Noah Malmstadt

Research Summary

Research in the Malmstadt laboratory focuses broadly on the topic of engineered interfaces. We study this both in terms of the central interface in biology—the cell membrane—and in microfluidic systems, where fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces play key roles in system performance. We build synthetic systems for studying how lipid composition and oxidative processes change the medically relevant properties of cell membranes. We also build systems for studying how neurobiologically important receptor proteins are altered by their local lipid environment, with the long-term goal of tuning this environment to address health issues. We have pioneered the use of 3D printing to build microfluidic systems, and apply these systems to the sustainable manufacturing of nanomaterials and to biomedical diagnosis.