People in Research

Benjamin Beckstead

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Advisor: Cecilia Giachelli

Department/status: 3rd-Year BioE Graduate Student

Project overview:
My project is aimed at optimizing and controlling esophageal epithelial differentiation and stratification on degradable matrices used in tissue engineering applications. Approaches to achieve this goal include presentation of cell ligands/adhesion motifs, co-culture with mesenchymal cell types, and investigation of natural scaffold characteristics that lead to correct structure.

Project details:

Skills:
Mammalian and bacterial cell culture, primary cell isolation, cell-protein adhesion assays, Western blotting, immunocytochemistry, ELISA, histological processing, phase and fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, polymeric scaffold casting, and recombinant DNA techniques (DNA gels, plasmid expression in E. coli., luciferase assays)

Relevant honors or funding:
Funded by Singapore-University of Washington Alliance (SUWA)

Names of others on the project
Michael Linnes, Christopher Barnes, Buddy Ratner