Meet A SLU Researcher: Koyal Garg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
09/21/2021
Koyal Garg, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Â鶹´«Ã½. Garg’s research focuses on the enhancement of skeletal muscle regeneration and function following injury, disease, and aging. In her own words, Garg shares why she does what she does, her goals for her research and what it's like working at SLU.
Background
"My first postdoctoral training I did at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research," she said. "There I was exposed to what war can do to our military veterans. So that was really inspiring because I could see that my research that I do could make a real difference in the lives of these service members."
Research Focus
"My research focuses on traumatic muscle injuries, volumetric muscle loss injuries in particular," she said. "These injuries involve an extensive loss of muscle tissue beyond the body's natural capacity for regeneration.
"And there are no approved therapies for VML, and these injuries are fairly common. You can get them from gunshot wounds or from car accidents.
"The goal of my lab is to develop biomaterial and stem-cell-based therapies to repair those large muscle defects. "
Excitement at SLU
"It's not at all hard to stay excited about this research," she said.
"Having a lot of industry leaders around is really beneficial," she said. "We have a startup that was launched by my students that is focusing on the commercialization and the clinical translation of some of these technologies.
"So it's not that far away from actually benefiting patients. "
Working With Students
"The student population at SLU is great," she said. "They're really motivated, they're very hardworking, really excellent researchers.
"You know, it's not just about transferring what I have learned. It's also about getting them excited about these new ideas and sort of inspiring them to go out there and find solutions that are unique, that are innovative.
"Students are really the main goal of everything that we do here at SLU."
Meet the Researcher Video Series
This is the first in a weekly series of short videos featuring faculty researchers from across the University sharing the important and cutting-edge research taking place at SLU.
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