Mankind is currently experiencing a
revolution in our understanding of
biological processes, from those occurring
in "simple" bacteria to those
occurring in human beings. Like other
scientific revolutions of the past, rapid
scientific advances lead to rapid
development of engineering disciplines to
assist in the understanding and application
of this new knowledge. We are seeing this
take place today in the development of the
discipline of "bioengineering."
Bioengineering is a broad term and includes
the application of engineering principles to
biological processes.
My research is in the area of
bioengineering. I have current interest/
projects in the broad areas of cell culture,
ranging from the study of human stem and
cancer cells to industrially relevant cells.
I also have interest in the emerging area of
functional genomics, especially as it is
related to cell culture, cell separation,
and cancer cells.
One specific project involves the ability to
identify and separate cells based on specific
immunological markers. In collaboration with a
colleague at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation,
we have developed three new, patented
immunomagnetic |
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instruments. One of these
instruments is an analytical device, while the
other two are separation instruments. All
three of these instruments have a large number
of applications as indicated by the research
support that includes the National Cancer
Institute, the National Science Foundation,
the Whitaker Foundation, and a private
corporation. Some of these applications
include: human stem cell separation for bone
marrow transplants, isolation/separation of
rare cancer cells circulating in human blood,
and identification and separation of
genetically engineered cells with specific
phenotypes. Besides studying the engineering
principles of this separation approach,
exciting fundamental and applied biological
questions are being addressed with respect to
these isolated cells using the latest
molecular techniques.
Another research area involves the
development of better fundamental
understanding and scale-up criteria for
bioprocesses using animal cells. While
large-scale animal cell culture has become
quite common, a number of important
questions/issues remain unresolved. For
example, what is the optimum hydrodynamic
environment for a suspended or anchorage-
dependent cell? What is the mechanism of
action, from a molecular point of view, of
surface active agents in cell culture medium?
Finally, my research group is exploring
collaborations with systems research faculty
to develop approaches to understand the great
wealth of genetic information which is rapidly
becoming available. This research will have
specific applications with respect to the
cancer cell separation projects as well as
more general interest.
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