Rohan Shirwaiker
- Email: rashirwaiker@ncsu.edu
- Office: 4169 Fitts-Woolard Hall
- Website: https://www.ise.ncsu.edu/people/rashirwa/
Rohan Shirwaiker is the James T. Ryan Professor in ISE and Associate Director of the Functional Tissue Engineering Program at the Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI). He is also an associate faculty of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Shirwaiker’s 3D Tissue Manufacturing research group focuses on the design and scalable manufacturing of engineered tissue products for biomedical and food applications. They engineer new bio-fabrication processes (e.g., ultrasound-assisted bioprinting, 3D nonwovens), biomimetic tissue designs (e.g., for tissue-engineered, orthopedic products, cultivated meats), non-destructive quality monitoring techniques (e.g., dielectric spectroscopy, ultrasound spectroscopy), and multimodal bioreactor designs for scale up/out. Using computational modeling, experimental approaches, and data analytics methods synergistically, they investigate fundamental interrelationships between critical process parameters, biomaterials, and functional quality attributes of the bioproducts. Shirwaiker’s research is highly multidisciplinary and collaborative and has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (CMMI, CBET), National Institutes of Health (NIAMS, NIDCR), US Department of Defense (ARMI BiofabUSA), Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF), Eshelman Institute for Innovation, the Good Food Institute and others including the industry. He has co-authored over 150 journal articles, conference proceedings and book chapters, and has 3 issued/pending patents. He has been recognized by several awards including the NSF CAREER Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, SME Distinguished Faculty Advisor Award, IISE Manufacturing & Design Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and C. A. Anderson Outstanding Faculty Award.
Shirwaiker teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to design and manufacturing, such as ISE 316 (Manufacturing Engineering I: Processes), ISE 498 (Senior Design Project), ISE 589 (Special Topics in Bio/Medical Design and Manufacturing), and ISE 714 (Product Manufacturing for Medical Device Industry). He is actively involved in volunteer roles with various professional societies including IISE (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee), SME (NAMRI Scientific Committee), ASME (Bioprinters Hardware Standards Committee) and others.
Research Interests
Bio-fabrication Processes and Systems, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Alternative Proteins Manufacturing, Bio/Medical Product Development
Publications
- Design and Validation of a Multi-Modal Bioreactor System: Assessing the Effects of Perfusion and Cyclic Tensile Stimulation on Mechanical and Biological Properties of 3D-Printed Missing-Rib Auxetic Scaffolds
- Sharmin, T., Hossan, S., & Shirwaiker, R. A. (2026, January 26), Bioengineering, Vol. 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering13020140
- Trends, challenges, and opportunities for the United States alternative meat and seafood sector: stakeholder-informed perspectives
- Wood, A., Stanley, K. C., Daly, J., Grieger, K., Aimutis, W. R., Shirwaiker, R. A., & Wilson, N. L. W. (2026, April 17), Npj Science of Food, Vol. 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-026-00841-4
- Digital light processing (DLP) bioprinting of collagen-riboflavin hydrogels for cultivated meat applications☆
- Ahmed, N., & Shirwaiker, R. (2025, August 1), Manufacturing Letters, Vol. 8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2025.06.104
- Exploring the U.S. regulatory and legislative landscapes for cell-cultivated meat and seafood
- Stanley, K. C., Koivusaari, K., Grieger, K., Wood, A., Jaffe, G., Aimutis, W. R., … Shirwaiker, R. A. (2025, December 31), Trends in Food Science & Technology, Vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2025.105527
- 3D melt blowing of Elastollan thermoplastic polyurethane for tissue engineering applications: A pilot study
- Pawar, A., Anderson, B., Pourdeyhimi, B., McNulty, A. L., Fisher, M., & Shirwaiker, R. (2024), Manufacturing Letters, 41, 357–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2024.09.043
- A perspective on the environmental impact of plant-based protein concentrates and isolates
- Aimutis, W. R., & Shirwaiker, R. (2024, December 2), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319003121
- A scoping review of cultivated meat techno-economic analyses to inform future research directions for scaled-up manufacturing
- Goodwin, C. M., Aimutis, W. R., & Shirwaiker, R. A. (2024). [Review of , ]. Nature Food, 10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01061-3
- Assessing design-induced elasticity of 3D printed auxetic scaffolds for tissue engineering applications
- Sharmin, T., & Shirwaiker, R. (2024, October 1), Manufacturing Letters, Vol. 41, pp. 772–778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2024.09.097
- Single-Component Cellulose Acetate Sulfate Hydrogels for Direct Ink Writing 3D Printing
- Park, S., Park, S., Sharmin, T., Cho, S.-M., Kelley, S. S., Shirwaiker, R. A., … Park, S. (2024, August 21), Biomacromolecules, Vol. 8. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.4c00578
- Investigating dielectric spectroscopy and soft sensing for nondestructive quality assessment of engineered tissues
- Shohan, S., Zeng, Y., Chen, X., Jin, R., & Shirwaiker, R. (2022, May 16), Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Vol. 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2022.114286
