Skip to main content
Monica Ohnsorg

Monica Ohnsorg

Assistant Professor

Prof. Monica L. Ohnsorg is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She leads an interdisciplinary research lab conducting science at the interface of polymer chemistry, biomaterials, and extracellular matrix engineering. She completed her training as a postdoctoral fellow in 2025 under the advisement of Prof. Kristi S. Anseth in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2021, she earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow co-advised by Profs. Theresa M. Reineke and Frank S. Bates. Monica completed her ACS Certified B.S. in Chemistry with minors in Engineering and Mathematics at Hope College in 2016.

The Ohnsorg lab leverages expertise in polymer science and engineering to rationally design, synthesize, characterize, and apply synthetic biomaterials to answer biologically-relevant questions and solve medically-relevant problems.

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Contact

3150, Engineering Centers Building
1550 Engineering Dr
Madison, WI
(She/her)

Featured news

  • PhD 2021, University of Minnesota
  • MS 2018, University of Minnesota
  • BS 2016, Hope College

  • Bioinspired polymer architectures and networks
  • Dynamic hydrogels for 3D cell culture
  • Musculoskeletal disease modeling and polymer therapeutic development

  • 2025 American Institute of Chemists Postdoctoral Award
  • 2023 Royal Society of Chemistry, "Polymer Chemistry" Outstanding Peer Reviewer
  • 2023 ACS Biomacromolecules, Early Career Board Member
  • 2022 Northwestern University, Materials Science and Engineering Future Leader
  • 2020 ACS PMSE, Eastman Chemical Student Award in Applied Polymer Science
  • 2020 CAS Future Leader (https://www.cas.org/about/futureleaders)
  • 2017 National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program
  • 2016 ACS, 2016 Division of Inorganic Chemistry (INOR) Award for Undergraduate Research
  • 2016 Hope College, Chemistry Senior Award for Research
  • 2016 Sigma Xi Research Award
  • 2014 Beckman Scholars Program

  • Barr, K. E., Ohnsorg, M., Liberman, L., Corcoran, L. G., Sarode, A., Nagapudi, K., Feder, C. R., Bates, F. S., & Reineke, T. M. (2024). Drug-Polymer Nanodroplet Formation and Morphology Drive Solubility Enhancement of GDC-0810. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 35(4), 499-516.
  • Ohnsorg, M., Mash, K. M., Khang, A., Rao, V. V., Kirkpatrick, B. E., Bera, K., & Anseth, K. S. (2024). Nonlinear Elastic Bottlebrush Polymer Hydrogels Modulate Actomyosin Mediated Protrusion Formation in Mesenchymal Stromal Cells. Advanced Materials, 36(28), 2403198.
  • Ohnsorg, M., Hushka, E. A., & Anseth, K. S. (2024). Photoresponsive Chemistries for User-Directed Hydrogel Network Modulation to Investigate Cell-Matrix Interactions. Accounts of Chemical Research, 58(1), 47-60.
  • Dalal, R. J., Ohnsorg, M., Panda, S., & Reineke, T. M. (2022). Hydrophilic Surface Modification of Cationic Unimolecular Bottlebrush Vectors Moderate pDNA and RNP Bottleplex Stability and Delivery Efficacy. Biomacromolecules, 23(12), 5179-5192.
  • Ohnsorg, M., Prendergast, P. C., Robinson, L. L., Bockman, M. R., Bates, F. S., & Reineke, T. M. (2021). Bottlebrush polymer excipients enhance drug solubility: influence of end-group hydrophilicity and thermoresponsiveness. ACS macro letters, 10(3), 375-381.
  • Dalal, R. J., Kumar, R., Ohnsorg, M., Brown, M., & Reineke, T. M. (2021). Cationic bottlebrush polymers outperform linear polycation analogues for pDNA delivery and gene expression. ACS Macro Letters, 10(7), 886-893.
  • Lau, J., Trojniak, A. E., Maraugha, M. J., VanZanten, A. J., Osterbaan, A. J., Serino, A. C., Ohnsorg, M., Cheung, K. M., Ashby, D. S., Weiss, P. S., & others, (2019). Conformal ultrathin film metal--organic framework analogues: Characterization of growth, porosity, and electronic transport. Chemistry of Materials, 31(21), 8977-8986.
  • Ohnsorg, M., Ting, J. M., Jones, S. D., Jung, S., Bates, F. S., & Reineke, T. M. (2019). Tuning PNIPAm self-assembly and thermoresponse: Roles of hydrophobic end-groups and hydrophilic comonomer. Polymer Chemistry, 10(25), 3469-3479.
  • Bowser, B. H., Brower, L. J., Ohnsorg, M., Gentry, L. K., Beaudoin, C. K., & Anderson, M. E. (2018). Comparison of surface-bound and free-standing variations of HKUST-1 MOFs: Effect of activation and ammonia exposure on morphology, crystallinity, and composition. Nanomaterials, 8(9), 650.
  • Ohnsorg, M., Beaudoin, C. K., & Anderson, M. E. (2015). Fundamentals of MOF thin film growth via liquid-phase epitaxy: investigating the initiation of deposition and the influence of temperature. Langmuir, 31(22), 6114-6121.

  • BME 301 - Biomedical Engineering Design and Communication (Spring 2026)