Rate My Professor Jacopo Ferruzzi

Jacopo Ferruzzi is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering in the Engineering faculty at The University of Texas at Dallas, serving as Principal Investigator of the Tissue Mechanics & Remodeling (TMR) Laboratory within the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. His research expertise encompasses biomechanics and mechanobiology, with a focus on experimental soft tissue mechanics, theoretical and computational modeling, and tissue remodeling in cardiovascular disease and cancer. Ferruzzi obtained his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2006, followed by an MS from the same university in 2009, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University in 2015. After his PhD, he pursued postdoctoral research at Boston University, where he examined the biomechanical role in breast cancer using 3D cell culture techniques and label-free imaging methods to study collagen remodeling and collective cancer invasion. Subsequently, as a research scientist in biomedical engineering at Texas A&M University, he developed methods for biomechanical phenotyping of arterial sections in vivo and ex vivo, investigating conditions such as arterial aging, chronic hypertension, abdominal aortic aneurysms, and thoracic aortic dissections. He joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2020.

Ferruzzi employs a multidisciplinary, multiscale approach to elucidate links between altered mechanical properties, extracellular matrix organization, and cellular function in disease contexts. Key publications include "Tgfbr2 disruption in postnatal smooth muscle impairs aortic wall homeostasis" (The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2014), "On constitutive descriptors of the biaxial mechanical behaviour of human abdominal aorta and aneurysms" (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2011), "Biomechanical phenotyping of central arteries in health and disease: advantages of and methods for murine models" (Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2013), "Mechanical assessment of elastin integrity in fibrillin-1-deficient carotid arteries: implications for Marfan syndrome" (Cardiovascular Research, 2011), and "A novel jamming phase diagram links tumor invasion to non-equilibrium phase separation" (iScience, 2021). Recent work features "Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) reveals spatial-metabolic changes in 3D breast cancer spheroids" (Scientific Reports, 2023) and a 2026 collaborative study identifying increased mechanical stiffness and fibrosis in colon tissues from patients under 50 with early-onset colorectal cancer, promoting tumorigenesis. Ferruzzi received the ARTERY Research Best Paper Award and a 2024 research grant on mechanisms of arterial aging.