Rate My Professor John Finan

John Finan serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, awarded in 2010, and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland, in 2001. Finan's research centers on in vitro modeling of neurotrauma, cell biomechanics, organoid biomechanics, brain biomechanics, and prototyping novel instruments. These efforts focus on creating biomechanical platforms to investigate traumatic brain injury mechanisms at cellular and tissue levels, bridging mechanical engineering with bioengineering principles.

At the Finan Lab, Finan leads interdisciplinary projects developing advanced tools such as multifunctional neural interfaces and compliant mesostructures for organoid analysis. His publications include 'Three-dimensional, multifunctional neural interfaces for cortical spheroids and engineered assembloids' in Science Advances (2021), co-authored with Yoonseok Park, Colin K. Franz, and John A. Rogers; 'Transparent, compliant 3D mesostructures for precise evaluation of mechanical characteristics of organoids' in Advanced Materials (2021); 'Biofidelic dynamic compression of human cortical spheroids reproduces neurotrauma phenotypes' in Disease Models & Mechanisms (2021); 'Regional mechanical properties of human brain tissue for computational models of traumatic brain injury' in Acta Biomaterialia (2017); 'Stretch injury of human induced pluripotent stem cell derived neurons in a 96-well format' in Scientific Reports (2016); 'Cavitation in blunt impact traumatic brain injury' in Experiments in Fluids (2024); and 'Polyurethane culture substrates enable long-term neuron monoculture in a human in vitro model of neurotrauma' in Neurotrauma Reports (2023). With over 1,900 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions advance computational modeling and experimental neurotrauma research. Finan has been honored for teaching and advising excellence in the department and serves as Principal Investigator on NIH-funded projects investigating traumatic brain injury.