The Deans Lab for Applied Synthetic Biology

Welcome to the Deans Lab for Applied Synthetic Biology! The central focus of our lab is to better understand hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal and differentiation for the purpose of directing their differentiation to mass-produce platelets and red blood cells in vitro, in addition to using them as novel therapeutic delivery devices. 

Based upon the need for improved tools to better understand and to direct stem cell fate to be used for therapeutic applications, our lab has three synergistic focus groups to study hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) fate decisions: (1) Build novel genetic tools to control the contributions of intrinsic cues on HSC proliferation and differentiation (synthetic biology), (2) Engineer biomimetic microenvironments and genetically interactive biomaterials to control the extrinsic cues on HSC proliferation and differentiation (coupling synthetic biology with biomaterials), and (3) Engineer cells to deliver therapeutic biomolecules to sites of injury and/or disease (synthetic biology).

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Tour the Deans Lab! (click for a lab tour)

FEATURED NEWS:

2020

Kylie wins scholarship!

May 2020 - Congratulations, Kylie, for being awarded a BD scholarship! 

Travis wins scholarship!

April 2020 - Congratulations, Travis, for being awarded the Xin Kwang Lee and Mae Tsai Lee Scholarship!

2019

December 2019 - Congratulations to these three amazing undergrads for being awarded Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) awards for the spring semester! 

Kylie Persson

Title of UROP: "In vitro biogenesis of platelet-like-particles from MEG-01 cells using a microfluidic device"

Mark Livingston

Title of UROP renewal: "Engineering Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells for the Production of Platelets"

Travis Seamons

Title of UROP renewal: "Characterization of the Gal4/GUAS System in Prokaryotes."

Congratulations Dr. MacDonald!

October 2019 - Cody successfully defends his PhD! 

Dr. Deans wins Innovator Award!

October 2019 – Dr. Deans wins the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award! This 5 year award will support our lab's research on building genetic circuits to direct stem cell differentiation to make engineered platelets that function as novel delivery devices for targeting and killing cancer cells. Click HERE to read more!

Adam's perspective is out!

October 2019 - This perspective focuses on how genetic circuits can be used to improve desired stem cell fate decisions to improve tissue engineering outcomes. Click HERE to read it!

Travis Seamons receives a UROP travel grant!

October 2019 - Congratulations to Travis for receiving an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) travel grant to present his work at the annual Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) in Philadelphia! 

Travis Seamons receives UROP funding!

September 2019 - Congratulations to Travis for being awarded the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) award for his project titled: "Characterization of the Gal4/GUAS System in Prokaryotes."

Mark Livingston receives UROP funding!

September 2019 - Congratulations to Mark for being awarded the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) award for his project titled: "Engineering Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells for the Production of Platelets."

Adam Vogel receives a President's Scholarship!

September 2019 - Congratulations Adam! 

Luke's article is out!

June 2019 - Luke and Chelsea's new paper in The Biochemist is out, discussing using synthetic biology as a way to engineer cells to function as delivery devices. Click HERE to read it!

Connor's perspective is out!

May 2019 - Check out our new review/perspective that is featured in the thematic series: "Emerging leaders in biological engineering" in the Journal of Biological Engineering that discusses how synthetic biology can be used to engineer tissues with alternative functions. Click HERE to read more about it! 

March 2019 - We are excited to share our newest preprint on genetic circuit silencing in pluripotent stem cells and one way to rescue circuit function in these cells: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/575266v1 

March 2019 - A significant revision of our paper on identifying megakaryocyte (MK) progenitor cells. In the revised manuscript, we use a combination of image flow cytometry and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify and isolate a distinct MK progenitor cell population. This subpopulation of progenitor cells was isolated and cultured under conditions that promote MK cell maturation. Altogether, we demonstrate that combining image flow and PCA identified an LT-HSC derived MK progenitor cell population that can be isolated using minimal antibodies to study MK cell development. Check out our preprint here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/512442v2 

January 2019 - New preprint from the lab identifying rare megakaryocyte (MK) progenitor populations using minimal antibodies. This serves as a novel method for proliferating MK progenitors to provide insight to early stages of MK commitment and development: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/07/512442 

Archived News:

2018

2017