People

Jonathan M. Brunger, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Center for Stem Cell Biology
Center for Bone Biology
Center for Computational Systems Biology
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Stanford University

Jonathan joined the faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt in 2019. Prior to Vanderbilt, Jonathan earned his B.S. in Engineering at Stanford University. He then worked in the biomedical device industry for nearly four years before joining the graduate BME program at Duke University, where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Jonathan’s research at Duke focused on combining principles of stem cell technology and tissue engineering with genome editing to design cells for musculoskeletal regenerative medicine. During his postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, Jonathan deployed artificial receptors to regulate differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. At Vanderbilt, his research program applies synthetic biology to regenerative engineering. Example focus areas include developing cells as therapeutic agents for arthritis and neurodegenerative diseases as well as stem cell technology applied to synthetic morphogenesis to improve cell type diversification and assembly in organoids. Thanks to the extraordinary members of his lab and his incredible mentors, Jonathan has been honored with the NSF CAREER Award, a Rising Star Award from the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering group of the Biomedical Engineering Society, and a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from NIH (F32). In his spare time, Jonathan loves to spend time playing games, traveling, and spending time outdoors with his wife and children.