Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Laboratory
Research Team
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
KOYAL GARG, Ph.D.
Dr. Garg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO). She completed her graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research (San Antonio, TX) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Dr. Garg’s Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Lab at SLU focuses on developing novel regenerative and rehabilitative therapies for the treatment of traumatic muscle injuries. Her research work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research and Training (AR3T), and the BioSTL’s Center for Defense Medicine. Dr. Garg’s research has resulted in 54 peer-reviewed journal articles, 122 presentations at scientific conferences/meetings, a patent, and 3 book chapters.
Her students have launched a startup company, GenAssist, that is committed to commercializing and clinically translating biosponge technology for VML repair. Dr. Garg served as topic chair for skeletal muscle for the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) from 2022 to 2024. She has been recognized as an outstanding graduate faculty member by the School of Engineering at SLU in 2019 and 2022. She was recognized as a Research Institute Fellow by SLU-OVPR. The Missouri Cures Education Foundation also honored her as a WISER (Woman in Science, Entrepreneurship, & Research) woman in Feb 2022, and she was named a Senior Member by the National Academy of Inventors in 2025.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
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Devananda Manjunadh
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Simra Babu
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Evan Lennox
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Sainithya Attota
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​Priya Modi
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​Nishita Makela
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Manvee Vuppala
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Januly Fernando
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MEDICAL STUDENTS
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Samantha Spence, Summer Research Fellow, SOM-SLU
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Sonja Gurbani, SOM-SLU
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HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER INTERNS
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Matthew Ernst, Collegiate intern from St. Louis Public School District, Spring 2023
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Malak Kamil Qastoma, Lafayette High School, Summer 2023
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Stephen Shaji, Eureka High School, Summer 2024
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Natalie Wolk, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Summer 2024
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Vincent Ly, St. Louis University High School, Summer 2024
LAB ALUMNI
Graduate Students
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Natalia Ziemkiewicz, PhD, Post doc at UT Southwestern Medical Center
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Andrew Dunn, PhD, Cell Sciences and Imaging Biologist, Bayer, MO
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Connor Tobo, MS
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Charles West, MS, Application Consultant US at Brainlab
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Allison Paoli, MS, Biomedical engineer at Euphrates Vascular
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Jeffrey Au, MS, Technical Solutions Engineer on the Cupid (Cardiovascular) Team at Epic Systems
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Hannah Chauvin, MS, GOglobal Procurement Trainee at Millipore Sigma/Merck KGaA
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Peter Genovese, MS, Clinical Development Manager at Volta Medical
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Gabriel Haas, MS, CEO at GenAssist, Inc.
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Madison Marcinczyk, MS, Systems Engineer at GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI
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Krishna Patel, MS, Midwestern's University's Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine
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Muhamed Talovic, MS, Neuroimaging Engineer at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
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Undergraduate Students
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Jessica Robinson
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Saloni Shringarpure
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Meghan Chermack
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Ryan Mueller
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Julia Brockhouse
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​Andrew Lin
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Gerard Pena
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Aakash Nagarapu, BS, Medical Student at SLU
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Robert Scheidt, BS, Medical Student at Washington University in Saint Louis
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Josh Madsen, BS, Contract R&D Engineer, Cardinal Health, St. Louis, and CTO at GenAssist, Inc.
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Anjali Patel, BS, Medical Student at Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
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Sara Vendrell, BS, Medical Student at Ponce Health Sciences University, University in Ponce, Puerto Rico
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Mark Schwartz, BS, Graduate Student at University of Virginia
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Garg Lab Group - Dec 2017
Garg Lab Group - Dec 2018
Garg Lab Group - Dec 2021
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Garg Lab Group - May 2023
Garg Lab Group - Dec 2024
Garg Lab Group - May 2025