I am a biomedical engineer with a skillset uniquely placed at the intersection of in vitro microphysiological systems, pluripotent and adult stem cell technologies, and biomedical engineering education. I was first introduced to bioengineering research by studying healthy and aberrant vascular regeneration in vivo during my undergraduate work at the University of Virginia (UVA), and subsequently in vitro/in vivo hematopoietic regeneration during my Whitaker Fellowship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). As a graduate student in Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic’s Lab for Stem Cells & Tissue Engineering at Columbia, I was focused on engineering micro-scale bone marrow (BM) models to study hematopoiesis and systemic immune interactions in health and disease - with a large focus on studying the effects of simulated cosmic radiation and cancer metastasis on multiple organ systems. Further, I have developed several outreach and dissemination programs to expose K-12 and undergraduate students to STEM fields and designed courses to engage undergraduate students in bioengineering research.
In my postdoctoral work, I am continuing to use these models for advanced studies of malignant hematopoiesis, including patient-specific drug treatments and characterization of stromal-blood cell interactions. To date, I am a co-author of 27 peer-reviewed publications on these areas, including 11 as first/co-first author, as well as 29 oral presentations.
I publish under my full name Daniel Naveed Tavakol, but feel free to call me Naveed!
Interested in my work or want to chat?
Send me an email (dnt2114@columbia.edu) or reach out via Twitter (@naveedtavakol) or LinkedIn!
