Current Research

TBA

Ph.D. Work

Suspension culture of bone marrow-derived adult mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells with multi-differentiation potential.

Despite the growing interest in mesenchymal stem cells for their use in cell-based therapy strategies, there is still not a well-defined protocol for the isolation and expansion of such cells in culture of the putative mesenchymal stem cell that maintain differentiation potential. It is hypothesized in this Ph.D. work that adult human bone marrow comprises a stem/progenitor cell population that can survive and be expanded in a substrate-independent in manner while maintaining the potential to form at least one differentiated mesenchymal phenotype.

Previous Research

Previous research interests involved comparing 3-dimensional calcium phosphate scaffolds for candidate bone tissue engineering constructs.

Awards and Scholarships

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Council Scholarship

Publications

L. Song, D. Baksh, and R. S. Tuan, "Mesenchymal stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering: cells, scaffold and biology," Cytotherapy, vol. 6, pp. 596-601, 2004.

D. Baksh, L. Song, and R. S. Tuan, "Adult mesenchymal stem cells: characterization, differentiation, and application in cell and gene therapy," Journal of cellular and molecular medicine, vol. 8, pp. 301-316, 2004.

D. Baksh, J. E. Davies, and P. W. Zandstra, "Adult human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells are capable of adhesion-independent survival and expansion", Experimental Hematology, vol. 31, pp. 723-732, 2003.

D. Baksh and J. E. Davies, "Design strategies for 3-dimensional in vitro bone growth in tissue-engineering scaffolds, in Bone Engineering J. E. Davies, Toronto: em squared Inc., 2000, pp. 488-495.

D. Baksh, J. E. Davies, and S. Kim, "Three dimensional matrices of calcium polyphosphate support bone growth in vitro and in vivo," Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, vol. 9, pp. 743-748, 1998.

Abstracts

D. Baksh, P. W. Zandstra, and J. E. Davies, "Adult human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells capable of adhesion-independent survival and expansion," 49th Annual Meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society, New Orleans, LA, USA, Feb. 2-5, 2003.

D. Baksh, P. W. Zandstra, and J. E. Davies, "Adult human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells capable of adhesion-independent survival and expansion, 5th International Meeting of the Tissue Engineering Society International, Kobe, Japan, Dec. 8-12, 2003.

Personal Interests

Scrapbooking, running and cycling.