My Thesis Work

In my graduate work, I utilized a number of Python packages to evaluate and visualize data I obtained from experiments. Here, I share a few of the plots that resulted from those analyses.

Superbundle processing parameter diagrams

In "Biomimetic Extracellular Scaffolds by Microfluidic Superstructuring of Nanofibers", I performed hundreds of experiments to determine what "processing parameters" could be used with the microfluidic devices I created to successfully fabricate a novel biomaterial that I called "superbundles." Condensing the results of hundreds of individual experiments into a single graphic was a challenge that (to my knowledge) no one in my research group had faced before. To convey the data I collected, I parsed the results of these experiments into heatmaps that spatially and colorimetrically convey the data in a digestible manner.

Extracellular matrix fiber size distributions

One of the aspects of my publication "Biomimetic Extracellular Scaffolds by Microfluidic Superstructuring of Nanofibers" was the assertion that the biomaterials my co-authors and I designed were structurally mimetic of the native extracellular matrix. As part of that assertion, I produced a violin plot showing the size distribution of the structures produced using the microfluidic extrusion method compared to the feature sizes present in decellularized extracellular matrix samples harvested from healthy adult mice.

Cell Growth and Spreading on Biomaterial

Cellular morphology can change significantly based on the conditions they are grown in. In my project, cells grown on the biomaterial I created appeared to spread further and grow larger than cells that were seeded onto chemically identical, but mophologically distinct controls. These findings were too subtle to appreciate in single images, so I displayed two metrics for cellular behavior, overall area and circularity, on a two-dimensional histogram to demonstrate the differences in cellular behavior.

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