Handa Biomaterials Lab – University of Georgia
Welcome to the Handa Biomaterials Research Group at the University of Georgia. Our lab is committed to developing biocompatible coatings for medical devices through highly translational and interdisciplinary research. We perform fundamental cell/protein surface interaction studies, novel biomaterial development and optimization, and material testing in animal models. Due to the critical nature of our research field, we have received NIH, CDC, and VA funding. Our novel materials stand to decrease the morbidity, mortality, and hospitalization costs associated with medical devices by reducing fouling, thrombosis, and infection.
Latest News
04/13/22: Mark Garren has won a Surface Characterization and Modifications (SC&M) Special Interest Group (SIG) Graduate Student Travel Award for his upcoming conference presentation. Congrats, Mark!
04/04/22: Elaine (Yi) Wu, Vincente Pinon, Lauren Griffin, Rashmi Pandey, and Lori Estes all won Summer 2022 Interdisciplinary and Innovative Research Grants. Congrats, everyone!
03/24/22: Sama Ghalei has successfully defended her dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Ghalei!
03/18/22: Megan Douglass won UGA's 2022 Excellence in Research by Graduate Students Award. Congrats, Megan!
12/22/21: Morgan Ashcraft was chosen for the 2022 Stewart Award. Congrats, Morgan!
11/08/21: Arnab Mondal successfully defended his dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Mondal!
10/29/21: Megan Douglass successfully defended her dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Douglass!
09/09/21: Ryan Devine was named a recipient of a 1st tier Baxter Young Investigator Award recipient. Congrats, Ryan!
08/26/21: Sama Ghalei was awarded best poster at the 262nd ACS National Meeting & Exposition. Congrats, Sama!
06/11/21: Lauren Griffin was awarded the 2021 Hamilton Lokey Graduate Scholarship. Congrats, Lauren!
06/10/21: Lori Estes was awarded the 2021 George Hugh Boyd Memorial Scholarship. Congrats, Lori!
05/26/21: The Handa Lab welcomes the arrival of REU students Natalie Crutchfield and Sydney Hayes. Enjoy your research!
05/10/21: Dr. Hitesh Handa was awarded the title of Distinguished Faculty Fellow by UGA. Congrats, Dr. Handa!
05/03/21: Juhi Mancha was awarded the 2021 Merit Award for Research. Congrats, Juhi!
04/19/21: Dr. Handa was named UGA's 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year by the UGA Office of Research. Congrats, Dr. Handa!
03/31/21: Lori and Ryan were each rewarded with the 2021 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant. Congrats, Lori and Ryan!
03/04/21: Sama was awarded the Brahm P. Verma Award for Academic & Leadership Excellence. Congrats, Sama!
01/05/21: The Handa Lab welcomes the arrival of Elaine Wu. Enjoy your research!
8/19/20: Megan Douglas was awarded the Baxter Young Investigator Award. Congrats, Megan!
7/29/20: The Handa Lab welcomes the arrival of Sarah, Patrick, and Blake. Enjoy your Research!
7/29/20: Lauren was awarded the Hamilton Lokey Graduate Scholarship. Congrats, Lauren!
7/29/20: Sama was awarded a Graduate Education Advancement Board Fellowship. Congrats, Sama!
4/13/20: Li successfully completed his Master's Thesis Defense and is officially a MS.! Congrats, Li!
4/4/20: Megan, Ryan, Morgan, Sama, Mark, and Divine were each rewarded with the 2020 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant. Congrats, Megan, Ryan, Morgan, Sama, Mark, and Divine!
3/11/20: Megan was awarded the Brahm P. Verma Award for Academic and Leadership Excellence. Congrats, Megan!
3/11/20: Ryan was awarded the UGA Graduate School Outstanding Teaching Assistance Award & CENGR Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching Award. Congrats, Ryan!
3/3/20: Dr. Handa served as a panelist for Innovation Bootcamp, focusing on faculty entrepreneurship.
3/2/20: Megan and Lauren successfully completed the NSF I-Corps Program. Congrats, Megan and Lauren!
2/14/20: Ryan successfully completed his Qualifying Exams and is officially a Ph.D. Candidate! Congrats, Ryan!
2/7/20: Olivia and Nicole were awarded the CURO Spring 2020 Fellowship. Congrats to both of you!
1/7/20: Dr. Handa gave a talk at Emory's Department of Vascular Surgery entitled, "Conquering Infection and thrombosis through biomaterial innovation."
10/8/19: Arnab won the Anthony Shuker Poster Award for his poster entitled, "Polydopamine-assisted Aqueous Colloidal Fluoropolymer Coating on NO-Releasing Medical Grade Polymer for Biomedical Application" at the Georgia Bio Innovation Summit. Congrats, Arnab!
8/21/19: Dr. Handa was one of two faculty named an Innovation Fellow at the University of Georgia. Congrats, Dr. Handa!
8/12/19: Megan was awarded the 2019-2020 ARCS Fellowship Award. Congrats, Megan!
6/12/19: Priya was hired as a Senior Engineer & Clinical Liaison at Invoy LLC. Congrats, Priya!
4/7/19: Dr. Handa was awarded the Fred C. Davison Early Career Scholar Award. Named in honor of the University of Georgia’s 18th President, this award recognizes outstanding accomplishment and evidence of potential future success in scholarship, creative work or research by an early career faculty member in the sciences. Congrats, Dr. Handa!
4/6/19: Lori was selected for this year's Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant (IIRG). Congrats, Lori!
4/5/19: Megan was awarded the Society for Biomaterial's Surface Characterization & Modification SIG Trainee Travel Award. Congrats, Megan!
4/3/19: Thao was awarded the Undergraduate Merit Award for Research. Congrats, Thao!
4/2/19: Ryan was awarded the Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching Award. Congrats, Ryan!
4/2/19: Priya was awarded the Brahm P. Verma Award for Academic and Leadership Excellence and Excellence in Graduate Research from the College of Engineering. Congrats, Priya!
3/26/19: Priya successfully defended her dissertation: "Combating Infection and Promoting Hemocompatibility in Medical Devices Using Antifouling and Nitric Oxide Release Strategies". Congrats, Priya!
3/22/19: Jiten presented at the 2019 TED x UGA, a first-ever presenter from the College of Engineering. Congrats, Jiten!
2/25/19: Priya was awarded 1st place and a Research Travel Award for her poster "In vivo and In vitro characterization of antithrombotic and antimicrobial vascular catheters" at the 2019 College of Engineering Graduate Research Showcase. Congrats, Priya!
2/21/19: Jiten was selected as the recipient of this year's Excellence in Research Award in Applied Sciences from the University of Georgia Graduate School. Congratulations, Jiten!
2/14/19: Megan received Honorable Mention for the STAR award for the 2019 Society of Biomaterials conference. Congrats, Megan!
1/4/19: Priya was selected for the "Student Awards for Outstanding Research" for Ph.D. candidates by the Society of Biomaterials 2019. Congrats, Priya!
12/17/18: Starting in January, Juhi will begin an Operations Engineering Co-op at Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary company, Janssen! Congrats, Juhi!
12/06/18: Jiten was selected as the speaker for the Graduate Convacation at the College of Engineering, UGA. Congrats, Jiten!
12/01/18: Jiten successfully defended his Ph.D dissertation. Congratulations, Jiten!
11/30/18: Katie and Dani successfully defended their Master's thesis. Congratulations, Katie and Dani!
11/15/18: Jiten was the speaker at the new interdisciplinary-STEM groundbreaking ceremony. Congratulations, Jiten!
11/11/18: Priya was selected as a winner for the 2019Society for Biomaterials Award. Congratulations, Priya!
11/05/18: Jiten was selected amount the top 3 speakers at TEDx UGA. Congratulations, Jiten!
11/01/18: Juhi was selected at Johnson & Johnson for an internship. Congratulations, Juhi!
10/10/18: Jiten was selected among the top 8 students university-wide for the TEDx SIS held November 14, 2018. Jiten was the only student from the College of Engineering selected. Congratulations, Jiten!
09/09/18: Jiten won the 2018 Georgia BioInnovation Summit Award for best poster presentation. Congrats, Jiten!
09/09/18: Arnab received the 2018 Georgia BioInnovation Anthony Shuker Scientific Poster Award. Congrats, Arnab!
08/05/18: Priya received the 2018 Baxter Young Investigator Award. It is awarded to around 10 researchers from all over the U.S. every year. Congrats, Priya!
07/16/18: Priya attended the C-MIT Workshop in Los Angeles, CA and presented her poster titled "Surface Tethered Nitric Oxide Releasing Tethered Moieties for Biomedical Applications". Congrats, Priya!
07/12/18: Juhi has received the Georgia Section ASABE scholarship. Congratulations, Juhi!
07/07/18: Jiten, Priya, and Katie were accepted to showcase their research in the 2018 Biomedical and Engineering Society Conference in October. Congrats!
07/04/18: Jiten has received the Award for Excellence in mentorship in NanoBio REU Program. Congratulations, Jiten!
07/03/18: Juhi has received the Let All the Big Dawgs Eat Food Scholarship. Congratulations, Juhi!
07/01/18: Jiten has received the 2018 BMES travel award. Congratulations, Jiten!
06/04/18: Juhi has received the Research Experience for Undergraduates scholarship and will attend the Nanotechnology and Biomedicine REU program funded by the National Science Foundation. Congratulations, Juhi!
05/16/18: Huzefa has been selected for the CURO summer fellowship. Congratulations, Huzefa!
05/06/18: Ben has been accepted to Vanderbilt for med school. Congratulations to Ben!
04/30/18: Priya and Jiten both received the Chair's Award for Excellence in Graduate Research by the College of Engineering, UGA. Congratulations Priya and Jiten!
04/11/18: Sean, Priya, and Jiten were selected to speak at the SFB conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
04/03/18: Dani has received Honorable Mention from the NSF GRFP. Congratulations to Dani!
03/14/18: Jiten has received this year's College of Engineering Brahm Verma Award of Excellence in Research, and Priya has received runner-up. Congratulations to Priya and Jiten!
03/06/18: Priya is only one of 60 students selected to attend the SFB Summer School in Biomaterial Field in Bordeaux, France. Congrats, Priya!
02/28/18: Arnab has been selected to receive the 2018 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the University of Georgia. Congrats, Arnab!
02/09/18: Priya has been awarded the Student Travel Achievement Recognition (STAR) Award for the Society of Biomaterials' 2018 Annual Meeting for her outstanding contribution. Congrats, Priya!
01/18/18: The Handa Lab has been featured on UGA's main page!
01/09/18: Jiten was featured in UGA's graduate Magazine in the piece "Discovery: The life of Jitendra Pant". Congrats, Jiten!
01/08/18: Dr. Handa was featured in the "Research News" section of this week's Columns! The title of the piece is "Protective barrier: Engineering faculty member developing coatings to keep hospital patients from contracting infections."
01/05/18: Martin Tran, Reagan Armistead, and Juhi Mancha received the CURO award for Spring 2018. Congrats, Martin and Juhi!
01/04/18: Handa lab welcomes Dr. James Manuel and Dr. Marcus Goudie as postdocs to their research group!
01/04/18: Handa lab welcomes undergraduate students Lori Estes and Huzefa Husain to their research group!