{"id":5296,"date":"2026-05-13T15:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5296"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:17:57","slug":"seanbiron-johnson-2","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/seanbiron-johnson-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seanbiron Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Johnson-Seanbiron.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5604\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover;width:200px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Johnson-Seanbiron.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Johnson-Seanbiron-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>University of California, Berkeley<\/strong><br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Ritu Raman<br>Research Supervisor: Brandon Rios<br>Department: Mechanical Engineering<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seanbiron Johnson is a rising junior at UC Berkeley studying Mechanical Engineering<br>with a minor in Global Poverty &amp; Practice. This is his second summer in MIT&#8217;s Summer<br>Research Program (MSRP), working in Professor Ritu Raman&#8217;s lab. His current project<br>functionalizes PDMS as a substrate to replace fibrin, improving optical clarity for the lab\u2019s cell<br>imaging. In his first MSRP project, he built an optogenetic stimulator for 2D cantilever muscle<br>tissue and developed a MATLAB based displacement tracking pipeline. At Berkeley, he also<br>works with O&#8217;Connell&#8217;s lab. Seanbiron&#8217;s drive to pursue biomechanics stems from family<br>members who live with physical disabilities, shaping his commitment to restoring function for<br>people. That belief in STEM and social impact drives his work as founder of Defining Ghetto,<br>a storytelling platform amplifying untraditional paths to higher education, and as a Student<br>Observer representing students on the UC Regents Public Engagement Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Functionalized PDMS as a Tunable Substrate for Skeletal Muscle<br>Tissue Engineering<br>Seanbiron Johnson1, Brandon Rios2, and Professor Ritu Raman2<\/strong><br>1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley<br>2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Engineered skeletal muscle monolayers are commonly grown on fibrin, a protein gel valued<br>for supporting cell attachment. However, fibrin is mechanically weak. Imaging it well requires<br>removing the gel from its well plate and flipping it over, risking tissue damage. A substrate that<br>is transparent and sturdy enough to withstand handling would greatly improve how engineered<br>muscle is imaged and tracked over time. This project explores polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),<br>a transparent, durable silicone, as an alternative to fibrin. PDMS was tuned to approximate the<br>stiffness of native muscle tissue. It was then coated with two surface treatments, polydopamine<br>plus matrigel and benzophenone plus matrigel, to support C2C12 myoblast growth, with fibrin<br>used as a comparison. PDMS is clear and stable enough to be imaged directly in place, without<br>removal or flipping. Mechanical testing confirmed the target PDMS stiffness. Cell viability<br>and imaging tests then compared the two coatings against fibrin to identify which best supports<br>muscle cell growth and alignment. When successful, this approach would offer a sturdier, more<br>easily imaged, tunable substrate for engineered muscle research. It could also support future<br>studies on muscle development, aging, and disease within the Raman Lab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5604,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5296","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5816,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5296\/revisions\/5816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}