Lei Cai

Stanford Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Scholar
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary PostDoc Alumni

Lei Cai is a postdoctoral fellow with Sarah Heilshorn in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He received PhD in Polymer Engineering from The University of Tennessee in August 2012. The goal of his research is to combine peptide and protein motifs with synthetic macromolecules to design novel injectable hydrogels that protect cells during transplantation and promote subsequent cell maintenance and functions, thereby enabling cell-based therapy of spinal cord injury.

Related Projects

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
Enabling cell-based therapy of spinal cord injury through injectable hydrogels

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes permanent damage to about 12,000 new patients in the US each year, primarily young adults. A common result of SCI is paralysis, and unfortunately, less than 1% of SCI patients have full neurological recovery by the time of hospital discharge.