HMS Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow

Jason Chang Marvin, Ph.D. (Pronouns: he/they) is a Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) under the mentorship of Prof. Jenna Galloway. As a postdoctoral fellow, Jason aims to complement their engineering skillset with genetic and developmental biology approaches to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying effective musculoskeletal tissue repair and remodeling. Specifically, he will leverage the zebrafish, a robust vertebrate model of tendon regeneration, to generate novel ECM transgenic reporter lines that will be coupled with integrative multi-omics analyses. Their research seeks to elucidate the role of key ECM constituents in regulating the activity of resident cell populations in the tendon to ultimately orchestrate an improved healing response. This work will provide important mechanistic insight into designing new clinical interventions for tendinopathy. After completing his postdoctoral training, Jason is interested in pursuing a tenure-track faculty position in biomedical engineering/bioengineering and/or orthopaedic surgery. Jason received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas (UT-Dallas) in May 2017. Their undergraduate senior thesis under the mentorship of Prof. Danieli Rodrigues focused on characterizing the biocompatibility of commercial dental cement formulations used in clinical implant restorations. More recently, Jason received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Cornell University in April 2022. Their dissertation research under the mentorship of Prof. Nelly Andarawis-Puri leveraged the super-healer Murphy Roth's Large (MRL/MpJ) mouse strain to identify candidate protein regulators of mammalian tendon regeneration. This work culminated in the development of a patented protein-based biologic therapy that can promote regenerative behavior in otherwise non-healer rodent tendon cells. Their dissertation research was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellow and Cornell Provost Diversity Fellowship. Jason is currently a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Diversity Committee, Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Public Outreach Committee, and ORS Tendon Section Membership Committee. Previously, Jason served as the Director of Mentorship for Out in STEM (oSTEM), Inc. to help launch a global mentorship program for LGBTQ+ students and professionals. At Cornell, Jason served as a Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) Graduate Fellow and Graduate Resident Fellow (GRF) in the West Campus House System, facilitating workshops and resources to enhance the personal and professional development of his fellow Cornellians. Jason has also served as the Outreach Co-Chair for the Cornell Graduate Biomedical Engineering Society chapter and as a GRASSHOPR Fellow to improve STEM literacy and expose local youth to careers in science. He has also organized a series of Communication Science (ComSciCon) workshops (Cornell’18/NY’19/ScienceWriters’19) that offered STEM researchers hands-on science communication training.