Announcements

August 2025

The lab participates in the International Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop in Irvine, CA. Hannah, Maddie, Zach, and Swathi all presented excellent posters. Jonathan is selected as co-chair of next year’s meeting.

The lab says goodbye to Joanne Lee, Ph.D. Joanne is joining Aleon Pharma International as a Project Manager of Regulatory Affairs. Congratulations, Joanne! We’re very proud of you!

July 2025

Dylan has accepted a Junior Specialist Position at UCSF! Congratulations, Dylan!

Cheryl has accepted a post baccalaureate position at NAIAD. Congratulations, Cheryl!

May 2025

Zach and Joanne deliver oral presentations at ASGCT!

Jonathan is awarded the Rising Star Faculty Research Award from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering.

We bid farewell to Dr. Catherine Hamann and Dr. Bonnie Walton! Good luck in your next endeavors at the Neural Stem Cell Institute and at Boston Consulting! We will miss you – thanks for leaving a lasting mark on the lab!

April 2025

Catherine successfully defends her dissertation! Congratulations, Dr. Hamann! Catherine will be joining Dr. Sally Temple’s team as postdoctoral scholar at the Neural Stem Cell Institute in the summer! Very proud of you, Catherine!

Catherine’s paper is accepted to ACS Synthetic Biology!

Dylan is awarded the Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award!

March 2025

Joanne successfully defends her dissertation! Congratulations, Dr. Lee!

Hannah is awarded the Provost’s Pathbreaking Discovery Award! Congrats, Hannah!

Maddie’s paper on an engineered cell therapy for Alzheimer’s disease is posted to bioRxiv!

February 2025

Bonnie successfully defends her dissertation! Congratulations, Dr. Walton! Bonnie will be joining Boston Consulting Group in the summer! We’re very proud of you, Bonnie!

Bonnie’s paper is highlighted by an Editor’s Choice feature in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage!

January 2025

Dylan wins a poster award at the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering conference, where Jonathan also delivered a podium presentation.

December 2024

Bonnie’s manuscript in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage is available!

The lab welcomes Nick Herbst as a new graduate student in the BME Ph.D. program. Welcome, Nick!

NIH MARC Scholar Cheryl Quartey has been racking up awards for several months now – time to shout out! First place Undergraduate Presentation at the Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium; Travel award to the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists; Travel award to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Public Policy Institute. Way to go, Cheryl!

November 2024

Congratulations to Hannah for a successful Qualifying Exam!

October 2024

Congratulations to Maddie for a successful Qualifying Exam!

Hannah’s paper is published in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering!

September 2024

Notice of award for an R01 from NIAMS to develop cell therapies to treat arthritis!

August 2024

The lab welcomes Swathi Shekharan as a new graduate student in the BME Ph.D. program. Welcome, Swathi!

June 2024

Shuqun’s paper is published in Frontiers of Bioengineering and Biotechnology!

April 2024

Notice of award for an R21 from NIA to support our work toward developing cell-based therapies to combat Alzheimer’s disease!!

Joanne is awarded a predoctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award! Congratulations, Joanne!

February 2024

Our review of RNA- and cell-based therapies for osteoarthritis is out in Nature Reviews Rheumatology! This was a collaboration with the Duvall Lab, spearheaded by Carli DeJulius and Bonnie Walton. Great work, team!

January 2024

Jonathan receives the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Award!

Notice of award for an R21 from NINDS to support our collaborative project with Dr. Ethan Lippmann’s lab, with the goal of improved stem cell differentiation to brain microvascular endothelial cells!

Our collaboration with Melanie Gil from Vivian Gama’s lab is published in Bio Protocol!

April 2023

Jonathan’s NSF CAREER Award is official!

Maddie is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations, Maddie!

Former Brunger Lab undergraduate Jiageng Liu is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations!

March 2023

Joanne’s paper is published in Biomaterials!

August 2022

Zach Eidman, former Brunger Lab undergraduate, returns to the lab as a graduate student in the BME Ph.D. program. Welcome back, Zach!

June 2022

We are delighted that we have been selected for a second year of funding support from the Arthritis National Research Foundation! Jonathan is honored to have been announced the Judy E. Green Valiant Women Grant recipient. Thank you for your support!

We welcome Leo and Dylan for summer stints in the lab – we hope you enjoy your time with us!

April 2022

We congratulate Hannah Brien on her selection as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Congratulations, Hannah!

March 2022

The lab welcomes Research Associate Professor Shuqun Shi to our team! Welcome Dr. Shi!

January 2022

The lab welcomes our first postdoc – Dr. Jhanvi Sharma. Welcome Dr. Sharma!

November 2021

One of our collaborations with the Lippmann Lab garnered support from the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center (VMAC) Pilot and Feasibility Funding Program! Thank you, VMAC, for the lengthening our runway on projects for treating and understanding Alzheimer’s disease!

August 2021

The lab welcomes our two new graduate students, Maddie and Hannah! We’re excited you’re joining us!

Congrats to Joanne for her abstract being accepted as a podium presentation at BMES!

May 2021

We bid adieu to our first cohort of undergraduates. Congratulations, Zach and Perry. Good luck to you both!

Meanwhile – Welcome Linxuan and Victoria!

April 2021

-We are thrilled to have been notified that the Arthritis National Research Foundation has selected our proposal for funding. We are grateful for support from ANRF!

-The Brunger Lab is excited to welcome Hannah Brien and Maddie Spetz as incoming graduate students in Fall 2021. We look forward to your arrival to Nashville!

March 2021

Congratulations to Bonnie on receiving the NSF GRF Award!

February 2021

Great to attend the virtual Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting, which had fantastic scientific and career development sessions! Especially fun to attend after the lab received exciting feedback on recent grant proposals supporting our work in this area!

December 2020

What a year! We are grateful to everyone that helped us make it through – collaborators, mentors and friends. In particular, Jonathan thanks Bonnie, Catherine, Joanne, Zach and Perry for the big efforts taken to launch the lab despite the monolithic obstacles we all faced! Goodbye 2020, hello 2021!

October 2020

We are stoked that two collaborative projects with the Duvall Lab received fundable scores from federal agencies! It’s a good month when results like this come through! Looking forward to keeping this momentum going and continuing to synergize with the Duvall Lab.

September 2020

The lab received notice of funding for its RECODE proposal – thank you NSF! We are recruiting new personnel to join our team to support the newly funded and additional projects. Interested applicants for graduate school or postdoctoral positions are encouraged to reach out to Jonathan (jonathan.m.brunger@vanderbilt.edu)!

May 2020

After more than 2 months of remote working, we are cautiously moving back into the lab for experiments. Thanks to those in VU and in VUSE that worked hard to get us back to work in responsible conditions!

April 2020

Congratulations to Joanne for being awarded a 2020 NSF fellowship!

March 2020

Regretfully, shutting down the lab due to COVID-19. Our thoughts are with everyone navigating through this time. Stay strong, be safe, ask for help!

February 2020

Jonathan presents some of our research at ORS in Phoenix, AZ

Our BSCs arrive! The lab is now built out and equipped!

January 2020

The lab welcomes a VU BME undergraduate Zach Eidman. We look forward to working with you, Zach!

Excited to be back for our second semester. Jonathan’s offering his elective, Synthetic Biology and Cell Design, for his first take at teaching a course. Good luck!

October 2019

Jonathan presents our work at BMES!

August 2019

The Brunger Lab launches! Bonnie, Catherine, and Joanne have embarked on this exciting journey, and Jonathan could not be more thrilled to work with this team of incredible students! Excited to teach, learn, and collaborate!