Joseph Vacca

Class of 2015

Education: BS in Biochemistry at Cal Poly; MS in Biological Sciences at Cal Poly

 

Biography

Joseph was interested in stem cell/ regenerative medicine because he wanted to be on the front line of medical research and up coming cures to disease. He wanted to focus on genetic and degenerative disease therapies utilizing gene therapy and stem cells. For his career he wanted to work in an industry setting, either preforming the techniques needed to stream line certain cell lines for sale, or developing new techniques to acquire the cell lines needed for research.

Joseph's intenrship was at Cytori Therapeutics in the Research and Development department under Zeni Alfonso. The clinical relevance of his projects lied in the use of adipose derived regenerative cells in the improved healing of burn patients. He categorized the biologics of the burn tissue using various assays, flow, and imaging techniques in order to improve their understanding and methods of treatment.

After graduating, Joseph obtained a position as a research associate at Grifols.