Biological and Biomimetic Materials and Mechanics (BioMnM) Lab

New paper published in Mechanics of Materials!

February 2026

• Ehsanul's paper 'Distinct regimes of mechanical reinforcement in lattice network-based interpenetrating phase composites' is published in Mechanics of Materials. (Link)

Lab member receives MRS Travel Award!

December 2025

• PhD student Anik received Travel Award for his talk on fungal composites at MRS Fall Meeting at Boston, MA. Congratulations Anik!

New Preprint on lattice network-filled composite!

November 2025

• Our new preprint 'Distinct regimes of mechanical reinforcement in lattice network-based interpenetrating phase composites' is available at SSRN. (Link)

BioMnM lab attended SES conference!

October 2025

•  Dr. Islam and graduate student Javier Ramirez attended the Society of Engineering Science (SES) conference at Atlanta, GA. Javier presented his work on mechanics of nanofiber networks. 

New paper published in Gels!

September 2025 

• Our paper 'Tissue-like Fracture Toughness and Stress–Relaxation Ability in PVA-Agar-Based Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications' has been published in Gels. We showed how the fracture toughness and viscoelasticity of PVA gels can be modulated by adding agar. This work was led by graduate student Ismael in collaboration with Dr. Biguetti's lab from SOPM UTRGV. (Link)

BioMnM lab received an NSF research grant!

September 2025

•  BioMnM lab received its first research grant from the NSF Division of Materials Research (DMR). This grant will support our research on novel fungal materials reinforced with glass particles. (Link)

BioMnM lab hosted a HS student for summer research!

August 2025

•  BioMnM lab hosted Jared Calderon, a high school student from Edinburg north high school. Jared did an excellent job for his research project on fibrous microstructure characterization of nanofiber mats through SEM image processing. He was mentored by graduate student, Javier Ramirez. 

BioMnM lab participated in NSF REU program!

August 2025

•  BioMnM lab hosted Gerardo Zapata as part of NSF REU program. Gerardo did an innovative research project on understanding mechanosensitivity of fungal cells to developed advanced fungal composite materials. Congrats to Gerardo!

BioMnM lab has its first Gradautes!

May 2025

•  BioMnM lab has its first graduates- Ehsanul & Ismael. Congrats to both of them for their masters degrees and best of luck for their future career!

BioMnM lab attended ASME SSDM conference!

May 2025

• Dr. Islam presented BioMnM lab's work on lattice structure-based composites at the ASME's Annual Aerospace Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference (SSDM) conference.