معرفی
Cynthia Hajal serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University's College of Engineering, with additional affiliation in Bioengineering. She leads the Therapeutic Understanding through Microfluidic Organ-on-chip Research (TUMOR) Lab, focusing on interdisciplinary cancer research at the engineering-biology interface.
Her research interests center on tissue engineering, microfluidics, and cancer biology, specifically developing vascularized tumor models to investigate drug delivery, cancer progression mechanisms, and treatment resistance. The TUMOR Lab's work spans three core areas: vascular fluid dynamics in drug delivery, tumor tissue properties in cancer progression, and chemotherapy-induced vascular alterations affecting treatment outcomes.
Analysis of her recent publications reveals consistent focus on blood-brain barrier modeling, microfluidic tumor systems, and therapy resistance mechanisms, with increasing emphasis on patient-derived models and functional genomic approaches since 2022. Her work bridges fundamental engineering principles with translational cancer research.
- Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering by MIT (2021)
- Ludwig Molecular Oncology Graduate Fellow (2018-2019)
Dr. Hajal mentors seven active students including PhD candidates Lupita Garcia and Rachael Coates, Masters students Riddhi Ursekar and Christopher Schmidt, and undergraduates Madeline Szoo, Samantha Serna Pemberthy, and Christian Alfieri. Her lab receives support through university research programs including PEAK Experiences and AJC Merit Scholarships. The TUMOR Lab operates within Northeastern's Institute for Mechanobiology, maintaining strong collaborations with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Broad Institute.
