News Story

Jay Joins BioE Faculty

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Assistant Professor Steve Jay.

The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) and the A. James Clark School of Engineering are pleased to welcome their newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Steve Jay. Jay, who earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 2009, specializes in vascular biology and bioengineering, tissue and protein engineering, and therapeutic vascularization, all with an emphasis on clinical translation. He will direct the Vascular Pharmacoengineering and Biotherapeutics Laboratory, which will focus on developing novel drug delivery systems, enhancing tissue engineering techniques, and understanding the quantitative biology of interactions between drug carriers and cells. Prior to joining the University of Maryland and the Clark School, Jay was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., where he designed new proteins to promote diabetic wound healing. The proteins interact with specific receptors on the surfaces of the endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels, stimulating their growth and development. The presence of a healthier, more robust network of blood vessels in the bed of a non-healing wound should accelerate or enhance the healing process. Jay is the recipient of a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition to funding his mentored fellowship, the prestigious award includes a three-year, $735,000 grant he will use to establish his research group and continue his work on the wound healing project at the Clark School. His other past honors and awards include a 2012 Innovation in Biotechnology Award from American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a 2011 Department of Defense Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Jay was drawn to the Clark School's facilities and its relationships with local federal labs and biotech companies, but it was BioE's strong reputation and unique environment that convinced him he'd found the right place to launch his academic career. "The [BioE] faculty have diverse training and bring many different perspectives to everything they do, which I think is a real strength and will help keep the department ahead of the curve," he says. "Many faculty members are engaged and enthusiastic about making UMD the best place it can be and providing the best opportunities possible for all of our [students]. It was really refreshing to see that attitude and I look forward to contributing to it myself." Jay will teach his first course, BIOE 340 (Modeling Physiological Systems) in Spring 2014, and plans to introduce a new course in pharmaceutical engineering. Outside of the lab and classroom, he enjoys swimming, boating and kayaking. To Learn More: Visit Professor Jay's web site

Published July 9, 2013