Lisa Tostanoski, Ph.D.

Dr. Tostanoski is currently an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Barouch Laboratory, supported by the Multidisciplinary AIDS Training Program. Lisa received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Bucknell University in 2012. At Bucknell, she was an undergraduate researcher in the biomechanics and injury prevention laboratory of Prof. Kathleen Bieryla, and gained additional research experience in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine through internships with the Union Memorial Hospital Orthobiologics Lab and Bioactive Surgical. Lisa went on to enroll in the Bioengineering Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland – College Park, where she was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow in Prof. Christopher Jewell’s laboratory. Her doctoral research focused on harnessing engineering and biomaterials to develop new tools to study and direct immunological tolerance. Dr. Tostanoski has published 18 papers from her graduate work in the Jewell Lab and has received numerous awards, including the Lemelson-MIT “Cure It!” Prize, the American Chemical Society’s W. H. Peterson Award, her graduate department’s Fischell Fellowship, and a University of Maryland Distinguished Dissertation Award. In January of 2018, Lisa joined the Barouch group for her postdoctoral research. Her projects focus on the application of biomaterials and engineering technologies to design novel vaccination platforms for infectious diseases, like HIV and Zika virus. Throughout her time in graduate school and now as a postdoctoral fellow, Lisa has maintained a strong commitment to STEM outreach and mentoring. Outside of the lab, Lisa is a dedicated Baltimore Ravens fan.