Sue is an associate professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at The University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also holds a position as the director of the UMass Amherst Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE). She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1998.
Rohan Patil completed his B.S. in Chemical engineering at University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. He joined Roberts lab in 2008. The general aim of Rohan’s research is to better understand the heterogeneity in plant cell cultures, with a focus on elucidating the relationship between cell populations and paclitaxel accumulation in culture. He is presently working on the application of molecular approaches to characterize and manipulate Taxus metabolism in distinct cell subpopulations.
Whitney Stoppel completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Cell & Molecular Biology at Tulane University in 2008. Following an REU program in Cellular Engineering at UMass in 2007, Whitney chose to attend graduate school at UMass, continuing to work in the Roberts lab. She joined the Roberts lab in the fall of 2008, and is working on enhancing the growth and functionality of mammalian cells in 3-D constructs by tailoring mechanical and physiological properties within the device through a collaboration with Surita Bhatia, Kim Tremblay, and Al Crosby.
Email: wstoppel@ecs.umass.edu
Sarah Wilson completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Rowan University in the spring of 2009. She decided to attend graduate school at UMass to conduct research in cellular engineering and joined the Roberts group in the fall of 2009. Sarah's focus is on characterizing novel genes involved in paclitaxel production with an overall goal to enhance the accumulation and production of paclitaxel in Taxus cell cultures through agrobacterium-mediated transformation. She is completing this work in collaboration with Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca, New York.
Email: swilson@ecs.umass.edu
Lisa Leone completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia. During the course of her undergraduate education she participated in internship programs at ConocoPhillips, Dupont and Genencor, the last of which sparked an interest in biotechnology. She joined the Roberts group in the fall of 2010 to optimize plant cell growth in bioreactors through a combination of mathematical modelling and experimental techniques in collaboration with Mike Henson.
Kelsey Mantoni joined the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2011 as a sophomore honor chemical engineering student to begin work on her Capstone honors thesis. Kelsey will be working with Whitney in the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering.
Michael Vilkhavoy joined the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2011 as a sophomore honor chemical engineering student to begin work on his Capstone honors thesis. Michael will be working with Sarah on plant cell culture transformation.
'Alec Gramann joined the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2011 as a sophomore chemical engineering student to begin work on plant cell culture dynamics in stirred bioreactors with Lisa.
William Tyler Frantz joined the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2011 as a sophomore chemical engineering student to begin work on plant cell culture dynamics in stirred bioreactors with Lisa.
Steven Bevacqua will join the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2012 as a sophomore chemical engineering student to begin work on plant cell culture with Sarah.
Former Postdoctoral Researchers
Ling Tao (2004-2005) “Optimizing fuel metabolism and delivery for diabetes treatment.” (co-advisor S. Bhatia) Current position: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO
Nadia Boutaoui (2003-2006), “Differential mRNA expression analysis in Taxus cells in response to methyl jasmonate elicitation.” (co-advisor E. Walker) Current position: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
Former Graduate Students
Martin E. Kolewe(ChE, PhD), 2011, “Plant cell heterogeneity, aggregation and population dynamics.” Marty is currently a post-doc under Dr. Lisa Freed and Dr. Robert Langer at Draper Laboratory.
Email: mkolewe@mit.edu
Vishal Gaurav (ChE, PhD), 2011, “Flow cytometry of cultured plant cells for characterization of culture heterogeneity and cell sorting applications.” Current position: BioGenex, MA.
Kham Vongpaseuth (Plant Biology, PhD), 2011, “Taxus transformation and functional characterization of putative regulatory genes.” Current position: United States Department of Agriculture – Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – Biotechnology Regulatory Services (USDA-APHIS-BRS), Riverdale, MD
KyuongSik Chin (ChE, PhD), 2009, “Optimizing cell encapsulation devices through enhanced oxygen supply.” Current position: Samsung, Korea
Sarwat Khattak (ChE, PhD), 2006, “In vitro applications in drug metabolism and cell encapsulation.” Current position: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Syracuse, NY
Michael Naill (ChE, PhD), 2005, “The use of flow cytometry to study variability of paclitaxel accumulation in Taxus cell suspension cultures” Current position: Abbott Laboratories, Worcester, MA
Camille Dubois (ChE, MS), 2005, “Profiling taxanes in plant cell suspension cultures.” Current Position: DianaPlantSciences, Inc, Portland, OR
Jeanne Michon (ChE, MS), 2001, “Understanding taxane metabolism through the development of a cell-free system and studies on taxane degradation.”
