2014
December 2014
Dr. Banerjee spoke at the 2014 NIH Common Fund High-Risk High-Reward Symposium at the NIH campus, Bethesda, MD on December 17, 2014. The talk focused on the accomplishments of the lab under the NIH New Innovator Award. Read the abstract here. This was an eventful year for the lab with several impactful publications and this is a remarkable way to showcase the accomplishments in their entirety.
ExCEL Lab at TERMIS Annual Meeting 2014: We had multiple podium presentations at TERMIS Annual Meeting in Washington DC. Research projects by graduate students Keith Task, Thomas Richardson and Saik Kia Goh were presented.
November 2014
Saik Kia Goh was selected as University's applicant for the NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program (DP5). Congratulations Kia and all the best! More details of the DP5 award can be found here.
ExCEL Lab at AIChE Annual Meeting in Atlanta: We had multiple podium presentations at AIChE. Research projects by Graduate students Keith Task, Shibin Mathew, Thomas Richardson and Saik Kia Goh were presented. Our undergraduates Sierra Barner and Kimaya Padgaonkar presented posters in the undergraduate poster session. Kimaya Padgaonkar won 3rd place in the undergraduate poster competition in the "Sustainability category". Congratulations Kimaya!
October 2014
Shibin Mathew won the Braskem America Inc. Fellowship for 2014 given to outstanding PhD students of the ChemE department. Kudos to Shibin!
Undergrad Sierra Barner won the best interdisciplinary poster at Science 2014 sponsored by the Pitt Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Kudos to Sierra!
September 2014
Undergrad Kelly Donovan won the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium Research Scholarship. The award involves $1500 stipend towards her research at the Banerjee Lab. Congrats Kelly!
Undergrad Kimaya Padgaonkar received University Honors College Brackenridge Scholarship for Fall 2014 for her research at the Banerjee lab. Congrats Kimaya!
August 2014
Dr. Banerjee received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) entitled "Systems Analysis of Signaling Pathways towards Robust Differentiation". The award is for 1 year at $100,000. Read more ....
New publication from Shibin Mathew in Comp and Chem Eng. The work focuses on robustness of dynamic response and signal transfer in PI3K/AKT pathway. Congratulations Shibin! Link
July 2014
Keith Task successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Task! Best wishes for your future endeavors!
June 2014
New publication from Dr. Maria Jaramillo in Tissue Engineering, Part A. The paper is entitled: "Endothelial Cells Mediate Islet-specific Maturation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derived Pancreatic Progenitor Cells". Congratulations Maria! Link
New publication from Shibin Mathew in Journal of Theoretical Biology. The paper is entitled: "Global sensitivity analysis of a mathematical model of acute inflammation identifies nonlinear dependence of cumulative tissue damage on host interleukin-6 responses". Congratulations Shibin! Link
May 2014
New publication from Thomas Richardson in Tissue Engineering Part A. The paper is entitled: "Alginate Encapsulation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Enhance Directed Differentiation to Pancreatic Islet-like cells". Congratulations Thomas! Epub Ahead of Print can be found here.
Recent publication in Bioinformatics by Shibin Mathew features as Publication of the Month in McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine Newsletter (May 2014 | Vol. 13 | No. 5). Congratulations Shibin, Sankar and Hikaru! Newsletter can be found here: link.
Postdoc Dr. Joe Candiello won the best poster award at the UPPDA Postdoctoral Data and Dine Symposium at University of Pittsburgh. His poster was titled: "Alginate encapsulated polymeric nanoparticles promote endoderm differentiation in human embryonic stem cell". Congratulations Joe!
New Publication from Shibin Mathew in Bioinformatics. The paper is titled: "Regulatory interactions maintaining self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells as revealed through a systems analysis of PI3K/AKT pathway". Doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btu209. Congratulations Shibin! The paper is also co-authored by postdoc Dr. Sankar and grad student Hikaru Mamiya.
April 2014
New publication from Dr. Maria Jaramillo in PLoS ONE. The paper is titled: "Potential for Pancreatic Maturation of Differentiating Human Embryonic Stem Cells Is Sensitive to the Specific Pathway of Definitive Endoderm Commitment". Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094307 Congratulations Maria! The paper is also co-authored by grad students Shibin Mathew, Keith Task and undergrad Sierra Barner.
Saik Kia Goh won the Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) leadership and service award 2013-14. Congratulations Kia!
New publication from Keith Task in the Journal of Royal Society Interface. The paper is titled: "Systems level approach reveals the correlation of endoderm differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells with specific microstructural cues of fibrin gels". J. R. Soc. Interface. 2014 11 20140009; doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.0009 (published 9 April 2014). Congratulations Keith!
Keith Task won the best poster award at the Chemical Engineering Research Symposium. The poster was titled "Analysis of Cell Cycle Transitions in Human Embryonic Stem Cells during Self-Renewal and Differentiation". Congratulations Keith!
March 2014
Saik Kia Goh won the best poster award at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Annual Retreat at Nemacolin, PA. The poster was titled "In-vivo maturation of Endocrine Pancreas Based on Perfusion-Decellularized Pancreatic Matrix and Human Embryonic Stem Cells". Congratulations Kia!
Dr. Maria Jaramillo accepted a post doctoral position at The Center for Engineering in Medicine, Boston. Her research will focus on tissue engineered liver grafts generated from pluripotent stem cell derived hepatocytes. All the best Maria for your future research.