Claudia Ponce Aportela is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Florida International University (FIU) and a researcher in the Cardiovascular Matrix Remodeling Laboratory under Dr. Joshua Hutcheson. Her research interests include cardiovascular tissue engineering, aortic valve extracellular matrix remodeling, macrophage biology, and calcific aortic valve disease. Following completion of an undergraduate degree, Claudia earned a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from FIU.

Her previous research focused on elastin-rich tissue-engineered strategies for heart valve replacement and regeneration. This work resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in the journal Bioengineering and contributed to a chapter in the 2025 book “Integration and Bridging of Multiscale Bioengineering Designs and Tissue Biomechanics”. Current research investigates the effects of resident macrophage depletion on collagen and elastin organization within the aortic valve to better understand the mechanisms underlying valve homeostasis and disease progression.