelman III, or as he prefers: Rory, is a Biomedical Engineering Masters student who hails from Toledo, Ohio. He studied bioengineering at the University of Toledo, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2022. While there, he worked in Dr. Yuan Tang’s Biofluidics laboratory, helping develop microfluidic assays to observe various treatments’ impacts on cancer cell extravasation. Rory started his work as the first member of the Coronel Lab at the same time he began his master’s degree in biomedical engineering. He has been working on fabrication methods for thin film oxygen generating biomaterials, which have the potential to be applied to wound treatment, particularly diabetic wounds.
Outside of his work teaching and researching in lab, Rory enjoys reading, particularly enjoying science fiction. He’s also an avid film fan and particularly enjoys Wes Anderson’s works. He also enjoys yoga, meditation, and sustainable living. Rory feels a kinship with dendritic cells, as he’s double jointed and relates to the way they stretch about. As of January 2024, Rory has received an acceptance to, and intends to attend, the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences for an M.D. degree. He hopes to later specialize in internal medicine or immunology.