The Cohen lab is delighted to host Dr. Julieta Merlo for 6 months. Julieta is from Argentina where she received her PhD in Biology at the National University of Mar del Plata. Her graduate studies focused on the variability in the immune response in a subterranean rodent species of the region, Ctenomys talarum. During her postdoctoral research, she became interested in Materials Science, choosing to focus on superficial treatments for a biodegradable Magnesium-based material for orthopedic prosthesis, with the aim of promoting bone regeneration and avoiding a chronic inflammatory response. Back in Argentina, her current work focuses on the design of materials for cardiovascular stents, to understand how material characteristics trigger different cellular responses, and also to the develop new in vitro models for the study of interactions between materials and cells/tissues.