Summer Training and Research Inspiration for Diverse Pipeline Engagement toward Advancing Stem Cell Treatment

Dr. Liu is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering in the Bourns College of Engineering, and participates in the interdisciplinary Materials Science and Engineering Program, the Stem Cell Center, the Microbiology Program, the Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology (CMDB) Program, and the Biomedical Sciences Program of the School of Medicine, at the University of California at Riverside (UCR).

Her research focuses on engineering novel biodegradable materials and nanostructured interfaces for controlling cellular functions toward improving tissue regeneration and reducing infections. Of particular interests to her laboratory of Biomaterials and Nanomedicine are: (1) to create new biodegradable materials with novel properties and functions for regenerative medicine; (2) to engineer nanostructured interfaces for desirable cellular responses to medical implants and devices; and (3) to understand fundamental protein, cell and tissue interactions with new biomaterials in 2D, 3D, and 4D for tissue engineering and drug delivery. For example, her research group contributed to design, fabrication, and characterization of new magnesium (Mg) and zinc (Zn) alloys as the next-generation biodegradable implant materials, new surface modification strategies to regulate their degradation rate for the implants to meet clinical needs, 3D fabrication of new nanocomposites for guided tissue repair, and elucidation of the interactions of new biomaterials with relevant cells and bacteria for potential clinical translation.

She has supervised >35 graduate students (Ph.D. and M.S.), 12 medical students, and >160 undergraduate researchers since she established her lab at UCR in 2011. Her work has led to >110 refereed journal articles, 30 conference proceeding papers, 4 books, 16 invited book chapters, 2 issued patents, >80 invited talks, and >160 conference presentations and abstracts.

Benjamin Stewart is the Director of Special Initiatives in the Dean’s office at UC Riverside’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering. His work focuses on the development and implementation of multidisciplinary, multisector grants. Before coming to UCR, he was the Director of Faculty Development at New York University’s Expository Writing Program. His Ph.D. is from NYU’s Department of Performance Studies.

Rob McKee is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California Riverside, teaching courses including Quantitative biochemistry, Fundamental Principles of Wound Repair, and the year-long capstone design course. He believes in constructing environments that foster a life-long learning mindset of actively engaging with new material, setting students up for success regardless of where life takes them.  His call to teach dates back over a decade when, as an undergraduate at St. Vincent College, he was involved with starting the Collaborative Learning Program. In the summers, he spent his time doing research at Duquesne University. After graduating, Rob attended The University of Notre Dame for graduate study, where he researched nephron regeneration using the zebrafish animal model upon completing his Ph.D. Rob relocated to Delaware to work on a ventilation-perfusion system for the ex-vivo culture of neonate mouse heart-lung blocks before joining UCR in 2018.Rob McKee is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California Riverside, teaching courses including Quantitative biochemistry, Fundamental Principles of Wound Repair, and the year-long capstone design course. He believes in constructing environments that foster a life-long learning mindset of actively engaging with new material, setting students up for success regardless of where life takes them.  His call to teach dates back over a decade when, as an undergraduate at St. Vincent College, he was involved with starting the Collaborative Learning Program. In the summers, he spent his time doing research at Duquesne University. After graduating, Rob attended The University of Notre Dame for graduate study, where he researched nephron regeneration using the zebrafish animal model upon completing his Ph.D. Rob relocated to Delaware to work on a ventilation-perfusion system for the ex-vivo culture of neonate mouse heart-lung blocks before joining UCR in 2018.Rob McKee is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California Riverside, teaching courses including Quantitative biochemistry, Fundamental Principles of Wound Repair, and the year-long capstone design course. He believes in constructing environments that foster a life-long learning mindset of actively engaging with new material, setting students up for success regardless of where life takes them.  His call to teach dates back over a decade when, as an undergraduate at St. Vincent College, he was involved with starting the Collaborative Learning Program. In the summers, he spent his time doing research at Duquesne University. After graduating, Rob attended The University of Notre Dame for graduate study, where he researched nephron regeneration using the zebrafish animal model upon completing his Ph.D. Rob relocated to Delaware to work on a ventilation-perfusion system for the ex-vivo culture of neonate mouse heart-lung blocks before joining UCR in 2018.

Guadalupe Ruiz received a B.A. in Sociology from UCR and an M.S. in Higher Education Leadership and Student Development from California Baptist University. She is the Director of Transfer Initiatives & Professional Development in the Marlan & Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering at UCR. She has extensive experience working with California Community Colleges to establish partnerships and resources for students. Through this work, she increased the engineering transfer student enrollment at UCR. Guadalupe established an engineering transfer student center and the transfer student transition program. Moreover, Guadalupe leads undergraduate student research experiences, including bridge programs and peer mentoring programs. 

Mai serves as the Student Success Coordinator in the Marlan & Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering at UCR. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She is also a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship.

Mai's passion for empowering women in STEM and entrepreneurship comes from her previous roles as a program manager at Manara, a social impact start-up connecting software engineers to their dream jobs, and as a co-founder of Gaza Geekettes, a community fostering female tech talent in Gaza. She has also been a TechWomen fellow, a former start-up founder, and the first Palestinian female licensed amateur radio operator.

These experiences have earned her recognition and awards, including the 2015 Change Agent ABIE Award from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) and the Best Entry-Level STEM Executive at the Women in STEM conference in Dubai. 
 

Dr. Rachel Behar received her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from UCI, where she graduated with honors, and her Ph.D. from UCR in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology. As a graduate student, Rachel worked in Dr. Prue Talbot's lab, studying the effects of electronic cigarette refill fluids, aerosols, and flavoring chemicals on human embryonic stem cells and adult lung cell health. She was the recipient of an NIH Predoctoral Fellowship, two UCR Graduate Research Mentoring Program awards, and the Cornelius Hopper award from TRDRP to carry out her studies on electronic cigarettes. Rachel joined the UCR Stem Cell Core as Academic Coordinator in 2018, and she became the Administrator for the UCR TRANSCEND CIRM Scholars Program in 2022. She thoroughly enjoys working with students and researchers to help them achieve their research goals and expand their training. 

Dr. Prue Talbot received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Houston, Texas. As a pioneer in reproduction research, she has studied various aspects of fertilization in mammals including ovulation of oocytes from follicles, oocyte pick-up by the oviduct, capacitation, the acrosome reaction, fertilization of oocytes, the cortical reaction, and the cortical granule envelope. She has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers in fertilization and stem cell field. Her laboratory is currently developing bioinformatics tools to study drug toxicity and to quantify cell processes including migration, apoptosis, and cell adhesion of mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Dr Talbot is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research and is the Director of the UCR Stem Cell Center.

Neural crest cells (NCCs) arise early in development, migrate extensively, and give rise to an impressive array of diverse derivatives, including melanocytes, peripheral neurons and glia, heart-valve cells, and craniofacial muscle, adipose cells, odontoblasts, bone and cartilage. Thus, NCCs provide an excellent platform for studying induction, specification, multipotency, fate restriction, and cell migration. NCCs strong contribution to craniofacial structures endows them with a unique place in vertebrate diversity and evolution. Additionally, NCC defects are responsible for various birth defects and illnesses (e.g. cleft lip/palate, Hirschsprung and Waardenburg syndromes, aggressive cancers like melanoma and neuroblastoma, etc.) and therefore improving our understanding of NCC biology offers a great potential for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

Our laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern the formation and differentiation potential of NCCs. We aim to uncover and characterize the time, tissues and molecular pathways regulating NCC formation, and to assess the effects of the early environment on NCC differentiation potential. We have pioneered work analyzing earlier events in the formation of NCC in amniotes. We identified Pax7 as a critical transcription factor during early avian neural crest development, and are now investigating its mechanism of action (its regulation, splice variants, interacting partners and their roles). We are using a pan-amniote approach to identify critical mechanisms in early NCC development. Our research challenges current dogmas and has established new paradigms for studying NCC development in diverse species (chick, mouse, rabbit, and human).

Our work in birds uses chick and quail embryos to identify the earliest events in NCC specification and induction, through explant cultures, fate map studies, grafting experiments, expression analysis, and single cell studies. We are also invested in determining the transcriptional effectors of the signaling pathways we have previously identified as critical for NC induction (BMP, Wnt and FGF).

In mouse embryos we are establishing the spatiotemporal expression of early NC markers including critical transcription factors and determining the contribution of Pax7 progenitors to NC derivatives using different transgenic approaches.

We have adopted the rabbit as an alternative model for mammalian NC development and are investigating basic profiles of expression of NC markers, and for the first time in a mammal, we are simultaneously investigating NC specification/induction and signaling requirements.

To deliver an effective translational approach to human health issues we have embraced human NC studies. Importantly, we have developed a surrogate model of human NC based on human embryonic stem cells, infused by our understanding of early NC biology in model organisms.