Alexandra L. Rutz
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow
Designing next-generation implantable electronic devices using biomaterial approaches at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) in the Bioelectronics Lab of Prof. George Malliaras.
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About.
I went to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (IL, USA) where I double majored in Chemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology and graduated with a B.S. in 2011. In 2016, I earned my Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Biomaterials from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL, USA). My doctoral thesis focused on engineering hydrogel bioinks for 3D printing tissues and organs. With support from the Whitaker International Scholars Program and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, I am pursuing postdoctoral research in Bioelectronics Lab headed by Prof. George Malliaras. I began the Whitaker Fellowship at Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne (Gardanne, France) in November 2016 until the Bioelectronics Lab moved to the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) in Fall 2017. At the University of Cambridge, I am continuing my research of improving the biocompatibility and long-term function of implantable bioelectronics, specifically neural probes. In November 2018, I began the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program.
Rutz Lab.
In Spring 2021, I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
The Rutz Lab will engineer electronic tissues using materials design and fabrication-based approaches. Our goal is to achieve robust biointerfaces and long-lived function in bioelectronics and other medical devices.
Motivated students (undergraduate and graduate) and postdocs interested in exploring opportunities in the lab should contact Dr. Rutz at alr56@cam.ac.uk with an attached CV. Please note earliest possible start date is March 2021.
Education.
2011-2016
Doctor of Philosophy
Biomedical Engineering
Northwestern University (Chicago, IL, USA)
2014
Master of Science
Biomedical Engineering
Northwestern University (Chicago, IL, USA)
2007-2011
Bachelor of Science
Chemistry and Molecular and
Cellular Biology
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (IL,USA)
Research Experience.
2016-Present
Slippery surfaces for implantable bioelectronics
Advisor: Prof. George Malliaras, Department of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Division
University of Cambridge (UK) 2017-Present; Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne (France) 2016-2017
2011-2016
Engineering hydrogel bioink methods for 3D printing tissues
Advisor: Prof. Ramille N. Shah
Northwestern University (Chicago, IL, USA)
2008-2011
Hyperbranched polyglycerol for drug delivery
Advisor: Prof. Steven C. Zimmerman, Department of Chemistry
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (IL,USA)
2009
Antimicrobial manganese oxide nanoparticles
Advisor: Prof. Young-Shin Jun, Department of Environmental, Electrical, and Chemical Engineering
Washington University in St. Louis (MO, USA)
Publications and Preprints.
For a current list of publications, please visit my Google Scholar page.
* indicates first author(s)
A. Wang*, K. Ouarus, A.L. Rutz, X. Li, M. Gerigk, T. Naegele, G.G. Malliaras, Y.Y.S. Huang. “Inflight Fluidic Fibre Printing Towards Array and 3D Optoelectronic and Sensing Architectures,” ChemRxiv, 2020. doi: 10.26434/chemrxiv.11963325.v1
A. Carnicer-Lombarte*, D.G. Barone*, I.B. Dimov, R.S. Hamilton, M. Prater, X. Zhao, A.L. Rutz, G.G. Malliaras, S.P. Lacour, C.E. Bryant, J.W. Fawcett, K. Franze. “Mechanical matching of implant to host minimises foreign body reaction,” biorxiv, 2019. doi: 10.1101/829648
G. Dijk* and A.L. Rutz*, G.G. Malliaras. “Stability of PEDOT:PSS-coated gold electrodes in cell culture conditions,” Advanced Materials Technologies, 2019. doi: 10.1002/admt.201900662
In the top 10% most downloaded papers of the journal.
A.L. Rutz* and E.S. Gargus*, K.E. Hyland, P.L. Lewis, A. Setty, W.R. Burghardt, R.N. Shah. “Employing PEG crosslinkers to optimize cell viability in gel phase bioinks and tailor post printing mechanical properties,” Acta Biomaterialia. In press. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.09.007
S.R. Mazinani*, A.I. Ivanov, M. Biele, A.L. Rutz, V.G. Gregoriou, A. Avgeropoulos, S.F. Tedde, C.L. Chochos, C. Bernard, R.P. O’Connor, G.G. Malliaras, E. Ismailova. “In vitro and ex vivo monitoring of neural fluorescent signals with organic photodetectors,” Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2019, 29. doi: 10.1039/C9TC02373A
E. Zeglio*, A.L. Rutz, T.E. Winkler, G.G. Malliaras, A. Herland. “Conjugated polymers for assessing and controlling biological functions,” Advanced Materials, 2019, 1806712. doi: 10.1002/adma.201806712
J. Pas*, A.L. Rutz, P.P. Quilichini, A. Slézia, A. Ghestem, A. Kaszas, M. Donahue, V. Curto, R.P. O’Connor, C. Bernard, A. Williamson and G.G. Malliaras. "A bilayered PVA/PLGA-bioresorbable shuttle to improve the implantation of flexible neural probes," Journal of Neural Engineering, 2018, 15 (6). doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/aadc1d
A.L. Rutz*, P.L. Lewis, R.N. Shah. "Toward next-generation bioinks: tuning material properties pre- and post-printing to optimize cell viability," MRS Bulletin, 2017, 42. doi: 10.1557/mrs.2017.162
M.M. Laronda* and A.L. Rutz*, K.A. Whelan, E.W. Roth, T.K. Woodruff, R.N. Shah. “A bioprosthetic ovary created using 3D printed microporous scaffolds restores ovarian function in sterilized mice,” Nature Communications, 2017, 8. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15261
Associated Media: Northwestern, CNN, The Guardian, NPR, Wired, Time, and many others. Altmetric Top 100 articles of 2017.
A.E. Jakus*, A.L. Rutz, S.W. Jordan, A. Kannan, S.M. Mitchell, C. Yun, K.D. Koube, S.C. Yoo, H.E. Whiteley, C. Richter, R.D. Galiano, W.K. Hsu, S.R. Stock, E.L. Hsu, R.N. Shah. “Hyperelastic "bone": A highly versatile, growth factor-free, osteoregenerative, scalable, and surgically friendly biomaterial,” Science Translational Medicine, 2016, 8 (358). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf7704
A.E. Jakus* and A.L. Rutz* , R.N. Shah. “Advancing the Field of 3D Biomaterial Printing,” Biomedical Materials, 2016, 11 (1). doi: 10.1088/1748-6041/11/1/014102
A.L. Rutz*, R.N. Shah. “Protein-Based Hydrogels,” Polymeric Hydrogels as Smart Biomaterials, Springer International Publishing 2016, 73-104.
A.E. Jakus*, E.B. Secor, A.L. Rutz, S.W. Jordan, M.C. Hersam, R.N. Shah. “Three-Dimensional Printing of High-Content Graphene Scaffolds for Electronic and Biomedical Applications,” ACS Nano, 2015, 9 (4) 4636–4648. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5b01179
A.L. Rutz*, K.E. Hyland, A.E. Jakus, W.R. Burghardt, R. N. Shah. “A Multi-Material Bioink Method for 3D Printing Tunable and Cell-Compatible Hydrogels,” Advanced Materials, 2015, 27 (9) 1607-1614. doi: 10.1002/adma.201405076
A. Zill*, A.L. Rutz, R.E. Kohman, A.M. Alkilany, C.J. Murphy, H.J. Kong, and S.C. Zimmerman, “Clickable polyglycerol hyperbranched polymers and their application to gold nanoparticles and acid-labile nanocarriers,” Chemical Communications, 2011, 47 (4) 1279-1281. doi: 10.1039/C0CC04096G
Upcoming Conferences.
Whitaker Neuroengineering workshop - August 11-13, 2021. Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Christopher Proctor, Ismael Seáñez, Steven Walston, and I are organizing the Whitaker Neuroengineering workshop to be held at the University of Cambridge in August 2021. It is sponsored by a Concluding Initiative Grant awarded from the Whitaker International Program. The aims of the workshop are to feature exciting research in Neuroengineering, to foster U.S.-international collaborations, and to promote future leaders. The approximately 75 attendees will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the field including engineers and technologists as well as clinicians and neuroscientists.
If you are interested in learning more or attending this event, please see our website - www.whitakerneuro.org.
Contact and Connect.
Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Kpw7paTKrOMC&hl=en
ResearchGate