The Beebe Laboratory
Faculty > David J. Beebe
David J. Beebe
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
djbeebe@wisc.edu
Research Description
Basic cell culture techniques have changed little in almost a century. By far the most dominate format for cell culture is the Petri dish or similar (e.g. multi well plate). Slowly this is beginning to change as our ability to create materials, geometries and even systems at the cellular scale continues to grow and mature. At the same time, the importance of the three-dimensional microenvironment in cancer biology is increasingly demonstrated. We have begun to explore a variety of engineered in vitro microenvironments to probe the nature of cell interactions that regulate cell behavior. These environments range from in silico lineage models to three-dimensional co-culture constructs to simple convective-free culture systems to high throughput assay systems. While our particular interests center around cancer biology, the constructs have broad potential application across cell biology. Our goal is a holistic approach to understanding cell behavior that integrates in vitro cellular scale engineering to recapitulate important in vivo microenvironmental characteristics in ways that provide biological insights, aid in diagnosis/treatment and enhance discovery.
Selected References
Sung, K. E., N. Yang, C. Pehlke, P. J. Keely, K. W. Eliceiri, A. Friedl, D. J. Beebe, "Transition to invasion in breast cancer: a microfluidic in vitro model," Integrative Biology, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 439-450, 2011
Montanez-Sauri, S. I., K. Eun Sung, J. Puccinelli, C. Pehlke and D.J. Beebe. "Automation of 3-dimensional cell culture in microfluidic devices," Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 171-185, 2011
Gupta, K., D. H. Kim, D. J. Beebe and A. Levchenko, “Micro and nanoengineering for stem cell biology: a promise with caution,” Trends in Biotechnology, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 399-408, 2011.
Domenech, M., R. Bjerregaard, W. Bushman and D. J. Beebe, “Hedgehog signaling in myofibroblasts directly promotes prostate tumor cell growth,” Integr. Biol., Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 142-152, 2012.
Su, X.J., E.W.K. Young, H. A. S. Underkofler, T. J. Kamp, C.T. January, and D.J. Beebe, "Microfluidic cell culture and its application in high throughput drug screening: cardiotoxicity assay for hERG channels," Journal of Biomolecular Screening, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 101-111, 2011