Laura McKiel is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and part of the Collaborative Biomedical Engineering Program at Queen's University. She received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering (Biomedical Engineering Specialization) with first class honours from Queen's University in 2015. Laura is co-supervised by Dr. Kimberly Woodhouse and Dr. Lindsay Fitzpatrick. Her research explores the interactions among biomaterials, innate immune cells, and adsorbed proteins to better understand the underlying mechanisms that drive host responses to implanted biomedical materials and devices. Specifically, she is interested in defining the contributions tissue-derived proteins and other macromolecules within adsorbed protein layers on biomaterial surfaces, and studying activation of pattern recognition pathways in responding inflammatory cells, such as macrophages.
