Our Research
The long-term vision of the Iyer Stem Cell & Regeneration Lab is to exploit advances in stem cell biology and emerging engineering technologies to develop personalized therapeutic strategies for neural repair. We focus on using human pluripotent stem cells to determine how regional and phenotypic specificity drives neural circuit formation, degeneration, and regeneration in the spinal cord and beyond.
January 7, 2026
New publication! In collaboration with David Kaplan’s group (Tufts BME), we cultured hPSC-derived dorsal and ventral neurons in silk scaffolds to enable long-term 3D culture of spinal cord tissues with spatially distinct zones. Iyer lab contributions led by Emily. Check it out here!
January 5-6, 2026
New Lab Renovations and Move Completed! We are excited to announce that renovations to our new lab space are complete, and the lab officially relocated on January 26. Our new, bright lab home is located just above our old space in the Science and Technology Center (SciTech 282), which we now share with the Black and Martin labs.
To celebrate, we hosted a lab-warming gathering the day before the move to welcome our BME colleagues into the new space—the only time we’ll be eating or drinking in the lab!
December 12, 2025
Neuroengineering Symposium. Nisha organized Tufts’ first Neuroengineering Symposium, bringing together faculty and trainees from the School of Engineering, School of Medicine, and School of Arts and Sciences. The day featured rapid talks, networking, and active brainstorming sessions aimed at sparking new collaborations and pilot funding opportunities. Members of the Iyer Lab helped make this event a success—expect to see many new cross-campus collaborations emerge from this exciting initiative.
December 8, 2025
Two new bioRxiv preprints! We’re ending the year strong with some of the first working from our lab.
The first project, led by PhD student Natalie with collaborators Dami, Zhixin, and undergraduates Farsin and Kara, introduces a simplified NGN2 PiggyBac–based neuronal reprogramming protocol that generates cortical neurons in just six days under minimal media conditions. Check it out here
The second project, led by PhD student Emily with last year’s senior capstone team and summer volunteers, Max, Hannah, Yan, Aneth, Noah, and Faith, describes a new SLA 3D-printing method to fabricate PEG-based cell culture devices, demonstrated with hPSC-derived neuron co-cultures using cells generated by Natalie’s protocol.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
November 24, 2025
Best Poster! Congrats to Nicole for winning first place at the 2025 Earle P. Charlton Poster Competition in the GSBS Junior category at Tufts School of Medicine! Nicole shared her work developing new methods to rapidly generate oligodendrocytes from hPSCs. Thanks to the many judges and who helped evaluate a very competitive event.
November 9-12, 2025
Nisha at TERMIS. Nisha is co-organizing two Neural TWIG sessions at TERMIS, "Tissue Engineering Models of the Nervous System” and “Strategies for Regeneration of the Nervous System”. Come say hi!
September 17-19, 2025
Nisha at ISRT. Nisha is giving a keynote talk at the International Spinal Research Trust Network Meeting in London, UK September 18, discussing the lab's recent progress on generating diverse spinal and peripheral nervous system cell types and applications in spinal cord injury and tissue modeling.
September 15, 2025
Milestone achieved! Congrats to Patrick for passing his Original Research Proposal exam in pursuit of his PhD! Thanks to his thesis committee members and the BME community for supporting him through this important milestone so early in the day!
We are growing! The lab welcomes new PhD student Julian Chow to the lab (after an unexpectedly delayed start)! Julian completed his BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and has extensive experience working with microphysiological systems for cardiac dysfunction using hiPSCs. We look forward to his contributions to the lab expanding models for autonomic innervation!
September 12, 2025
Iyer Lab wins at the BME Department Retreat! We had a great day showcasing research in the Iyer lab! Patrick and Natalie came away with 3rd and 1st prizes for poster presentations respectively. Natalie and Izabela also brought their competitive spirit to networking-bingo. Many thanks to all the volunteers from our lab and others in the department who helped Nisha run the event in her first turn as chair.
September 4, 2024
New bioRxiv preprint! Congratulations to Nisha and collaborators on a new manuscript describing a microphysiological model of the afferent pain synapse, integrating previously undescribed hPSC-derived superficial dorsal horn neurons and functional nociceptor connections with pain- and itch-like electrophysiological responses, in collaboration with UW–Madison, Tulane, and UCSF. Check it out here
September 3, 2025
Nisha named Tiampo Family Assistant Professor for the School of Engineering! Nisha and the lab are incredibly grateful for the honor and opportunities that the professorship will support in the next few years! The professorship was established in 2018 to recruit and retain outstanding junior faculty members with a generous gift from James J., E83 and A83, and Kristy F., E83, Tiampo. A named endowed professorship is the highest tribute Tufts bestows on a faculty member and ensures Tufts students have accesss to great minds, creative researchers, and engaged mentors.
September 2, 2025
We are growing! The lab welcomes new PhD students Izabela Zmirska and Madeleine Szoo to the lab!
Izabela joins us from the University of Florida, where she completed her BS in Biomedical Engineering and was engaged in biomaterials research for spinal cord injury (SCI). She was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship and NSF GRFP Fellowship! We are excited for her to work on growing collaborations developing new strategies for cell therapies for SCI.
Maddie joins us from Northeastern University, where she majored in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry and developed a wide repertoire of research experiences spanning microphysiological systems development, biomaterials, cancer, and engineering education. The Tufts Provost Fellowship and NSF GRFP Fellowship are among Maddie's numerous awards! She will be co-mentored by our group in the Peyton lab to advance new models for cancer metastasis in the spinal cord.
August 29, 2025
Milestone achieved! Congrats to Emily for passing her Original Research Proposal exam in pursuit of her PhD! Thanks to her thesis committee members and the BME community for supporting her through this important milestone--the first in our lab!
August 1, 2025
We are celebrating! Congrats to Michael on winning a Tufts Undergraduate Research Fund Award! He will be using these funds to develop imaging tools to characterize glial morphology during stem cell differentiation with his lab mentor!
July 15, 2025
We are growing! The lab welcomes Zeke Benshirim as a postdoctoral scholar. He joins us from Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Integrative Biology and completed his PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences under the mentorship of Paola Arlotta. His research focused on developing organoid methods to support long-term self-organization essential for cortical development. We’re excited for him to advance organoid-based disease and pain modeling in the lab!
July 8, 2025
We are celebrating! Congrats to Lucy and Yan on winning Tufts Undergraduate Research Funds! They will be using these funds to understand the impact of the physical and chemical microenvironment on neuron function in different contexts with their lab mentors!
July 1, 2025
Warm welcomes! High school student Emily Mbi Ojong joins the lab as part of the Tufts TUBERS program . This year Nisha, Nicole, and Emily (P) helped organize a new bootcamp for the long-running TUBERS program, which was featured in Tufts Now. Undergraduates Hannah Goldberg and Michael Mazurek (Biomedical Engineering) also join our team to contribute to ongoing research efforts by Emily and Nicole.
June 16, 2025
Warm welcomes! MD/ PhD student Somaia Saba joins us for her second research rotation.
June 4, 2025
Milestone achieved! Natalie Parker passed her PhD qualifying exam! We are excited for Natalie to transition from her masters work to further expand hybrid methods for neural differentiation. Congrats on this important milestone!
May 18, 2025
Graduation farewells! We wish the best to our graduating seniors Jed and Dylan, who were among the first students to join the lab in fall 2022 when we opened. They made a huge impact on our lab culture and we can't wait to see them succeed moving forward!
May 16, 2025
It's NOA Day! Nisha has received an NIH-NINDS R21 Exploratory Neuroscience Research Grant! This project, led by Natalie and Nicole, will use hybrid differentiation and reprogramming approaches to generate diverse neural crest and oligodendrocyte lineages!
May 7, 2025
Milestone achieved! Masters students India and Dami both passed their original research proposals in preparation for their theses. Congrats!
May 1, 2025
We are celebrating! Congratulations to Emily and Patrick on winning a Tufts Graduate Student Research Competition award! They will be using the funds to develop scalable methods to generate astrocytes and new spinal organoids respectively.
April 8, 2025
Nicole Teaney Awarded NSF GRFP Fellowship! We’re thrilled to share that Neuroscience PhD student Nicole Teaney has been selected for the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)! Nicole will be developing innovative in vitro models to study neurodegenerative diseases of the spinal cord. The GRFP is always highly competitive, but with this year’s significant funding cuts—resulting in fewer than 1,000 awards (less than half the typical number)—this achievement is even more remarkable. We are extra proud of Nicole and can't wait to see the impact of her research!
March 3, 2025
We are growing! We’re excited to welcome Nicole Teaney to the lab as a PhD student! Nicole joins us with a background in Neuroscience from Stonehill College and brings valuable experience from her time as a research technician at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she worked with patient-derived iPSCs to model neurological diseases. We’re thrilled to have her on board helping us develop models for neurodegenerative disease.
January 13, 2025
Warm welcomes! Neuroscience PhD student Lina Oh joins us for her third research rotation.
January 6, 2025
We are growing! We’re excited to welcome several new members to the lab! Undergraduates Rola Kazaer and Yan Kolpakov (Biomedical Engineering) and Lucy Moss (Biology) are joining us to contribute to our ongoing research efforts by Emily and Zhixin. We’re also thrilled to have Niyera Mitchell and Ishaan Tiwari join as lab technicians, supporting our gene editing and organoid projects.
“Nisha Iyer named Tiampo Family Assistant Professor”
--Tufts Now (September 2025)
"Putting Science at the Forefront for the Next Generation"
--Tufts Now (July 2025)
"Iyer recognized for innovative approach to pain research"
--Tufts Now (October 2024)
"‘It’s About Increasing Access’: Universal Design for Learning at Tufts"
--Tufts Now (May 2024)
“Four Tufts faculty members receive grants for women’s health research”
--Tufts Daily (February 2024)
"Tufts research advancing women’s health"
--Tufts Now (January 2024)
"When the Syllabus Includes 'Jurassic Park' and Genetic Engineering"
--Tufts Now (August 2023)
"Re-GENE-rative Medicine's Future in Biomedical Engineering"
--STARTS Podcast (August 2023)
"Exploring the Science in Sci-fi Movies"
--Curiously Podcast (July 2023)
"How a Tufts professor is using 'Jurassic Park' to sculpt the next generation of bioengineers"
--WBUR Radio Boston (May 2023)
"Improved understanding of early spinal cord development paves the way for new treatments"
-- UW Madison News (October 2022)
"New BME Faculty" --Tufts Now (October 2022)