Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Sharma Laboratory
Led by Blanka Sharma · Biomedical Engineering
What we study
The Sharma Lab studies how cells interact with materials to improve drug and cell delivery for regenerative medicine and cancer. They design biomaterials to help therapies reach target tissues.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Cells in a dish
- Coding helps
- Project
- 1
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Optimizing Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Uptake by Natural Killer Cells
Researchers tested how NK92 immune cells take up 100 µg/mL of Perimag or VivoTrax+ magnetic particles after 4 or 24 hours in three different media, finding that VivoTrax+ particles clump together. Future work will check cell viability, test more particles, and measure MPI signal strength.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 178
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- A Defined 3D Hydrogel Model Recapitulates Key Transcriptomic Features of Lung Adenocarcinoma
2026 · Tissue Engineering Part C Methods
Creates a 3D model of lung cancer to mimic real tumors.
- 3D chemotaxis chip for investigating natural killer cell migration mechanisms
2026 · Frontiers in Immunology
Builds a device to study how immune cells move in 3D.
Show 3 more papersShow fewer
- Substance P-NK1R Activation in Tendon-Derived Cells as a Neuro-Immune Driver of Tendon Pain
2026 · Journal of Pain
- Towards reliable tracking of natural killer cells using commercial iron oxide nanoparticles and magnetic particle imaging
2026 · Biomaterials Science
Tests whether iron oxide nanoparticles can track natural killer cells using magnetic imaging.
- Pathologic Changes in Subchondral Bone Microarchitecture Differ Between ACLT, NIKI, and MMT Models of Post‐Traumatic Osteoarthritis
2026 · Journal of Orthopaedic Research®
Compares bone changes in three different rat models of knee arthritis.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Blanka Sharma hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.