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Caitlin Howell

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Caitlin Howell
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBioengineer, academic
Known forLiquid-infused polymer coatings; mycelium-based sustainable materials
Alma materUniversity of Maine; Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg; Harvard University

Caitlin Howell is an American bioengineer and Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Maine.[1] Her work centers on liquid-infused polymer surfaces and coatings, biofouling resistance, and sustainable lignocellulosic and mycelium-based materials.[2]

Education

Howell earned a B.S. from the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine between 2002 and 2006, followed by an M.S. in the same school from 2006 to 2008.[3] She received a Dr. rer. nat. in Applied Physical Chemistry from Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg, completed between 2008 and 2011.[4] She then conducted postdoctoral research at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University from 2012 to 2015.[5]

Career

From 2013 to 2015, Howell served as a Technology Development Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.[6] She joined the University of Maine in 2016 as Assistant Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, a position she held until 2021.[7] Since 2021, she has been Associate Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Maine.[8]

Research

Howell's publications, indexed by Semantic Scholar, address liquid-infused polymer systems, catheter coatings, sustainable lignocellulosic composites, and mycelium-based materials.[9] Her work has accumulated 39 citations across 13 papers, with an h-index of 3.[10]

She has received funding from the National Science Foundation across five awards totaling $1,317,463, including a PFI-RP award for mass-manufacturing of low-cost microfluidics ($566,000, awarded March 31, 2023), an RII Track-4 award for prototyping microfluidic water purification systems ($154,556, awarded December 9, 2020), an EAGER award for detection and analysis of airborne coronavirus with bioinspired membranes ($154,057, awarded July 15, 2020), a collaborative research award on bioinspired liquid-gated membranes to reduce biofouling ($320,350, awarded August 23, 2019), and a Graduate Research Fellowship ($122,500, awarded August 11, 2008).[11]

Howell has also been involved in research funded by the National Institutes of Health related to catheter-associated protein deposition and its role in the development of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), through projects administered at the University of Notre Dame totaling $1,872,330 across the associated awards.[12]

Selected publications

  • "Surfactant-assisted foam-forming of high performance ultra-low density structures made from lignocellulosic materials and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs)" (2024), Industrial Crops and Products[13]
  • "Growing Sustainable Barrier Coatings from Edible Fungal Mycelia" (2025), Langmuir[14]
  • "In situ growth of mycelium in a lignocellulosic scaffold enabled by cellulose nanofibrils for lightweight insulation" (2025), Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing[15]
  • "Effect of free liquid layer quantity on bacteria and protein adhesion to liquid infused polymers" (2024), Biointerphases[16]
  • "The Orientation of Human Fibrinogen at Biomedically Relevant Polydimethylsiloxane-Water Interfaces" (2025), Langmuir[17]
  • "Multi-component liquid-infused systems: a new approach to functional coatings" (2024), Industrial Chemistry and Materials[18]
  • "Variable-Area Sensor Permits Near-Continuous Multipoint Measurements of Aqueous Biological and Chemical Analytes" (2024), Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research[19]
  • "Removal of Free Liquid Layer from Liquid-Infused Catheters Reduces Silicone Loss into the Environment while Maintaining Adhesion Resistance" (2023), medRxiv[20]
  • "Liquid-infused silicone catheters reduce fungal burden and inflammation in Candidozyma auris bladder infections" (2026), mSphere[21]
  1. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  2. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  3. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  4. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  5. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  6. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  7. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  8. ↑ ORCID record 0000-0002-9345-6642
  9. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  10. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  11. ↑ National Science Foundation award records
  12. ↑ National Institutes of Health award records
  13. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  14. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  15. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  16. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  17. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  18. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  19. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  20. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
  21. ↑ Semantic Scholar author profile, Caitlin Howell
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