Shyni Varghese

Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Orthopaedics

Shyni Varghese has a triple appointment in the Duke departments of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Orthopaedic Surgery. She is the first MEDx Investigator.

A leader in the field of biomaterials and stem cells, Varghese will develop her research at Duke in three major areas:

• Musculoskeletal tissue repair
• Disease biophysics, and
• Organ-on-a-chip technology

A new initiative of the Pratt School of Engineering and Duke School of Medicine, Duke MEDx seeks to enhance and form new collaborations between doctors and engineers.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
• Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
• Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Affiliate of the Regeneration Next Initiative

Contact Information

• Email Address: shyni.varghese@duke.edu
• Websites:
  • Varghese Lab

Education

• Ph.D. National Chemical Laboratory (India), 2002

Research Interests

Musculoskeletal tissue repair, disease biophysics and organ-on-a-chip technology

Courses Taught

• BME 290L: Intermediate Topics with Lab (GE)
• BME 394: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 590: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering
• BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
• ME 221L: Structure and Properties of Solids
• ME 555: Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering

In the News

• Soft Robotic Dragonfly Signals Environmental Disruptions (Mar 25, 2021 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• A Crystal Ball for the Decade Ahead (Jan 9, 2020)
• Engineering a Better Bandage to Promote Faster Healing (Dec 13, 2019 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Big Ideas on a Small Chip Surface (Nov 1, 2019 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Researchers ID Pharmaceutical Target That Reverses Osteoporosis in Mice (Aug 22, 2019 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Shyni Varghese: Making Miniature Models of Muscles, Bones and Tumors (Nov 18, 2016 | Pratt School of Engineering)

Representative Publications

• Nayak, P; Colas, A; Mercola, M; Varghese, S; Subramaniam, S, Temporal mechanisms of myogenic specification in human induced pluripotent stem cells., Science Advances, vol 7 no. 12 (2021) [10.1126/sciadv.abf7412] [abs].
• Andress, B; Kim, JH; Cutcliffe, HC; Amendola, A; Goode, AP; Varghese, S; DeFrate, LE; McNulty, AL, Meniscus cell regional phenotypes: Dedifferentiation and reversal by biomaterial embedding., J Orthop Res (2020) [10.1002/jor.24954] [abs].
• Moreno, AM; Fu, X; Zhu, J; Katrekar, D; Shih, Y-RV; Marlett, J; Cabotaje, J; Tat, J; Naughton, J; Lisowski, L; Varghese, S; Zhang, K; Mali, P, In Situ Gene Therapy via AAV-CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Targeted Gene Regulation., Molecular Therapy : the Journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy, vol 28 no. 8 (2020) [10.1016/j.ymthe.2020.06.027] [abs].
• Zeng, Y; Shih, Y-RV; Baht, GS; Varghese, S, In Vivo Sequestration of Innate Small Molecules to Promote Bone Healing., Adv Mater, vol 32 no. 8 (2020) [10.1002/adma.201906022] [abs].
• Aung, A; Kumar, V; Theprungsirikul, J; Davey, SK; Varghese, S, An Engineered Tumor-on-a-Chip Device with Breast Cancer-Immune Cell Interactions for Assessing T-cell Recruitment., Cancer Res, vol 80 no. 2 (2020), pp. 263-275 [10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-19-0342] [abs].