Cloning in the Third Dimension: Breakthroughs in 3D Biology

Dr. Magness is an Associate Professor in the UNC/NCSU joint Departments of Biomedical Engineering. His research is focused on investigating the genetic mechanisms that control the behavior of intestinal and colonic stem cells in health, injury and disease states including inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. Dr. Magness’ group pioneered new intestinal “organoid" technologies in the USA, and has developed a number of platforms that utilize stem cells derived from organ transplant donors or patient biopsies for basic/translational science and commercial applications. For this work Dr. Magness was given a Transformative Research Award from the National Institutes of Health to develop a human intestinal simulacrum (or mimic) with UNC collaborators. The technology derived from this research was spun-out into Altis Biosystems Inc., which is a hybrid biological tools/CRO focused on providing the pharmaceutical industry with better preclinical cell culture models of the human gut to test drug absorption, secretion, and toxicology.

Dr. Stern obtained a Ph.D. and Master of Science in Physiology from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science. Her background is in comparative physiology, with a concentration in cell biology and developing 2D and 3D in vitro models for drug and toxicological studies. Dr. Stern is currently a scientist on the Product Applications team at Cell Microsystems where she focuses on developing novel 2D and 3D cellular workflows using the CellRaft Technology.