Joy Boontheekul
PhD Alumni
tboonthe@deas.harvard.edu

Education

University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering, May 2003-present
Master of Science in Engineering, December 2002

Chulalongkorn University, College of Engineering, Bangkok, Thailand
Bachelor of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, March 2001

Research Focus

The underlying hypothesis of my work is that presentation of adhesive peptides from alginate hydrogels and subsequent degradation may regulate the phenotype of skeletal muscle cells adherent to the biomaterials. To address this hypothesis, I utilized the measurement of viscoelastic properites (e.g., storage and loss modulus) to demonstrate the ability of the cells to crosslink the cell-polymer network by using their receptors to bind with presenting peptides, which would be dependent on peptide density and spacing. Alginate hydrogels have been further developed to be degradable and studied its effect on the regulation of skeletal muscle cells.

Personal interests: tennis, badminton, swimming, cooking, traveling

Publications

• Boontheekul, T., Kong, H.J., Mooney, D.J., Controlling alginate gel degradation utilizing partial oxidation and bimodal molecular weight distribution, Biomaterials, (in press)
• Drury, J.L., Boontheekul, T., Mooney, D.J., Control of alginate mechanical properties with RGDSP peptide density and C2C12 myoblast concentration, J. Biomech (in press)
• Boontheekul, T., Mooney, D.J., Regulating myoblast phenotype through controlled alginate scaffold degradation: a delivery vehicle for skeletal muscle tissue engineering, Eur Cell Mat, 7 (Supplement 2 SSB), 2004, 14-5
• Boontheekul, T., Mooney, D.J., Protein-based signaling systems in tissue engineering, Curr. Opin Biotechnol, 14(5), 2003, 559-65