Dr. Ford Versypt leads the Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics research lab, which develops and uses multiscale systems engineering approaches including mathematical modeling and computational simulation to enhance understanding of the mechanisms governing tissue remodeling and damage as a result of diseases and infections and to simulate the treatment of those conditions to improve human health. Chemical reactions that remodel or degrade porous biomaterials such as polymeric drug delivery devices for extended release of pharmaceuticals or extracellular fibrous matrices in various tissues are ubiquitous.
Often these porous materials are considered as static environments through with molecular transport or cell migration occurs. However, the pore structure and the stiffness of these biomaterials can evolve heterogeneously over time resulting in a dynamic domain for transport coupled to chemical kinetics.
Dr. Ford Versypt’s group has developed mathematical models to account for a variety of transport modes in biomaterials undergoing remodeling reactions. Case studies of drug release from porous eroding polymer microspheres, migration of cancer cells over a remodeling extracellular matrix in a tumor microenvironment, and transport of proteins through filtration tissues in the kidney subject to diabetic glucose-induced tissue damage will be discussed. The work is currently supported by an NSF CAREER award and an NIH R35 MIRA grant.
Dr. Ashlee N. Ford Versypt is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. She is also core faculty in the UB Institute for Computational and Data Sciences and affiliated faculty in the UB Department of Engineering Education. She holds three degrees in chemical engineering: a B.S. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
During graduate school, Dr. Ford Versypt was awarded the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. In 2013, Dr. Ford Versypt was recognized as the Frederick A. Howes Scholar in Computational Science, which is awarded annually to a recent alumnus of the DOE CSGF for outstanding leadership, character, and technical achievement. In 2012-2014, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Ford Versypt started her academic career at Oklahoma State University (OSU) where she was an assistant professor from 2014-2020, then a tenured associate professor until January 2021. Dr. Ford Versypt leads the Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics Laboratory. The long-term goal for her research program is to develop multiscale mathematical and computational models to enhance understanding of the mechanisms governing tissue remodeling and damage as a result of diseases and infections and to simulate the treatment of those conditions to improve human health.
She has received a number of awards for her research, teaching, and service including the NSF CAREER Award, ASEE Chemical Engineering Division Fahien Award, ASEE Midwest Section Outstanding Service Award, AIChE 35 Under 35, the OSU Outstanding Achievement for the Mentorship of Women, and the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Excellent Teacher Award. Her research program is currently funded by the National Science Foundation (CAREER) and the National Institutes of Health (R35 MIRA). She was the 2021-2021 chair for the American Society for Engineering Education Chemical Engineering Division and is a CACHE (Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering) Trustee.