OUR PEOPLE
Academic Credentials
- Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2022
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2018
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, 2016
Academic Appointments
- Teaching Assistant, Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2020-2021
Professional Honors
- William S. Floyd Graduate Student Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 2022
- HSF Scholar, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, 2020
- NSF Graduate Research Fellow, National Science Foundation, 2016
- College of Engineering Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
Professional Affiliations
- Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS)
Dr. López Marcial's expertise lies in the evaluation of mechanical properties for engineered tissues and medical devices, including the time-dependent mechanical responses of hydrogels. He has extensive experience with mechanical characterization techniques such as compression, indentation, and rheological testing, as well as biochemical assays for extra-cellular matrix components such as DNA, proteoglycan, and collagen content. He also has experience with 3D printing of hydrogel tissue scaffolds, native tissue dissection, and cell culture.
Prior to joining Ä¢¹½tv, Dr. López Marcial completed his Ph.D. work at the University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on the relationships between composition and mechanical performance in materials used for tissue engineering. Specifically, he studied the influence of initial extracellular components such as collagen on the long-term viability of agarose hydrogels as functional tissue scaffolds. He also evaluated the performance of agarose-based gels as 3D bioprinting materials through rheological, mechanical, and biochemical characterization methods.