Max Villa

Max Headshot
Max Villa completed his post-doc with the lab in Spring 2020. For his doctoral project he developed ways of using progenitor cells and biomaterials to regenerate bone in response to injury. As part of this process, he developed biomaterials and applied new imaging methods for examining cells and cell-biomaterial interactions in vivo.

During my Master’s thesis, he developed microfluidic systems (think tiny pipes) for growing stem cells. These devices enable exquisite control of the cell microenvironment, which can be used to understand how stem cells develop into specific tissues, and can be arranged in a high throughput format using very small volumes of fluids (microliters of culture medium per chamber).

He also enjoys kiteboarding, surfing, and bicycle touring. In 2009, he completed a coast to coast tour of the U.S. by bicycle, retracing the Bikecentennial originally done in 1976.