Our first year cohort showed up for ISCRM Symposium! The TARE Lab presented a total of 5 posters, one from each of our first year PhD students and our research scientist. Cheers to the end of a great first year, keep up the good work!

First year MolES PhD Student Madelyn Atkins and Research Scientist Anika Shah represented the TARE lab at the annual UW ISCRM Symposium last week with both lightning talks and posters!

3rd year undergraduate Marisa Valenzano presented her first poster at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium last week! We are so proud of not only her great presentation, but all her work characterizing and modulating the mechanical properties of our PHA hydrogel system. Great work Marisa!

Dr. Kyley Burkey was awarded the Society For Biomaterials Orthopaedic SIG Best Presentation Award at the April annual meeting and will be presenting her talk again at the webinar below! Thanks to the organizers for highlighting her work.

In April we celebrated the completion of both Dr. Burkey and Dr. Meinhold's PhDs with a rooftop potluck and games! We are so proud of these two and grateful for the joy and energy they've brought to the lab, in addition to all their hard work.

Ph.D. Candidate(!) Susy Simmonds-Bohorquez successfully gave her general exam last week! We are so excited for her continued work in partnership with co-advisor Dr. Ron Kwon and the Musculoskeletal Systems Biology Lab. Go Susy!

Janie Johnson has received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP)! This prestigious fellowship seeks to fund graduate students with promisingly impactful careers in research and beyond. We are proud to see Janie's efforts recognized at the national level! See more: sites.uw.edu/jrobins1/202...

Congratulations to Dr. Kyley Burkey, who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis April 2nd and is returning to KU to complete her M.D.! We are so proud of our future double doctor! Please read the lab's full message to Dr. Burkey here: sites.uw.edu/jrobins1/202...

Susy, Katherine, Janie, and Dr. Robinson represented the TARE Lab at yesterday’s US Soccer #shebelieves summit. We also cheered on the USWNT in their friendly against Japan on Tuesday with over 36,000 friends—the most attended standalone women’s sporting event in Seattle history!

Check out Dr. Katherine Meinhold's feature on UW BioE about her recent SFB Award: bioe.uw.edu/meinhold-rec...

We also enjoyed our time at @orssociety.bsky.social in Charlotte! Anika was nominated for a research award in the meniscus section of presentations, and Susy and John had successful poster sessions. See more from both conferences on our website here: sites.uw.edu/jrobins1/202...

What a great experience at the SFB Annual Meeting in Atlanta! We're grateful for moments like these that bring the biomaterials community together. Congratulations once more to Dr. Katherine Meinhold for receiving the Student Award for Outstanding Research!

Next up, we're also at ORS in Charlotte this weekend! We're looking forward to our research engineer Anika's oral presentation and two posters from graduate students Susy and John. Come talk to us about our exciting work on meniscus regeneration! #ORS2026 @orssociety.bsky.social

We're excited to be in Atlanta at the SFB Annual Meeting this week! #SFB2026 Highlights: Dr. Katherine Meinhold is receiving the Student Award for Outstanding Research. Katherine, Dr. Robinson, and Kyley will share their work in sessions throughout the week. Hope to see you there!

Proudly introducing Dr. Katherine Meinhold, Ph.D.! Katherine successfully defended her thesis entitled "Modulating electrospun fiber scaffolds to mimic native meniscus properties and engineer an in vitro injury model" Monday. We are so proud of her and grateful for all her hard work. Congrats!

We enjoyed running our Fun with Fiber activity at an ISCRM outreach event in February! Middle schoolers compared fiber properties across three different fiber-making methods: cotton candy, hot glue, and silly string!

We had so much fun at our TARE Lab Holiday Potluck this weekend! We're also excited to welcome two new students to the lab this quarter, Madelyn and Frida. Happy new year all!

PhD candidate John Bradford representing the TARE Lab at Tuesday Noon @uwiscrm.bsky.social seminar last month. His work developing an in vitro model of discoid meniscus will allow us to explore regeneration in this historically understudied condition. Great presentation, John!

PhD candidate John Bradford presented a poster and lightning talk on his discoid meniscus in vitro model and the fascinating mystery of avascular regeneration in discoid meniscus at TERMIS @termisam.bsky.social this week. Great work John!

And just like that, first year PhD student Jordan Vanni has presented her first graduate school poster! Jordan recently shared the results of her summer project at Cascadia 6.0. Congrats Jordan!

Shoutout to PhD student Janie Johnson for representing ISCRM at ARCS Night to Ignite Science. The event raised $1.3 million for science in Washington State!

Congratulations are in order for Kyley Burkey, Ph.D. Candidate! Kyley recently passed her Comprehensive Exam and is on to the final stage of her Ph.D. journey. We're so proud of you, Kyley, and can't wait to read your dissertation!

Dr. Robinson and graduate students Katherine, Kyley, and Susy brought "Fun with Fibers" to the Chehalis STEM Camp this summer! High school students explored concepts in biomaterials and regenerative medicine through the TARE lab's hands-on experiments and demonstrations.

First year MechE PhD student Janie Johnson was awarded an ISCRM Fellowship this summer and presented her proposal at the ISCRM Fellows Symposium. She is investigating sex differences in meniscus mechanobiology and we're excited to see what she finds with our ISCRM colleagues!

Congratulations to first year MolES PhD student Jordan Vanni, who was awarded a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) earlier this year! Dr. Robinson made cake for lab meeting to celebrate the big win.

Lab retreat September 2025: some great brainstorming followed by a water taxi adventure to West Seattle!

This fall we are excited to welcome three new PhD students to the TARE lab: Jordan, Janie, and Nini. Check out their profiles on our website! sites.uw.edu/jrobins1/202...

Some bittersweet goodbyes in the lab this summer: Dr. Aidan Alemifar defended his PhD thesis and has returned to KU to finish medical school. Four undergraduate seniors, Sydney, Brian, Anika, and Nitya, graduated from the UW. Congratulations and thank you all for your hard work!