Francesca Taraballi, PhD

Dr. Taraballi earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences and her M.S. in Biochemistry at University of Milan - Bicocca, Italy. After another M.S. in Structural Biochemistry, she earned her Ph.D. in Nanostructures and Nanotechnologies from a joint program of the Materials Science Department of University of Milan - Bicocca with the Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratory (LBNL) in 2009.

Dr. Taraballi is currently an Assistant Professor at the Center for Musculoskeletal Regeneration at Houston Methodist Research Institute affiliated to the Department of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital. Dr. Taraballi's research is focused on the development of smart biomaterials, both injectable and implantable, to target the immune system toward tissue restoration. Her main research area of interest is to develop new therapies and devices for articular cartilage repair.

• Materials fabrication and functionalization to promote cells' survival and differentiation in cartilage repair
• Materials fabrication and functionalization to enhance immunemodulatories capabilities of mesenchymal stem cells from different sources
• Development of smart biomaterials to tune the immune system
• Synthesis and functionalization of micro and nanoparticles for immunemodulation
• Synthesis and functionalization of nanoparticles for targeted cancer drug delivery