David Beebe, PhD

Research Interest

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.

Honors & Awards

• Claude Bernard Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UW-Madison
• John D. MacArthur Professor, UW-Madison
• Founding Scientific Editor, Integrative Biology, Royal Society of Chemistry, (2009)
• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), (2007)
• Lab on a Chip, Royal Society of Chemistry and Corning, Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize, (2006)