Maud Gorbet (She/Her)

Maud Gorbet is a Systems Design Engineering Professor and is cross-appointed with the department of Biology and the School of Optometry at the University of Waterloo and also a collaborator with the Centre for Ocular Research and Education.

Her research interests center on biocompatibility issues with a focus on the role of innate immune cells and the impact of material-induced inflammation in the ocular and cardiovascular environments. Biomedical devices have significantly improved quality of life and increased life expectancy of millions of people, but their use is not without complications. Although the overall rate of complications remains low, the consequences have significant impacts, as exemplified by bleeding and clotting complications in cardiovascular devices or significant increased risks of microbial infections with overnight contact lens wear. Research in Professor Gorbet’s lab aims to understand interactions between biomaterials and biological systems. A better understanding of the mechanisms of material-induced cellular activation will support the design of materials and/or therapeutic strategies that can improve biocompatibility and will hence reduce the risks of complications.

Gorbet's research program thus aims to investigate the inflammatory response to biomaterials and design more robust in vitro models that can better assess biocompatibility.
Her team has successfully designed and engineered novel in vitro cell models to investigate the ocular cell response to ophthalmic materials, and is also investigating blood-material interactions. As part of her work on the ocular biomaterials, Gorbet's team is actively working towards understanding the role of neutrophils on the ocular surface.

• biocompatibility, biomedical devices, biomaterials, Biological Response to Materials, Ergonomics, Human Factors & Biomedical

• 2001, Doctorate PhD, University of Toronto, Ontario
• 1993, Bachelor's BASc, Universite de Technologie de Compiegne, France

• BME 161 - Introduction to Biomedical Design
  • Taught in 2024
• BME 461 - Biomedical Engineering Design Workshop 2
  • Taught in 2022
• BME 462 - Biomedical Engineering Design Workshop 3
  • Taught in 2023
• BME 589 - Special Topics in Biomedical Devices
  • Taught in 2023
• CHE 561 - Biomaterials and Biomedical Design
  • Taught in 2023
• NE 488 - Biomaterials and Biomedical Design
  • Taught in 2023
• SYDE 384 - Biological and Human Systems
  • Taught in 2019, 2020
• SYDE 584 - Physiological Systems and Biomedical Design
  • Taught in 2021, 2024
• SYDE 684 - Materials Biocompatibility
  • Taught in 2019, 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Gorbet, Maud and Willcox, Mark DP, Interactions of tear-film neutrophils with clinical bacteria., Investigative Ophthalmology \\& Visual Science, 4048, 2015
• Wong, Alexander and Wang, Xiao Yu and Gorbet, Maud, Bayesian-based deconvolution fluorescence microscopy using dynamically updated nonstationary expectation estimates, Scientific reports, , 2015
• Kazemzadeh, Farnoud and Jin, Chao and Molladavoodi, Sara and Mei, Yu and Emelko, Monica B and Gorbet, Maud B and Wong, Alexander, Lens-free spectral light-field fusion microscopy for contrast-and resolution-enhanced imaging of biological specimens, Optics letters, 3862, 2015
• Molladavoodi, Sara and Kwon, Hyock-Ju and Medley, John and Gorbet, Maud, Human corneal epithelial cell response to substrate stiffness, Acta biomaterialia, 324, 2015
• Gorbet, Maud and Postnikoff, Cameron and Williams, Sara, The Noninflammatory Phenotype of Neutrophils From the Closed-Eye Environment: A Flow Cytometry Analysis of Receptor ExpressionNoninflammatory Phenotype of Tear Film Neutrophils, Investigative ophthalmology \\& visual science, 4582, 2015

• Research team develops new material for bone grafts