Dr. Andrew E. Massey received a B.S. in Nanosystems Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2012, a Pharm.D. from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2016, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2020. During his time in Dr. Subhash Chauhan’s lab at UTHSC, he was introduced to the application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in biological sciences and formulated his dissertation around measuring the mechanical properties of pancreatic cancer cells in comparison to normal pancreatic cells, as well as determining the effects of chemotherapeutic treatment and modulation of mucin MUC13, a protein commonly overexpressed in several gastrointestinal cancers. He was accepted to a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Alexander Cartagena-Rivera’s lab in the Section on Mechanobiology, NIBIB, which he began in August 2020. Following up on his dissertation work, Dr. Massey’s current research involves elucidating the mechanical properties of cancer cells using AFM with a particular focus on how modulations of the glycocalyx and associated transmembrane proteins (e.g. mucins) can affect cancer metastasis, uptake of chemotherapeutics, and the underlying actomyosin cortex.