• Office Address: 425 Dougherty Engineering Building
• E-mail: cshurer@utk.edu

Education

• PhD, Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, 2019
• BS, Chemical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2013

Carolyn Shurer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT). Her research focuses on the biophysical and biochemical organization of the plasma membrane in epithelial cells, particularly how membrane composition and structure regulate cell signaling, polarity, and interactions with the extracellular environment. Her lab integrates tools from membrane biophysics, lipidomics, and quantitative imaging to explore questions relevant to cancer progression, immune evasion, and epithelial homeostasis.

Before joining UT, Shurer was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virginia, where she studied the role of lipid phase behavior and membrane organization in cell signaling and epithelial polarization while developing novel protein engineering strategies to probe membrane environments in vivo. She received her PhD in chemical engineering from Cornell University, where she focused on understanding and engineering the cellular glycocalyx, particularly mucin biopolymers, and their roles in cell adhesion, survival, immune interaction, and membrane morphology. She received her BS in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is a recipient of the NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship and has been recognized for her work at the interface of engineering and cell biology. Her interdisciplinary training supports a collaborative research program that spans fundamental biophysics, cell biology, and chemical engineering.

Awards and Recognitions

• NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship (NIGMS)
• NIH T32 Predoctoral Training Grant in Molecular Biophysics (NIGMS)

• Membrane biophysics
• Lipidomics
• The glycocalyx
• Epithelial biology
• Quantitative microscopy