Personnel

Section Contents
Leon Bellan

Leon M. Bellan

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
336E Olin Hall
615-343-6214
Email
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Overview

Materials with micro- or nanofabricated features can respond in intelligent ways to external stimuli and can serve to mimic living systems. However, the vast majority of techniques used to produce such materials are either derived from the semiconductor industry or are based on rapid prototyping approaches, hindering the development and widespread use of patterned smart materials. Because these conventional techniques were developed to fabricate devices, they are not necessarily well suited to produce materials. Devices typically require precise placement of functional elements and do not necessarily extend significantly in all three dimensions, whereas materials (which often must have a significant extent in all three dimensions) often depend more on feature density and patterns, and not necessarily perfectly reproduced structures. A major focus of our lab is to develop non-traditional fabrication techniques that are well-suited to producing such microfluidic materials.

Awards

-VUSE Teaching Innovation Award, 2021
-Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigator, 2019
-NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2011-2016
-NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellowship, 2010-2011

Selected Publications

Leveraging the gel-to-sol transition of physically crosslinked thermoresponsive polymer hydrogels to enable reactions induced by lowering temperature. Lobban R; Biswas A; Ruiz-Márquez KJ; Bellan LM , RSC Advances, 12, , (2022) View Abstract

iPSC-Derived Brain Endothelium Exhibits Stable, Long-Term Barrier Function in Perfused Hydrogel Scaffolds. Faley SL, Neal EH, Wang JX, Bosworth AM, Weber CM, Balotin KM, Lippmann ES; Bellan LM, Stem Cell Reports, 12, 474-487, (2019) View Abstract

Spatiotemporal control and modeling of morphogen delivery to induce gradient patterning of stem cell differentiation using fluidic channels. O’Grady B, Balikov D A, Wang JX, Neal EH, Ou YC, Bardhan R, Lippmann ES, Bellan LM., Biomaterials Science, 7, 1358-1371, (2019) View Abstract

Thermoresponsive Transient Radio Frequency Antennas: Toward Triggered Wireless Transient Circuits. Zhang X, Weber CM, Bellan LM, Advanced Materials Technologies, 4, 1900528, (2019) View Abstract

A simple microfluidic platform for rapid and efficient production of the radiotracer [F-18] fallypride. Zhang X, Liu F, Knapp KA, Nickels ML, Manning HC, Bellan LM, Lab on a Chip, 18, 1369-1377, (2018) View Abstract