Adam is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, where he has been on the faculty since 2008. He also is a resident scientist at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Engler previously trained with Dr. Dennis Discher at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his PhD studying how ECM stiffness regulated stem cell fate. He also did a postdoc with Dr. Jean Schwarzbauer at Princeton University's Department of Molecular Biology. His current research focuses on how physical and chemical properties of the niche influence stem cell function and misregulate muscle function and heart performance during disease and aging. His lab makes natural and synthetic matrices with unique spatiotemporal properties to mimic niche conditions to improve stem cell behavior and commitment in vitro for their therapeutic use in vivo. His lab also studies these processes in vivo with rapidly aging model systems including Drosophila. Dr. Engler was the 2008 recipient of the Rupert Timpl Award from the ISMB. He was also a recipient of an NIH Innovator Award, Rita Schaeffer Award from BMES, and was the inaugural recipient of the Renato Iozzo Award from ASMB in 2014. He is also the 2015 Y.C. Fung Awardee from the ASME.