Nancy Lynn Allbritton, MD, PhD

Research Summary

Nancy Allbritton is the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The Department is unique in that it represents a joint department located at both UNC and NC State University. The Department serves as a bridge to develop partnerships with investigators in the areas of biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and engineering to design, fabricate, test, and utilize new tools for biomedical and clinical research. Collaborative projects include novel strategies to measure enzyme activity in single cells by capillary and microfluidic electrophoresis, new strategies for software identification of cellular attributes by microscopy, organ-on-a-chip technologies, array-based methods for cell screening, and biodegradable scaffolding for regenerative medicine. An additional focus area is the development of software and instrumentation to support these applications areas. Ongoing research includes: 1) analytical techniques for single-cell biochemical assays, 2) microfabricated platforms for high-throughput cytometry and isolation of cells for genetic analyses and cloning, and 3) microengineered systems for recapitulating organ level function.

Relevance of Research to CGIBD Mission:  Dr. Allbritton has collaborated with a large number of CGIBD investigators.  Her work on the development of gut-on-a-chip technology is particularly relevant to the CGIBD. She has also developed scaffolding techniques that are well-suited to studies of organoids.

CGIBD Focus Area(s):  Regenerative Medicine/Repair

 Collaborators: Azcarate, Bhatt, Bultman, Galanko, Gracz. Furey, Magness, Sheikh, Sylvester, Rawls, Redinbo, Ting, Yeh