Nisha Iyer named Tiampo Family Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor Nisha Iyer of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has been appointed Tiampo Family Assistant Professor. Established in 2018 by James J. (E83, A83) and Kristy (E83) Tiampo, the professorship reflects their belief that engineering is a creative, collaborative discipline best taught through dialogue and inquiry. The Tiampo Family Assistant Professorship supports the career development of accomplished junior faculty while also empowering them to mentor Tufts students through fresh scholarship and innovative research.

Iyer’s research lies at the intersection of developmental biology and regenerative medicine, where she uses stem cells to study and advance neural repair. The Iyer Stem Cell & Regeneration Lab, explores how regional specificity influences development, degeneration, and regeneration in the central nervous system. By developing new stem cell tools and strategies, her team aims to drive advances in neurodegenerative research and cell therapy.

Her achievements have been recognized with multiple prestigious awards. Earlier this year, Iyer received an R21 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to develop gene editing techniques that accelerate differentiation of neural crest and glial subtypes for in vitro disease modeling using patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). In October 2024, she was awarded the NIH HEAL New Innovator Award for her groundbreaking approach to pain research. The $2.3 million award, distributed over three years, supports her work developing novel stem cell models for region-specific pain circuitry. She also received a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) Women’s Health Initiative to develop in vitro modelsfor studying women’s pain, which earned a First Look Award and continues to advance research into pelvic pain and women’s health.

A passionate educator, Iyer is equally committed to teaching and mentorship. At Tufts, advancing the Universal Design for Learning methodology, which emphasizes anticipating student needs, making information accessible, and offering multiple ways for students to engage with material and demonstrate their learning. She supports undergraduate research and advanced graduate projects–under her mentorship, students have secured multiple research funding awards and fellowships– and is dedicated to lowering barriers to STEM education while fostering broader community engagement in science and society. In summer 2025, she helped expand opportunities for the next generation of scientists through the Tufts University Biomedical Engineering Research Scholars program, a free six-week initiative that brings local high school students into Tufts biomedical engineering labs.

Iyer earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, where, as an NIH-NINDS F31 Predoctoral Fellow, she used CRISPR gene-editing to generate spinal locomotor interneurons for modeling and transplantation. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery with Randolph Ashton as an NIH-NINDS F32 Postdoctoral Fellow. There, she developed new methods to derive hindbrain and spinal cord tissues from human pluripotent stem cells, which she continues to expand at Tufts.

With her appointment as Tiampo Family Assistant Professor, Iyer will continue advancing innovative biomedical research at Tufts while inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Learn more about Tiampo Family Assistant Professor Nisha Iyer.