Tanner Henson
Biomedical engineering
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
Graduation date: Spring 2020
FURI | Fall 2018
The Large Scale Expansion and Differentiation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem-Cell Derived Neural Progenitor Cells
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder affecting 5.5 million patients within the United States. By culturing neurons on vitronectin-derived peptides (VDP) and laminin, these neurons can then be used to model AD. Within this area of research, there needs to be a large population of both demented and non-demented neurons that are readily accessible. However, human neurons are incredibly difficult to harvest large-scale. Thus, this project uses a bioreactor vessel as the large-scale culturing system that is necessary to allow for the expansion and differentiation of human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs).
Mentor: David Brafman