Shikhar Mehta

Shikhar Mehta is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in 2016.

His great interest in sports and its associated traumatic joint injuries led him to pursue graduate research in the development of strategies to prevent the onset of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. During his time as a research assistant in Dr. Ambika Bajpayee’s lab, he developed an in vitro co-culture model that better represents the in vivo joint environment following injury. The model showed the protective effects that synovium tissue exerts on cartilage and emphasized the importance of targeting multiple joint tissues for therapy. He has also developed in vitro systems to simultaneously evaluate the biological and mechanical responses to advanced glycation endproduct formation and their inhibitors in an aging model of osteoarthritis. Currently, he is working on designing a positively charged drug conjugate which can enhance intra-cartilage targeting to provide long-term therapeutic effect with a single administration.

Shikhar Mehta has received the Northeastern University College of Engineering Student Leadership Award in 2017 and presented posters and talks at conferences. His career interests lie in the biotech industry with a focus on drug delivery, musculoskeletal diseases and orthopedics.