UNMC postdoctoral scholar Johnson John, PhD, is the 2020 Excellence in Research Award winner. The award recognizes his outstanding achievements in research that impact his field of study.
Dr. John’s research was the cover story in the May 2020 issue of the journal SMALL.
The article details a simple, yet versatile approach for engineering injectable and biomimetic porous nanofiber microspheres via gas bubble-mediated co-axial electrospraying. This novel approach holds the potential for a variety of biomedical applications, including tissue filling, cell and drug delivery and tissue regeneration in a minimally invasive manner.
Dr. John credits his mentor, Jingwei Xie, PhD, an associate professor in the UNMC Department of Surgery and the Mary and Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program, for helping him dream big.
“I’ve never worked with such a cool mentor,” Dr. John said. “Dr. Xie sees my potential, is always there to listen to any problems I encounter with experiments and does his best to help me figure them out.”
While Dr. Xie initiated the research into new forms of nanofiber materials, Dr. John said he would like to carry it further.
“My goal is to find an injectable form of nanofiber materials for tissue repair and regeneration studies because nanofiber composed materials show a more extracellular matrix mimicking structure as compared with other scaffolds like hydrogel or ceramics,” he said.
Dr. Xie sees a bright future ahead for Dr. John saying, “Dr. John is a highly motivated researcher, who is easy to communicate with, good at listening to suggestions and always pays attention to the progress of the relevant research in the field. He would like to develop his career in academia and I am optimistic that he will find a faculty position after he completes his postdoc training.”
Dr. John received his award and a $1,000 cash prize, during the annual UNMC Postdoctoral Seminar & Forum. The virtual event also recognized runner-up Arpan Acharya, PhD., a postdoc in Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, whose mentor is Siddappa Byrareddy, PhD.
“I feel immensely grateful for receiving this prestigious award,” Dr. John said. “It is another feather in my cap that will help me fly to new heights.”