November 9, 2025 – Detroit, MI

Big congratulations to John Bradford on his outstanding contributions at the 2025 TERMIS-Americas Conference! TERMIS is one of the biggest stages in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, bringing together researchers and innovators from across the globe.

John presented his poster titled “Deciphering Avascular Tissue Regeneration in the Human Knee Meniscus Via In Vitro Models” where he utilized an understudied variant of the meniscus known as a discoid meniscus to not only understand meniscus regeneration, but also the mechanisms involved in proper extracellular matrix deposition to better understand meniscus tissue formation in vitro.  This work is enabling the investigation of a regenerative motif that has been reported in the literature, but has never been studied in a lab. By comparing how cells respond to different matrix environments and examining their molecular activity, his work sheds light on the conditions that best support tissue repair.

We’re so excited to see John representing the lab at such a major international meeting.

Scroll down to see John standing with his poster!

October 24, 2025 – Seattle, WA

We’re thrilled to spotlight Jordan Vanni, who brought her energy and expertise to Cascadia 6.0, held this year at the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) in Seattle!

Cascadia 6.0 is always buzzing with scientists, trainees, and innovators from across the Pacific Northwest—and Jordan fit right in. Her poster, titled “Investigating the Localization of Estrogen Receptors in Orthopedic Tissue-Relevant Cell Types,” highlighted her work on mapping estrogen receptor localization across meniscus and bone-related cell types, offering new insight into how estrogen signaling may contribute to sex-specific differences in injury and healing.

We’re so proud of Jordan’s hard work and the enthusiasm she brings to her science. Huge congratulations on a fantastic conference showing!

Scroll down to see Jordan with her poster!

Shoutout to PhD student Janie Johnson for representing ISCRM at the ARCS Night to Ignite Science fundraiser! 🎉 Janie tabled with ISCRM at the event, which raised an incredible $1.3 million to support science in Washington State.

Check out these pictures from the night! The last photo features Janie with the new UW President, and all event photos (except the one with Dr. Jones!) are courtesy of Kristin Zwiers Photography.

We’re so proud of Janie for sharing her research and enthusiasm with the broader community — and for helping showcase the impact of ISCRM’s work.

We’re excited to welcome three new PhD students to the TARE Lab: Nini, Janie, and Jordan! Read a little about our three new members below:

Nini Xing

Nini (she/her) earned her B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Lanzhou University of Technology and her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Washington. She is eager to explore new approaches to biomaterials research. Here at TARE, her main interest centers on biomaterials for the release of hormones.

Janie Johnson

Janie (she/her) has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Her prior research experience includes transcription factor projects in endothelial mechanobiology at Emory University and mesenchymal stem cell mechanobiology at Osaka University. Janie was recently selected as a 2025 ISCRM Fellow and will be working on investigating sex differences in the estrogen receptor alpha response to strain in meniscus cells.

Click Here to learn more about Janie as a ISCRM Fellow recipient!

Jordan Vanni

Jordan (she/her) has a BS in Biology and Chemistry with a Biochemistry emphasis from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. Jordan is the recipient of the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and will be investigating the impact of estrogen concentration and presentation on extracellular matrix production and organization in human meniscal and mesenchymal stem cells to better understand the overall effect of estrogen on tissue regeneration.

Click Here to learn more about Jordan’s NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!

We are thrilled to have them on board and can’t wait to see the impact they’ll make in our lab community and beyond. Welcome, Nini, Janie, and Jordan!

We’re thrilled to celebrate Dr. Aidan Alemifar, who successfully defended his PhD in the TARE Lab and has now returned to medical school at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) to continue his journey toward becoming a physician-scientist.

We’re so proud of all that Aidan accomplished during his PhD and can’t wait to see how he continues to integrate science and medicine in the next chapter of his career. Congratulations, Aidan!

As the 2024-25 school year has come to a close, we also bid a bittersweet farewell to our graduating seniors here in lab: Sydney Lynch, Bryan Jandres, Anika Shah, and Nitya Lagadapati. Each of them has brought curiosity, dedication, and warmth to the TARE Lab—contributing not just to exciting research, but to our supportive and collaborative spirit!

Here is a picture of Sydney, Anika, and Nitya, from when they presented at the University of Washington undergraduate research symposium:

Earlier this month, Dr. Robinson traveled to Boston to attend the 2025 Female Athlete Conference, held June 4–6 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School. The event brought together researchers, clinicians, coaches, and athletes from around the world to advance knowledge and collaboration on the health and performance of female athletes.

This year, Dr. Robinson presented on “The Basic Science of Sex Hormone-Mediated Tissue Remodeling,” highlighting how basic science can advance our understanding of female athlete health and performance! Check out some photos from the conference below!