Designed a genetically encoded toolkit to overcome limitations of existing glycocalyx manipulation tools, enabling alteration of the glycocalyx’s chemical and physical properties and discovered the mucinous glycocalyx’s profound impact on cellular adhesion and survival, suggesting its regulatory function in plasma membrane interactions. 

Developed and patented a bioengineering approach for expressing a mucin-rich glycocalyx to create anti-adhesive coatings on cell plasma membranes, addressing aggregation issues in suspension bioreactors—a key bottleneck in recombinant protein production.

Investigated the effect of mucin expression on cell morphology, finding that glycocalyx biopolymers drive membrane tubulation via an entropic mechanism, establishing a novel paradigm for glycocalyx-mediated cell surface curvature modulation.