Helping Stem Cells Find Their Way Home

When Eferoghene Okakuro talks about stem cells, she often uses a word that sounds surprisingly human:

Home.

For stem cell therapies to work, cells must survive their journey through the body, find the right destination, settle into their new environment, and begin doing the work they were meant to do. Scientists call that process homing and integration. Without it, promising treatments can lose effectiveness before the cells ever reach where they are needed.

Inside Tulane University's Regenerative Engineering and Education Laboratory, Okakuro is working to help those cells find their way.

The biomedical engineering PhD student is developing injectable biomaterials designed to protect stem cells and improve their ability to survive, integrate, and function inside the body. Her research focuses on sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that affects millions of people worldwide and disproportionately impacts communities throughout the Gulf South.

"We're trying to minimize that loss when you're bringing the cells back into the body and make them heal faster," Okakuro said. "We're trying to make sure there is reduced cell loss, increased cell viability, and improved outcomes for patients."

Working in Dr. Mykel Green's Regenerative Engineering and Education Laboratory, or REEL, Okakuro combines engineering, chemistry, biology, and medicine in pursuit of one goal: making stem cell therapies more efficient.

Her research centers on materials known as granular hydrogels. Unlike traditional hydrogels, which she compares to the Jell-O found in a refrigerator, granular hydrogels are made from microscopic particles that move together as a single material while maintaining spaces between them.

These microscopic particles protect fragile cells while also carrying important biological signals that tell cells where to go and what to do once they arrive.

"We're kind of killing two birds with one stone," Okakuro said. "We're protecting the cells, but we're also helping them home better and integrate better."

The work happens at a remarkably small scale. Okakuro designs microfluidic devices, fabricates molds using consumer-grade 3D printers, creates her own polymers, and studies the resulting materials using advanced imaging techniques.

Rather than relying entirely on expensive clean-room manufacturing methods, she has found creative ways to adapt accessible technologies for research applications. Using 3D printers originally designed to create figurines, she produces highly detailed molds capable of generating microscopic particles that can eventually carry living cells.

She laughs at the ingenuity behind the approach. "Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Her work also extends beyond the engineering of the materials themselves. After creating the microgels, she analyzes cell survival and viability using advanced imaging techniques, measuring how well cells survive the encapsulation process and whether they maintain the characteristics necessary to function effectively.

Stem cells, she explains, are especially delicate.

"If you blink the wrong way, you’ll lose them," she said with a laugh.

Dr. Mykel Green, director of the Regenerative Engineering and Education Laboratory, has watched Okakuro evolve into one of the lab's driving forces. “Eferoghene has found her scientific niche, and that has allowed her to dive deeply into her work. She is always thinking about new ways to integrate what she learns, whether from reading the latest publications, developing new engineering approaches, or listening to the challenges clinicians encounter when treating patients. That ability to connect emerging science with real clinical needs is helping her develop more thoughtful and impactful solutions.”

The potential applications of her work extend far beyond the laboratory.

Recent advances in gene therapy and stem cell treatments have generated new hope for individuals living with sickle cell disease. In many cases, cells are collected from patients, modified or prepared outside the body, and then returned through transplantation.

But the process is far from perfect.

Cells can be lost during collection, storage, transportation, and transplantation. By the time those cells are returned to a patient, significant numbers may already have been damaged or destroyed.

Okakuro's research focuses on that final stage.

"We're trying to minimize that loss when you're bringing them back into the body," she said.

The work carries particular significance in New Orleans. Louisiana remains one of the states most affected by sickle cell disease, and Manning Family Children's Hospital serves as a regional center for treatment and care.

One of the laboratory's collaborators, Dr. Benjamin Watkins, directs the hospital's sickle cell program, helping connect laboratory discoveries with clinical care and emerging therapies.

For Okakuro, seeing these advances happen in real time has been particularly meaningful.

"You're seeing the real-world impact in real time," she said.

She first arrived at Tulane University as an undergraduate student in biomedical engineering and eventually continued directly into graduate studies, building a Tulane experience that now spans nearly seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic complicated those early years, delaying her arrival in New Orleans and forcing her to begin portions of her education remotely before eventually moving to campus in 2021.

Today, she sees both Tulane and New Orleans as essential parts of her growth as a scientist. Asked what has kept her at Tulane for nearly seven years, Okakuro doesn't hesitate.

"Tulane is definitely a product of its society. New Orleans is very much a bubbly place."

She points to the city's festivals, traditions, and strong sense of community as important balances to the demands of graduate school and research.

"There's always something happening. That gives us downtime to relax and the drive to go back and do more."

As her own research has progressed, Okakuro has also begun helping younger researchers find their footing. Undergraduate student Ashley Ware has spent more than a year working alongside her in the laboratory, gaining research experience while contributing to ongoing projects.

The REEL laboratory itself remains relatively young, and Okakuro has helped establish many of the methods, protocols, and systems that support its work today. In many ways, she has grown alongside the laboratory, helping build its foundation while advancing her own research.

Providing deeper insights, Dr. Green elaborates by saying “Eferoghene is growing into a fine researcher. She has always excelled in the classroom, but she is now putting the strong scientific and engineering foundation she built at Tulane into practice and sharing her work on a national stage. She is developing the confidence to question long-standing paradigms and pursue new approaches that could ultimately improve patient health.”

Mentorship and communication have become increasingly important to Okakuro because she believes science should extend beyond laboratories and academic journals. Despite already spending nearly seven years in higher education, she says she is not finished learning. After completing her PhD, she hopes to attend medical school, combining engineering, research, and patient care into a single career.

"If I'm going to turn 40, I'll be 40 regardless of whether I'm a medical doctor or not. Why not just keep going?"

That long-term perspective also shapes how she thinks about research itself.

"What good is science if people are not using it to max out their lives?"

Okakuro regularly explores topics outside her own discipline, listening to researchers discuss neuroscience, psychology, health, and human behavior. She believes scientific discoveries become meaningful only when people understand them and can apply them to their own lives.

"I think that is what research is for," she said. "We need to be able to have the common person implementing research."

Those beliefs have become increasingly personal.

As her parents have grown older, she has found herself helping explain medical information and scientific concepts, translating complicated ideas into language that family members can understand.

"I want people to know that the world is not going to fail you. The world will tell you."

As she continues developing new approaches to stem cell delivery, mentoring younger researchers, and preparing for a future in medicine, Okakuro hopes her work will contribute to better treatments for patients living with sickle cell disease.

But perhaps just as importantly, she hopes it helps people understand that science belongs to everyone.

For Okakuro, helping stem cells find their way home is only part of the mission.

Helping people find their connection to science may be the larger one.