Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Laboratory
Research Team
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
KOYAL GARG, Ph.D.
Dr. Garg is a 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 postdoctoral 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 to treat 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 BioSTL’s Center for Defense Medicine. Dr. Garg’s research has resulted in 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, 187 presentations at scientific conferences/meetings, a patent, and 3 book chapters.
Her students launched a startup company, GenAssist, committed to commercializing and clinically translating biosponge technology for VML repair. Dr. Garg serves on the ORS skeletal muscle section's executive committee and is chair-elect for the CAE committee for TERMIS-AM. She has been recognized as an outstanding graduate faculty member by the School of Engineering at SLU in 2019 and 2022. SLU-OVPR recognized her as a Research Institute Fellow. The Missouri Cures Education Foundation also honored her as a WISER (Woman in Science, Entrepreneurship, & Research) woman in Feb 2022, and the National Academy of Inventors named her a Senior Member in 2025.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
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Saarth Shitole - BME
- Vinu Jayapradhaban K - BME
- Seoyeon Kim - BME
- James Dombrowski - BME
- Mia Curic
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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Maya Kavuri, SOM-SLU
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
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Kruthi Avula, Meera Menon, Avyukth Raghuraman, Summer 2025
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Aditi Roy, Summer 2026
LAB ALUMNI
Graduate Students
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Avantika Jain, PhD, Postdoc at NIH
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David Johnson, PhD, Postdoc at University of Oregon
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Natalia Ziemkiewicz, PhD, Field Medical Advisor, Revance
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Andrew Dunn, PhD, Cell Sciences and Imaging Biologist, Bayer, MO
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Amelia Ridolfo, MS, Graduate student at Duke University
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Kristina Pinkham, MS, Research Scientist, Brightest Bio, STL, 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
Undergraduate Students
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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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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 the University of Virginia
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