Research Interests:

• Engineering non-pancreatic cells for glucose-responsive secretion of recombinant insulin with kinetics that closely approximate those of normal pancreatic islets.
• Developing methods for the low temperature preservation (cryopreservation) of encapsulated cells and other tissue engineered systems.
• Developing approaches for the non-invasive monitoring of tissue engineered substitutes in vitro and post-implantation in vivo.
• Engineering bioreactor systems for the functional maturation of islets and for the characterization of the metabolic and secretory competency of free and encapsulated cells.