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Dr. Perla Ayala joined the ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú Biomedical Engineering Department in Fall 2016. Dr. Ayala obtained her Ph.D in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco in 2011. Dr. Ayala was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University from 2012 to 2016.

Dr. Ayala's research focuses on developing therapeutic systems that promote optimal healing. Her research applies a multidisciplinary approach to create engineered tissues, and cohesive drug delivery platforms for applications in the clinic. During her graduate studies, Dr. Ayala developed bioengineered microstructures for cardiac repair that improve cardiac functional outcomes after a heart attack in the rat model. Recently, she engineered a stem cell laden composite tissue system for applications in tissue regeneration that promotes angiogenesis and modulation of the immune response.