TUFTS UNIVERSITY - Key Persons

Amin Nikkhah has experience working on sustainability related projects on three different continents: Europe (Belgium), Asia (South Korea), and North America (the U.S.). He has published more than 40 scientific papers in high impact journals and is also the guest editor of the special issues in the Journal of Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability. His current research interests are development of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, and circular economy in the sustainable/future food systems. He was awarded his PhD by the Department of Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University, Belgium in 2021. At Tufts University, he works with the CellAg project team aiming to use a small amount of animal cells to create cultured meat, replacing the environmentally damaging practice of raising and slaughtering animals for food. He is working with the LCA team to make the cultured meat production systems more environmentally sustainable/circular.

Job Titles:

• Investigator

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research areas: membranes, water treatment, nutrient recovery, water reuse, wastewater treatment, filtration, surface science, fouling, polymer science, encapsulation, and separations Ayse Asatekin joined Tufts in 2012. She received bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She received her PhD in chemical engineering through the Program in Polymer Science and Technology (PPST) at MIT. She then served as a post-doctoral researcher in Professor Karen Gleason's group at MIT. She is the co-founder and scientific advisor of Clean Membranes, Inc. This start-up company commercialized a fouling-resistant membrane technology that she began developing during her doctoral research. More recently, she serves as the Senior Scientific Advisor for ZwitterCo, Inc., a start-up spun out of Tufts to commercialize novel, extremely fouling-resistant zwitterionic membranes developed in her lab. Cellular agriculture is an exciting technology that promises a more sustainable future, one of their core motivations for research. She hopes to apply their expertise in developing fouling-resistant membranes with precise selectivity to this field, addressing challenges such as the treatment of wastewater streams from cellular agriculture, selective nutrient recovery from waste streams, and water reuse to decrease the environmental impact of these processes.

Job Titles:

• Head
• Investigator / Biology
• Professor ( Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences ) Research
• Professor, Biology / Assistant Professor, Neuroscience

Dr. Trimmer is the head of two integrated research labs - the Neuromechanics Laboratory uses an insect (the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta) as its primary model system because it has a brain with fewer neurons, many of which can be identified and kept alive outside the animal. The Biomimetic Devices Laboratory focuses on applying biological principles in the design, fabrication and control of new types of machines, including soft robots. Barry Trimmer was trained in neuroscience and physiology with an undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Oregon. His research focuses on the Neuromechanics of Locomotion, the science of how animals control their movements. In addition to his work on living systems, Professor Trimmer specializes in the application of found biological principles to the design and fabrication of Soft Robots. His interests in living systems and robots converge in his recent research that seeks to "grow" robotic devices using a combination of biosynthetic materials, cellular modulation, and tissue engineering. These Biosynthetic Robots will be versatile, safe, biocompatible, and biodegradable. This has led to a strong interest in the in vitro growth of muscle tissue to exploit the unique physiological advantages of invertebrate tissues. These studies provide fundamental and technological insights for cellular agriculture applications.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor, Biology
• Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Co - Director of Science, Technology, and Society
• Investigator / Biology

Research in Ben Wolfe's lab has two broad research goals: 1) identify the molecular mechanisms that control the assembly and function of microbial communities, and 2) determine how microbial species evolve within multi-species communities. Most of our research projects focus on food microbiomes, including fermented foods such as cheese, sourdough, and kimchi. Projects in my lab integrate experimental evolution, metagenomics, comparative genomics/transcriptomics, genome engineering, and in situ community reconstructions. Our work seeks to develop microbial community design principles that can guide the management of microbial communities in agriculture, industry, medicine, and nature.

Job Titles:

• Chemistry
• Department of Chemistry / Research Areas
• Investigator / Chemistry

To solve outstanding problems in global health, the Mace Lab applies a multidisciplinary approach combining aspects of analytical chemistry, materials science, and engineering. The primary goal of the Mace lab is to develop low cost, patient-centric technologies that can improve access to healthcare. To achieve this, the Mace Lab designs devices that improve the self-collection of blood and enable the diagnosis of diseases in resource-limited settings, and they are exploring ways the methods that are developed in the lab can used by others. Their main techniques leverage the properties of paper and other porous materials to integrate function into simple, affordable devices. Unique to laboratories in Chemistry departments, his group specializes in handling human blood and saliva. Technologies developed in the Mace lab have made the leap to clinical sites in Africa, South America, and the US, owing to their network of clinical, academic, and industry collaborators. The Mace Lab has broad expertise in assay development and device prototyping, which they apply to evaluating the efficacy of candidate therapeutics, performing separations that lead to new measurements, and making field-deployable kits for point-of-care testing. They have additional expertise in instrument development, phase separation in systems of polymers, and microfluidics. Education PhD Biophysics, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States, 2008 MS Biophysics, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States, 2006 BS Physics, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, United States, 2003 Charlie Mace earned his BS from Le Moyne College in 2003, followed by an MS (2006) and Ph.D. (2008) from the University of Rochester in the laboratory of Prof. Benjamin Miller. He was then a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Prof. George Whitesides at Harvard University from 2008-2011. Prior to joining the faculty at Tufts in 2013, he was a senior scientist at Diagnostics For All, a non-profit medical device company. The Mace lab's broad expertise in microfluidics leverages Charlie's 10+ years of experience in developing low-cost and broadly distributable solutions for point-of-care analysis. Charlie has led projects spanning the design of sensors to detect adulteration of pre-mixed infant cereals to rapid assays for bacterial contamination of milk sold by small shareholder farmers. Beyond the intersection of technology and food security, his lab additionally develops assays to rapidly and non-invasively evaluate cell growth and differentiation.

Job Titles:

• Interim Department Chair, Ambulatory Medicine and Theriogenology
• Investigator

David Matsas received his undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Purdue University, and performed his residency at Cornell University. He is an assistant professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. With professional interests in superovulation, embryo transfer, and semen cryopreservation in small ruminants, he has completed research in large animal reproductive medicine and assisted reproductive technology, as well as the Swiss Village Farm (SVF) Foundation Rare Breeds Preservation Project. He is Board Certified by the American College of Theriogenologists and serves on the Board of Directors of the Theriogenology Foundation. In his free time, he enjoys cycling, running, windsurfing, and snowboarding.

Job Titles:

• Director
• Member of the Management Team
• Director - Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture / Science & Technology Building - Room 251
• Investigator
• Professor of Engineering
• Professor, Biomedical Engineering

David Kaplan is the Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering at Tufts University, a Distinguished University Professor, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and cellular agriculture. He has published over 1,000 peer reviewed papers, he is editor-in-chief of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering and he serves on many editorial boards and programs for journals and universities. He has received awards for his research and teaching and is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the National Academy of Engineering.

Job Titles:

• Investigator / Clinical Nutrition
• Member in the Nutrition Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
• Professor
• Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences / Professor, Agriculture, Food and Environment
• Research

Dr. Lisa Freeman is a faculty member in the Nutrition Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. As one of a small but growing number of Board Certified Veterinary NutritionistsTM, she teaches veterinary students, veterinarians, and pet owners about proper feeding for their animals, especially ones that are too sick to eat or who have chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease, or cancer. She conducts research on nutritional effects on heart disease, heads the Cummings School's Residents' Enhanced Veterinary Education and Academic Learning (REVEAL) Program, and is Associate Director of the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute's One Health Program. Dr. Freeman earned a bachelor's from Tufts University, a DVM from the Cummings School, and a PhD in nutrition from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy-earning her the rare distinction of holding a degree from each of Tufts University's three campuses. Her original intent was to become an equine veterinarian, but, through her studies, she became increasingly interested in nutrition and its role in preventing and treating disease. Dr. Freeman teaches in all four years of the veterinary curriculum at the Cummings School. Only about one-third of veterinary schools have a veterinary nutritionist on their faculty, and this helps Cummings graduates to be well prepared to provide their patients with optimal nutritional care. Dr. Freeman also is passionate about helping veterinarians and pet owners learn to objectively provide the best nutrition possible to dogs and cats. Research areas: veterinary nutrition, critical nutrition, heart disease, cachexia, and sarcopenia Lisa Freeman is a faculty member in the Nutrition Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and earned a bachelor's from Tufts University, a DVM from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and a PhD in nutrition from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She is a professor at the Cummings School, where she is active in research, teaching, and clinical care of patients with a secondary appointment at the Friedman School. Her research focuses on nutrition and heart disease, as well as cachexia and sarcopenia.

Job Titles:

• Associate Director
• Member of the Management Team
• Associate Director - Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture / Science & Technology Building - Room 209

Job Titles:

• Member of the Management Team
• Investigator / Chemistry
• Program Manager - National Institute
• Program Manager, USDA National Institute
• Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biology / Research

Research areas: food science, flavor chemistry, sensory evaluation, consumer acceptance Scott Frost's research explores the intersection of sensory perception and chemical measures to understand how food flavor and texture are influenced by production practices. Since completing my Ph.D. at UC Davis, I have explored the flavor chemistry of multiple foods and beverages. His work within the cutting-edge field of cellular agriculture will help to develop production techniques that can provide flavorful and sustainable foods.

Job Titles:

• Associate Dean of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Success / Research
• Investigator

Ellise LaMotte leads the Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion for the Schools of Arts & Sciences and Engineering. She was previously Director of the Center for STEM Diversity, where she led a team that develops and implements broadening participation programming for underrepresented students in STEM. She works on diversity, inclusion, and equity issues across a student's Tufts experience, from matriculation to graduation.

Job Titles:

• Amelia Peabody Foundation Chair in Agricultural Sciences
• Department of Ambulatory
• Investigator

Eugene White received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire and his Doctor in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. He is the course director for Clinical Skills 2 at Cummings School. He lectures in food animal medicine, dermatology, dairy production medicine, human animal relations, veterinary ethics, veterinary economics, bovine procedures, and clinical reasoning. He has completed research in advanced reproductive technology and sustainable agriculture. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in Dairy Practice, and his additional professional interests include embryo transfer, ovum pick up, and dairy production medicine. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and five children, as well as volunteering with little league baseball.

Job Titles:

• Professor of Natural Science, Biology

Job Titles:

• Investigator / Nutrition
• Professor of Medicine and Nutrition / Research
• Senior Scientist, Vitamins & Carcinogen Lab - HNRC / Professor, Medicine / Professor, Biochemical & Molecular Nutrition

Joel Mason is an MD with residency training in internal medicine. He completed post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago in both gastroenterology and clinical nutrition, with research focused on the intestinal absorption of nutrients. He has always had a considerable interest in environmental issues, so he combines his professional life and non-professional life by developing a research focus on examining the nutritional value and bioavailability of nutrients from sustainable foods.

Job Titles:

• Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment / Research

Kathy Fuller's research analyzes consumer preferences for new food technologies and willingness to pay for sustainable food products. Her research on cellular agriculture investigates consumers' perceptions of cultivated meats and their willingness to try or replace their meat consumption habits. She holds a PhD in Agribusiness from Arizona State University and an MS in Agricultural Economics from Louisiana State University. While pursuing her doctorate, she obtained a certificate in Environmental and Sustainability Economics from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Job Titles:

• Coordinator / Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute
• Executive Director, Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute / Research

Katie Stebbins, formally trained as an environmental urban planner and economic development professional, focuses on the future food tech economy and its opportunities to promote a healthier and more equitable food system. She served as the inaugural Massachusetts Secretary for Tech, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, leading state investments in advanced technology clusters, and is motivated to connect the burgeoning research in Cell Ag to the globally competitive biotech cluster of Greater Boston.

David Kaplan's research focus is on biopolymer engineering, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and cellular agriculture. He has published over 1,000 peer reviewed papers, he is editor-in-chief of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and he serves on many editorial boards and programs for journals and universities. He has received awards for his research and teaching and is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the National Academy of Engineering.

Job Titles:

• Head of Communications
• Member of the Management Team
• Head of Communications - Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture
• Head of Communications, Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture / Science & Technology Building - Room 209

Job Titles:

• Director and Research Associate Professor, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach / Research
• Director of the Tufts Center for Engineering Education
• Investigator / Engineering Education
• Research Associate Professor, Center for Engineering Education Outreach Director of the CEEO, Center for Engineering Education Outreach

Merredith Portsmore the director of the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, as well as a research assistant professor. She has the unique honor of being a "Quadruple Jumbo," having received all her four of her degrees from Tufts University (B.A. in English, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, M.A. in Education, and Ph.D. in Engineering Education). Portsmore's research interests focus on how children engage in constructing solutions to engineering design problems. Her outreach work focuses on creating resources for K-12 educators to support engineering education in the classroom. She is the founder of STOMP, LEGO Engineering.com, and the online Teacher Engineering Education Program. Merredith Portsmore's research interests focus on how K-12 students engage in learning engineering and how to improve engineering education by supporting the development of curriculum and the practice of teaching through research that focuses on how students engage in engineering design projects and how they develop skills and understanding related to the engineering design process.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture
• Assistant Professor, Agriculture, Food and Environment
• Division of Agriculture
• Investigator

Nicole Tichenor Blackstone is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Prior to joining the Friedman School faculty, Nicole was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to improve food system sustainability. Current and recent research projects include linking sustainability to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans; quantifying the environmental and nutritional costs of food waste; developing food waste solutions in the Northeastern US; estimating regional self-reliance and environmental impacts of livestock in Northeastern US; developing and assessing core competencies in food systems and sustainability science education. Nicole earned her Ph.D. and M.S. from the Friedman School in the Agriculture, Food, and Environment program. During her graduate training, she was the recipient of multiple fellowships, including the Switzer Environmental Leadership Fellowship. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Kansas. Nicole also has experience in food policy spanning the local to national levels, through previous work with the Douglas County Food Policy Council (KS) and National Family Farm Coalition. She is committed to collaborating across disciplines and with stakeholders to bring about transformative change in the food system. Nicole Tichenor Blackstone is an assistant professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to improve food system sustainability. Her work fuses industrial ecology, nutrition, and social science methods. Her cellular agriculture research focuses on analyzing systems' environmental and social performance, using life cycle assessment and stakeholder engagement techniques. She teaches graduate courses on U.S. agriculture, environmental life cycle assessment, and corporate social responsibility in the food industry. She holds a PhD and MS in Nutrition from Tufts University and a BA in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Kansas.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Department of Chemical
• Investigator

Nikhil (Nik) U. Nair joined Tufts in 2013 after completing a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in Microbiology and Immunobiology at the Harvard Medical School under the guidance of Ann Hochschild. He is a recipient of the 2016 NIH Director's New Innovator Award. One of the major goals of the Nair lab is to develop tools for rapid genetic engineering of non-model and emerging model microbes, with a particular focus on food-safe and probiotic bacteria and fungi. The group is also interested in factors that control proteins activity and expression in microbes. These interests will be well-aligned with the goals of the Cell Ag project by exploring the use of various microbial chassis for the production of proteins important for cell culture and food products

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor, Agriculture, Food and Environment
• Economist and Associate Professor With the Friedman School of Nutrition Science
• Economist With the Friedman School of Nutrition Science
• Investigator

Dr. Cash is an economist who conducts research both internationally and domestically on food, nutrition, agriculture and the environment. He is interested in the environmental impacts in food and beverage production, including projects on cropquality and climate change, consumer interest in production attributes of tea and coffee, and invasive species management. He also focuses on how food, nutrition, andenvironmental policies affect food consumption and choice, with specific interest in children's nutrition andconsumer interest in environmental and nutritional attributes of food. He teaches courses in statistics, agricultural and environmental economics, and consumer behavior around food. His research has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman's Own Foundation, among other agencies. He is currently Editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economicsand on the editorial board of Agribusiness, and has served as the Chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Education B.A. in International Studies, Johns Hopkins Univeristy, Baltimore, United States, 1992 M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, 1998 M.S., University of California, Berkeley, United States, 2000 Ph.D. Agricultural and Resource Economicst, University of California, Berkeley, United States, 2003 Biography Sean B. Cash is an economist with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. His research focuses on how food, nutrition, and environmental interventions and policies affect both producers and consumers. Ongoing and recent projects in this area include the efficacy of food label and price interventions as public health and environmental tools, including linkages to disease incidence; children's food choices in commercial and school environments; consumer interest in food labeling of ethical attributes of food production; economics aspects of obesity; economic barriers to adherence to diabetes treatments; the role of agricultural policies on nutrition; and how point-of-sale health messaging impacts consumers' demand for food. He also conducts research in the areas of environmental regulation and resource conservation, including projects on climate change and tea production; household valuation of water system improvements in Mexico; and invasive species management. Dr. Cash has been the Principal or Co-Investigator on over $5 million of research funding. His work has been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and Newman's Own Foundation, among other sources. Dr. Cash currently serves as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and on the editorial board of Agribusiness. He is also co-Chair of the C-FARE Blue Ribbon Panel on Consumer Concerns about Food, Health and Safety, and has previously served the Chair of the Food Safety and Nutrition section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He has been involved extensively in policy and public-facing work, including testimony to the Canadian Parliament and service on a National Academy of Sciences panel on invasive species impacts of food trade. He was previously on faculty at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of Alberta, and has worked at Resources for the Future and Arnold & Porter. Research areas: consumer behavior, economics, sustainable agriculture, food policy Sean B. Cash is an economist and Associate Professor with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. His research focuses on how food, nutrition, and environmental interventions and policies affect both producers and consumers. Ongoing and recent projects in this area include the efficacy of food label and price interventions as public health and environmental tools; children's food choices in commercial and school environments; food labeling of ethical attributes of food production; and online food retailing. He also conducts research in the areas of environmental impacts in food production, including projects on climate change and coffee tea production, and invasive species management. On the cellular agriculture project, he is leading the team looking at consumer interest in new technologies and products and contributing economic expertise to other components of the work.

Research areas: food science, cell-line development, cell differentiation, fish cell culture, crustacean cell culture, serum-free media development, bioreactor, nutrition Taehwan Lim completed his PhD in Food Science and Nutrition at Seoul National University. After graduation, he was looking for an area where he could contribute as a food scientist. At that time, he noticed that the Kaplan Lab had been working with cellular agriculture, which inspired him. He thought cellular agriculture could be a great option to solve food security and sustainability issues. His current projects focus on evaluating and developing the methods for cultured meat, including the speed-up technique for cell differentiation using food-grade compounds, lobster cell isolation, the adaptation of muscle cells to serum-free conditions, and dynamic culture.

Xinxin Li did her PhD in Food Science at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Her PhD project focused on investigating the effect of saliva (or reconstituted saliva) on the rheological and lubrication properties of biopolymers that can be used as food additives through shear rheology, extensional rheology, and tribology. She obtained her MSc in Food Technology (specialized in Sustainable Food Process Engineering) at Wageningen University and her BSc in Process and Food Technology at The Hague University of Applied Science. During her PhD study, she was a secretary and assistant in the webinar of Jiangnan University-Wageningen University and Research Future Food Cloud Series Forum. Several professors gave presentations on meat analogs, including cultivated meat and plant-based meat. Since then, she has become interested in cultivated meat research, particularly tissue engineering related to 3D scaffolding. She is working on the following projects: seeding muscle or adipose cells on cost-effective scaffolds with the target of generating tissues of muscles or fat, and establishing an in-vitro 3D culture model of the mammary gland to induce milk (proteins) production.