Professor Greg Harris was honored with the Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award on March 4, 2026, at the society’s annual spring meeting, where he delivered an invited presentation titled “Engineering Biomaterials to Direct Cellular Behavior and Improve Nerve Regeneration.”
In his talk, Professor Harris highlighted how injuries to the peripheral and central nervous systems often lead to permanent loss of function because of limited natural regeneration and the formation of inhibitory scar tissue. The Harris Lab addresses this challenge by integrating biomaterials engineering, cell biology, and tissue engineering to better understand—and ultimately control—the cellular processes that govern nerve repair.
His team develops engineered hydrogel scaffolds and patterned biomaterials with finely tuned mechanical properties, surface topographies, and spatially organized signaling molecules. These platforms allow systematic study of how neurons and support cells, such as Schwann cells, sense and respond to their microenvironment, including how extracellular matrix cues influence neurite extension, cell migration, and tissue remodeling after injury.
By dissecting the interplay between key physical and biochemical parameters, Professor Harris’s work identifies factors that promote regeneration while minimizing inhibitory scarring. This research advances both fundamental knowledge of cell–matrix interactions and translational strategies for nerve repair, with the long-term goal of creating next-generation biomaterials that can stabilize injury sites, guide axonal growth, and improve functional recovery for patients with nervous system injuries.
