Dr. Polacheck is an Assistant Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC and NC State and in Cell Biology and Physiology at the UNC School of Medicine. His group works at the interface of mechanical engineering and molecular cell biology to study the physical interactions between cells and their microenvironment. Members of his group have diverse backgrounds and research interests and work as a team to develop microfabrication methods and microfluidic technology to fabricate biomimetic platforms that recapitulate the native mechanical microenvironment. Polacheck earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T. before working as an NHLBI postdoctoral fellow at Boston University and Harvard University. His laboratory has received funding from NIH and NSF in addition to multiple pharmaceutical companies and nonprofit organizations. He is the recipient of the BME Departmental Teaching and Mentoring Award, the Walter H. Coulter Award for Translational Research, an American Heart Association Career Development Award, and an NIGMS Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award.