Ronke M. Olabisi, Ph,D.

Ronke M. Olabisi, Ph,D.

Assistant Professor

Biography

Ronke Olabisi earned her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from MIT. At the University of Michigan she completed one master’s degree in mechanical engineering and one in aeronautical engineering. Olabisi received her doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2020 she joined the UCI Biomedical Engineering department from Rutgers University where she was an assistant professor with an appointment in Biomedical Engineering and an affiliation with the Institute of Advanced Materials, Devices, and Nanotechnology. Olabisi is the recipient of a 2016 Engineering Information Foundation Award, a 2018 NSF CAREER Award, a 2019 Johnson & Johnson Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing, and Design (WiSTEM2D) Scholar Award, and in 2019 she was named one of the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Young Innovators in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering.

Research in Lay Terms

The focus of the Olabisi Lab is tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with a particular emphasis on combining synthetic materials with cues from nature ranging from a single peptide to a collection of whole cells. For instance, we have combined proteins derived from seashell with synthetic polymers to induce spatially controlled micropatterned bone formation. We have incorporated bioactive molecules into synthetic scaffolds to probe the scaffold stiffness requirements of retinal epithelial cells towards rebuilding the defective Bruch's membrane in age related macular degeneration. And we have found that by coencapsulating mesenchymal stem cells and insulin secreting cells, we can reduce the healing time of chronic diabetic wounds from approximately 40 days to 14 days (normoglycemic wounds heal in 21 days), accelerate burn wound healing, and accelerate the healing of infected wounds.

Related Links

http://www.olabisilab.com/