Biomedical engineer receives $1.6 million to advance development of tailored mouse stem cells, DNA-based vaccines

 
Photo by Patrick Cummings
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Krishnendu Roy, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has received $1.6 million through two National Institutes of Health grants to improve the body's ability to attack foreign invaders.

Top Left: Dr. Krishnendu Roy in front of a magnified image of polymer microparticles that will be used to deliver a DNA-based vaccine.  In the two-year, $405,000 vaccine grant, Roy's laboratory will develop DNA-based vaccines to deliver immune-stimulating factors (foreign genes) to naturally-occurring functional dendritic cells of the human body.

Photo by Patrick Cummings
Click on photo for hi-res version

In a four-year, $1.2 million grant on mouse stem cells, Dr. Roy's lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering will provide the biomedical community with a better understanding of engineering parameters for turning mouse stem cells into cells that incite a mouse to mount an immune response when exposed to  bacteria or other invading organisms.

Bottom Left: Dr. Krishnendu Roy at a vent hood in his lab at the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The equipment provides a sterile place to work with cells and other biomaterial.