Engineering Biotechnology Laboratory

Directors: Stelios T. Andreadis and Sriram Neelamegham

The recently established Engineering Biotechnology Laboratory is a world-class facility that supports high-priority research activities in biochemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and biomaterials. The research program focuses upon the advancement and implementation of engineering applications for recent discoveries in molecular biology, protein engineering, biomaterials engineering, biosensor design, and biosurface phenomena.

The major thrust of these cutting-edge developments is in the critical areas of the pharmaceutical, medical, and agricultural industries. The Engineering Biotechnology Laboratory offers state-of-the-art instrumentation for tissue culture, bioseparations, biomaterials research, fermentation technology, digital imaging microscopy, and genetic engineering. Educational programs include training in bioreactor design and operation, bioseparations, protein processing technology, biosensors, diagnostics, applied enzymology, and animal cell cultivation, as well as environmental biotechnology.

Research in the Engineering Biotechnology Laboratory is focused on the application of novel bioengineering techniques. Among the areas currently under investigation:

• The parameters and mechanisms that regulate blood cell adhesion and migration. Projects include studies that quantify the biophysical properties of cell surface adhesion receptors (on-rate, off-rate, molecular lifetime) and examine their role in inflammatory diseases; investigations on the mechanism of neutrophil-platelet attachment in venous and arterial shear regimes, and how this process may ex-acerbate vascular thrombosis; and fundamental studies on leukocyte locomotion mechanism and kinetics.
• Tissue engineering of the skin. A model system using artificial skin to simulate the structure and function of human epidermis in vivo elucidates the processes of skin regeneration under normal or pathological conditions (for example, injury due to burn or trauma), with the ultimate goal of engineering artificial skin that can potentially improve the process of wound healing in patients with burn traumas or injuries.
• Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer for the purpose of gene therapy. The kinetics of retroviral attachment to cellular receptors, entry into the cell cytoplasm, and intracellular events that follow internalization of the virus into the cell cytoplasm.