Jonathan M. Brunger, Ph.D., joined the faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt in 2019. Prior to Vanderbilt, Dr. Brunger 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. Dr. Brunger’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, Dr. Brunger deployed artificial receptors to regulate differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.

At Vanderbilt, his research program applies synthetic biology to regenerative engineering, with focus areas in Alzheimer’s disease and osteoarthritis 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, Dr. Brunger 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, Dr. Brunger loves to spend time playing games, traveling, and spending time outdoors with his wife and children.

To learn more, follow Dr. Brunger on LinkedIn.