Biography
Lonnie Shea is the Steven A. Goldstein Collegiate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan (U-M), which is joint between the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine. He received his PhD in chemical engineering and scientific computing from U-M in 1997, working with Professor Jennifer Linderman. He then served as a postdoctoral fellow with then Chemical Engineering Professor David Mooney in the Department of Biologic and Materials Science at the U-M Dental School.
Shea was recruited to Northwestern University’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and was on the faculty from 1999 to 2014. In 2014, Shea returned to the University of Michigan as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, with his recruitment coinciding with the endowment of the chair position by William and Valerie Hall. His term as chair completed on June 30, 2021. He is the Steven A. Goldstein Collegiate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and is an internationally recognized researcher at the interface of regenerative medicine, drug and gene delivery, and immune-engineering, whose focus is on preventing tissue degeneration or promoting tissue regeneration. His projects include islet transplantation for diabetes therapies, nerve regeneration for treating paralysis, and diagnostics for immune dysfunction in cancer and autoimmunity.
Shea has published more than 270 manuscripts. He served as director of Northwestern’s NIH Biotechnology Training Grant. He has received the Clemson Award from the Society for Biomaterials, and also the recipient of their 2021 Technology Innovation and Development Award for his development of nanoparticles for tolerance in autoimmune disease. Shea is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), a member of the editorial boards for multiple journals such as Molecular Therapy, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, and the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine.
Research Interests
The Shea Lab works at the interface of regenerative medicine, biomaterials, and systems biology. The central theme for the various projects is creating synthetic environments which can be employed to molecularly dissect tissue formation, promote tissue regeneration or function, and monitor disease initiation or progression. Of particular emphasis in the lab is:
- Applying the controllable microenvironments to in vitro and in vivo models of tissue formation, including nerve regeneration, and islet formation and function.
- Engineering nanoparticle immunotherapies or environments to modulate innate and adaptive immune responses for autoimmune and allergic disease, metastatic cancer, responses to trauma, and to prevent rejection of transplanted cells or tissue.
- Developing diagnostic systems for metastatic cancer and autoimmune disease that can detect immune dysregulation associated with disease onset, and monitor for the response to therapy.
Other Info
Office Location:
- NCRC Building 520, Room 3318
Lab Location:
- NCRC Building 520, Rooms 2401-2403