People in Research

Ming Ni

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Advisor: Buddy Ratner

Department/status: Chemical Engineering, PhD

Project overview:
In this project, our goal is to determine the mechanism of nacre's osteoinductive properties. To this end, the present study involved separating nacre proteins from seashells and evaluating their effects on osteoblasts' differentiation by using an in vitro cell culture model. Knowledge of this mechanism will provide us insights into bone formation stimuli, bone/biomaterial interactions and the design of superior bone replacement materials.

Project Details:
1. Separation and characterization of nacre
2. Nacre surface transformation to hydroxyapatite
3. Effects of soluble nacre protein on osteoblasts' differentiation
4. Stepwise formation a material model that mimics nacre

Skills:
* XPS, SIMS, Contact angle measurements and SPR
* Light Microscopy, Scanning Electronic Microscopy, UV-Vis, IR, XRD, DSC, Fluorescence Spectroscopy, HPLC
* Cell Culture, ELISA, Histochemical staining, Quantitative Real Time-PCR.

Relevant honors or funding:
UWEB (NSF ERC-9529161)

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