Plopper Lab Personnel

Principle Investigator

George E. Plopper, Ph.D. Harvard University, 1993
Most commonly heard to say: "Do me a favor: email me, to remind me."

I came to RPI in 2001, after spending four years as an Assistant Professor at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in both the Biology Department as well as in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2006. I currently teach Introductory Cell and Developmental Biology, and Biology and Engineering of the Extracellular Matrix (with Dr. Jan Stegemann). I also have the honor of serving as the faculty advisor to the Theta Eta chapter of the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society (aka TriBeta). Students in the lab take research credits or reading courses as appropriate.

Research techniques that we use regularly in this lab include mammalian and bacterial cell culture, cell adhesion and migration assays, immunofluorecence microscopy, immunoprecipitation, western blotting, protein kinase assays, standard recombinant DNA techniques, qRT-PCR, and cell transfection. Students who work in the lab spend at least one year here, and are exposed to most of these techniques. Our goal is to produce critical thinkers broadly trained in cell and molecular biology techniques.

Graduate Student

Amanda Lund, RPI class of '06.

Amanda is one of the first two students admitted into RPI's combined B.S./Ph.D. program in Biology. She formally entered the Ph.D. program in Spring 2006. Her project is focused on encapsulating mesenchymal stem cells in three-dimensional "beads" of extracellular matrix proteins and then inducing these "beads" to differentiate into osteoblasts. She is working closely with Dr. Jan Stegemann in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, who developed the bead coating method. She is also a top-notch athelete, having served as goalie of the RPI Women's field hockey team during her undergraduate years here. Now she is an Assistant Coach for the team.

Graduate Student

Tiffany Miller, M.S., Medical College of Ohio, 2006.

Tiffany entered the Ph.D. program at RPI with considerable experience, having earned her Masters degree in Ohio,
and she has taken on two projects! In one, she is examining the control of connexin protein expression in stem cells
exposed to defined ECM substrates. In the second, she is examining the effects of boric acid and its derivatives on
the chemotactic migration of prostate and breast cancer cells.

She is also engaged to be married in 2008!

Undergraduate Student

Erika Sadeghi, RPI class of 2010

Erika was a standout student in my Introduction to Cell & Molecular Biology course, and is now working with both Tiffany and Amanda to learn basic cell biology methods. She has yet to identify a specific project to work on.

Last updated: Wednesday, September 26, 2007