Dr. Fabio Variola received his B. Eng. and M. Sc. in Materials Engineering from the University of Trieste (Italy). In 2010, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa shortly after the completion of a joint doctoral program between the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications (INRS-ÉMT) and the University of Montreal. He is a cross-appointed member in the Departments of Physics (Faculty of Science) and Cellular and Molecular Medicine (Faculty of Medicine).
His research focuses on the development of micro- and nano-structured biomaterials to control cellular response for applications in tissue engineering and medicine. In particular, Dr. Variola aims at elucidating the mechanisms that dictate how mammalian cells (e.g. bone cells, stem cells, neurons) respond to the surrounding physicochemical environment by integrating biomaterials science with biophysics and cell biology.