Dr. Monica L. Ohnsorg is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder, working in the lab of Prof. Kristi S. Anseth. She is studying the nonlinear elastic properties of bottlebrush polymer networks, utilizing these hydrogels as a culture platform to understand how strain-stiffening microenvironments influence the morphology, mechanotransduction, and differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells and other multicellular constructs. 

In 2021, she earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, where she was co-advised by Profs. Theresa M. Reineke and Frank S. Bates. During her doctoral studies as a NSF Graduate Research Program Fellow, she investigated bottlebrush polymer excipients to solubilize small molecule therapeutics, aiming to improve oral drug delivery. 

In 2016, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hope College with an ACS certified B.S. in Chemistry with minors in Engineering and Mathematics. There as a Beckman Scholar working with Prof. Mary E. Anderson, she conducted research investigating the mechanisms through which metal-organic framework thin films assembled when deposited layer-by-layer. 

Set to enter the faculty market this Fall 2024, Dr. Ohnsorg is poised to establish and lead an interdisciplinary research lab investigating scientific questions at the interface of polymer chemistry, biomaterials, and extracellular matrix engineering.