Isobelle Espiritu

Class of 2020

Education: Blended BS + MS Biomedical Engineering at Cal Poly

 

Biography

Isobelle became interested in stem cell research because of its immense potential to treat diseases at their source rather than only treating the symptoms. She believes that as the field of regenerative medicine continues to progress, it will push past the limitations of modern treatments and devices to improve patients’ quality of life. Isobelle is mainly interested in applying stem cell therapies to treat cancer or neurodegenerative diseases. After completing the program, she hopes to contribute to the field through research in either a public or private sector.

Isobelle completed her internship with the Process Development team at Viacyte under Dr. Alan Agulnick and Dr. Sebastian Rieck. With Viacyte's stem cell-derived cell therapy in clinical trials, it is essential to determine how the company will produce enough cells for eventual commercialization. Isobelle's project focused on scaling up production of Viacyte's embryonic stem cell line prior to the differentiation process. This involved transitioning the current expansion process from traditional monolayer culture to suspension culture in scalable bioreactors. Isobelle assisted in designing and executing experiments to define the optimal conditions for stem cell expansion in a scalable bioreactor system.