Baltasar Lopez Sardi

Student NameBaltasar Lopez Sardi

Faculty Mentor NameCherie Stabler, PhD

CollegeHerbert Wertheim College of Engineering

MajorBiomedical Engineering

MinorN/A

Research InterestsBiomaterials, drug delivery, tissue engineering

Academic AwardsUniversity of Florida College of Engineering Dean’s List for Spring 2018-Spring 2019
Bright Futures President Scholar
Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar
National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar
University Scholars Program 2020

OrganizationsSHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers)
Dream Team Engineering

Hobbies and InterestsRacquetball
Baseball
Reading
Going to the beach
Traveling

Research Project

Characterization of Oxygen-generating Biomaterial for the Cellular Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes?

Islet transplantation is a potential cellular treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Reducing hypoxia-induced islet cell loss would significantly improve the efficiency of this procedure. In our lab, we have developed an oxygen-generating biomaterial, termed OxySite, as a means to support the cellular grafts. Incorporation of this material into a macro-scale transplantation device has shown the potential to eliminate hypoxia-induced cell dysfunction and death for both cell lines and primary pancreatic islets. As the next step towards clinical translation, we are currently investigating this material in vivo, and my goal is to characterize the properties of this material to optimize the design of the transplantation device.