UMass Amherst

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Manuscripts Published (* indicates corresponding author)

  1. Kolewe, M., Gaurav, V., and Roberts*, S.C. (2008) “Pharmaceutically-active natural product synthesis and supply via plant cell culture technology,” Molecular Pharmaceutics, 5(2): 243-256.
  2. Chin, K., Khattak, S., Bhatia, S., and Roberts*, S.C. (2008) “Hydrogel-perfluorocarbon composite scaffold promotes oxygen transport to immobilized cells,” Biotechnology Progress, 24, 358-366.
  3. Roberts*, S.C. (2007) “Production and engineering of terpenoids from plant cell cultures,” Nature Chemical Biology, 3, 387-395.
  4. Vongpaseuth, K., Nims, E., StAmand, M., Walker, E.L., and Roberts*, S.C. (2007) “Development of a par-ticle bombardment-mediated transient transformation system for Taxus spp. cells in culture,” Biotechnology Progress, 23. 1180-1185.
  5. Khattak, S.F., Chin, K.S., Bhatia, S.R., and Roberts*, S.C. (2007) “Enhancing oxygen tension and cellular function in alginate cell encapsulation devices through the use of perfluorocarbons,” Biotechnology and Bio-engineering, 96: 156-166.
  6. Vongpaseuth, K., and Roberts*, S.C. (2007) “Advancements in the understanding of paclitaxel metabolism in tissue culture,” Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 8, 219-236.
  7. McEntee, M.K.E., Bhatia, S.K., Tao, L., Roberts, S.C., and Bhatia*, S.R. (2007) “Tunable transport of glu-cose through ionically-crosslinked alginate gels: Effect of alginate and calcium concentration,” Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 107, 2956-2962.
  8. Nims, E., Dubois, C.P., Roberts*, S.C., and Walker, E.L. (2006) “Expression profiling of genes involved in paclitaxel biosynthesis for targeted metabolic engineering,” Metabolic Engineering, 8: 385-394.
  9. Naill, M., and Roberts*, S.C. (2006) “Culture of isolated single cells from Taxus suspensions for the propa-gation of superior cell populations,” Biotechnology Letters, 27(21): 1725-1730.
  10. Khattak, S., Spatara, M., Roberts, L., and Roberts*, S.C. (2006) “Application of colorimetric assays to assess viability, growth and metabolism of hydrogel-encapsulated cells,” Biotechnology Letters, 28(17): 1361-1370.
  11. Naill, M., and Roberts*, S.C. (2005) “Cell cycle analysis of Taxus suspension cultures at the single cell level as an indicator of culture heterogeneity,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 90(4): 491-500.
  12. Naill, M., and Roberts*, S.C. (2005) “Flow cytometric identification of paclitaxel accumulating subpopula-tions,” Biotechnology Progress, 21: 978-9834.
  13. Khattak, S., Bhatia, S.R., and Roberts*, S.C. (2005) “Pluronic F127 as a cell encapsulation material: Utili-zation of membrane stabilizing agents,” Tissue Engineering, 11(5-6): 974-983.
  14. Bhatia*, S.R., Khattak, S., and Roberts, S.C. (2005) “Polyelectrolytes for cell encapsulation,” Current Opi-nion in Colloid and Interface Science, 10: 45-51.
  15. Agrawal, S.K., Chin, K.S., Sanabria-Delong, N., Aamer, K.A., Sardinha, H., Tew, G.N., Roberts, S.C., and Bhatia*, S.R. (2005) “Rheology and biocompatibility of Poly(lactide)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(lactide) hy-drogels,” MRS Symp. Proc. v. 844 – Mechanical Properties of Bio-Inspired and Biological Materials, Y9.8.1-Y.9.8.6.
  16. Roberts*, S. (2005) “A successful introduction to chemical engineering first-semester course focusing on connection, communication and preparation” Chemical Engineering Education, summer 2005: 222-227.
  17. Naill, M., and Roberts*, S.C (2005) “Flow cytometric analysis of protein content in Taxus protoplasts and single cells as compared to aggregated suspension cultures,” Plant Cell Reports, 23(8): 528-533.
  18. Naill, M., and Roberts*, S.C. (2004) “Preparation of single cells from aggregated Taxus suspension cultures for population analysis,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 86(7): 817-826.
  19. McAuliffe, G., Roberts, L.A., and Roberts*, S. (2003) “The influence of environmental conditions on the encapsulation of HepG2 liver cells in alginate,” JURIBE, 3(1): 70-75.
  20. Roberts*, S., Naill, M., Gibson, D., and Shuler, M. (2003) “A simple method for enhancing paclitaxel release from Taxus canadensis cell suspension cultures utilizing cell wall digesting enzymes,” Plant Cell Reports 21: 1217-1220.
  21. McAuliffe, G., Roberts, L., and Roberts*, S. (2002) “Paclitaxel administration and its effects on clinically relevant human cancer and noncancer cell lines,” Biotechnology Letters 24: 959-964.
  22. Matthew, J., Nazario, Y., Roberts, S., and Bhatia*, S. (2002) “Effect of mammalian cell culture medium on the gelation properties of PluronicF127,” Biomaterials 23: 4615-4619.
  23. Roberts, S., and Shuler*, M. (1998) “Strategies for Bioproduct Optimization in Plant Cell Tissue Cultures”, pp. 483-492. In: O. Zaborsky (ed.), BioHydrogen, Plenum Press, New York.
  24. Roberts, S., and Shuler*, M. (1997). “Large-scale plant cell culture,” Current Opinion in Biotechnology 8:154-159.
  25. Srinivasan, V., Roberts, S., and Shuler*, M. (1997) "Combined use of six-well polystyrene plates and thin layer chromatography for rapid development of optimal plant cell culture processes: Application to taxane production by Taxus sp.," Plant Cell Reports 16(9): 600-604.
  26. Pestchanker, L., Roberts, S., and Shuler*, M. (1996) "Kinetics of Taxol production and nutrient use in sus-pension cultures of Taxus cuspidata in shake flasks and in a Wilson-type bioreactor," Enzyme and Microbial Technology 19: 256-260.
  27. Srinivasan, V., Pestchanker, L., Moser (Roberts), S., Hirasuna, T., Taticek, R., and Shuler*, M. (1995) "Tax-ol production in bioreactors: Kinetics of biomass accumulation, nutrient uptake, and Taxol production by cell suspensions of Taxus baccata," Biotechnology and Bioengineering 47: 666-676.

 

Non-reviewed Published Abstracts and Proceedings

  1. Roberts, S., Passonno, S., and Bhatia, S. (2009) “Interdisciplinary Training in Cellular Engineering at UMass Amherst: The Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE) REU Summer Site,” Proceedings of the IEEE: 35th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, in press.
  2. Passonno, S., Bhatia, S., and Roberts, S. (2009) “Interdisciplinary Training in Cellular Engineering at UMass Amherst: The Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE) IGERT Program at UMass Amherst,” Proceedings of the IEEE: 35th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, in press.
  3. Matthew, J., Bhatia, S. and Roberts, S. (2002) “Pluronic F127 gels as materials for mammalian cell encapsu-lation,” Polymer Preprints, 43(2): 769-770.
  4. Roberts, S., Roberts, L.A., and McAuliffe, G. (2001) “Paclitaxel metabolism by clinically relevant cell lines and its effects on cell metabolism in vitro,” FASEB, 15(5): A919-A919, Part 2.
  5. Roberts, S., and Fisher, R. (2000) “The role of transport phenomena on efficacy, stability and hysteresis in encapsulated cellular systems,” Proceedings of the IEEE 26th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, April 8-9: 21-22.
  6. Roberts, S. (2000) “A successful introduction to chemical engineering first-semester course focusing on con-nection, communication and preparation,” pp. 406-411. In: Millennium Topical Conference Proceedings from the AIChE Annual Meeting 2000, Session T3009: Chemical Engineering in the Lower Levels.
  7. Fisher, R., Roberts, S., Peattie, R, and Bronzino, J. (2000) “Characterization of a spinning cone contactor as a tissue engineering bioreactor,” Annals of Biomedical Engineering, T12.38: S-123.
  8. Fisher, R., Roberts, S., and Peattie, R. (2000) “Controlling tissue microenvironments with encapsulating membranes: Efficacy, stability and hysteresis,” Annals of Biomedical Engineering, T12.39: S-123.
  9. Fisher, R., Weiss, R., Roberts, S., Peattie, R., and Bronzino, J. (2000) “Evaluating encapsulation hydrogels for tissue engineering applications: Transport and property characterization studies,” Annals of Biomedical Engineering, T2.58: S-23.
  10. Roberts, S., Fisher, R, and Roberts, L. (2000) “Development of an in vitro cell culture system for the study of drug metabolism using encapsulation technologies: Paclitaxel as a model drug,” Annals of Biomedical Engi-neering, T7.19: S-82.
  11. Ghanem, A., and Roberts, S. (1999) “Group self-assessment surveys as a tool to improve teamwork,” 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 11a2: 24.
  12. Roberts, S., Hollar, K., and V. Carlson (1997). “Looking back: Lessons learned from ten years of training teaching assistants,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference.

 

Invited Talks and Seminars

  1. Bioactives: New Production Technologies, ACS National Meeting (August 2009)
  2. Path of Professorship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (October 2008)
  3. The Coulter Principle: Foundations and Advanced Applications, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (Oc-tober 2008)
  4. Optimizing Cell Culture Development, Cambridge Healthcare Institute, Boston, MA (September 2008)
  5. Bioorganic Chemistry Gordon Conference, Andover, NH (June 2008)
  6. Preparing STEM Workforce for the Commonwealth, UMass Amherst (June 2008)
  7. UMass Amherst, Medical Device Conference, Polymer Science & Engineering (May 2008)
  8. University of Delaware, Chemistry-Biology Interface Program (September 2007)
  9. Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering (April 2007)
  10. Mt. Holyoke College, Leadership and Career Conference (February 2006)
  11. UMass Amherst, Third Annual Symposium in Plant Biology (October 2005)
  12. UMass Amherst, First Annual Cellular Engineering Symposium (May 2005)
  13. Exelixis Plant Sciences, Portland, OR (February 2005)
  14. Interagency Conference on Metabolic Engineering, Interagency Metabolic Engineering Working Group (NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, USDA, NIST, NASA, EPA), National Science Foundation (February 2005)
  15. Texas A&M University, Department of Chemical Engineering (December 2004)
  16. UMass Amherst, Department of Exercise Science (April 2004)
  17. UMass Amherst, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences (March 2004)
  18. UMass Amherst-UCSB, Process Design Center Consortium, Santa Barbara, CA (June 2003)
  19. Biophex 2002 Conference and Exhibition for Biopharmaceutical R&D, Processing & Manufacturing (Octo-ber 2002)
  20. UMass Amherst, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, CUMIRP Meeting (May 2002)
  21. Syracuse University, Department of Chemical Engineering (April 2002)
  22. University of Delaware, Department of Chemical Engineering (February 2002)
  23. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, AIChE meeting (March 2001)
  24. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Department of Biotechnology (November 2000)
  25. UMass Amherst, Department of Chemistry (September 2000)
  26. UMass Medical Center, Worcester, MA (April 2000)
  27. Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA (December 1999)
  28. UMass Amherst, Plant Biology Graduate Program (September 1998)
  29. Cereon Genomics, Cambridge, MA (March 1998)

 

National/International Meetings and Conferences

  1. Gaurav, V. (speaker), and Roberts, S.C. “Diterpenoid bio-synthesis in plant cells: Assay development, opti-mization and quantification” ACS National Meeting (2009), Division of Organic Chemistry, Session on Bio-logically-Related Molecules and Processes, Salt Lake City, UT.
  2. Gaurav V. (speaker), and Roberts S. C. “Development of a live cell-based immunofluorescent assay for the detection of pharmaceutically-relevant secondary metabolites in plant cells” ACS National Meeting (2009), Salt Lake City, UT (poster).
  3. Kolewe, M. (speaker), Henson, M.A., and Roberts, S.C. “Aggregation dynamics in plant cell culture” Ad-vances in Cell Culture II, paper 263b, AIChE Annual Meeting (2008), Philadelphia, PA
  4. Gaurav, V. (speaker), Patil, R., and Roberts, S.C. “A FACS-based approach to characterizing culture hetero-geneity based on accumulation of the anti-cancer agent pacliaxel in plant cell suspension cultures” Engineer-ing Fundamentals in Life Sciences, paper 572bf, AIChE Annual Meeting (2008), Philadelphia, PA.
  5. Roberts, S.C (speaker), and Roberts, L.A. “A novel interdisciplinary biotechnology process engineering la-boratory course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst” Truly Interdisciplinary Activities, paper 516b, AIChE Annual Meeting (2008), Philadelphia, PA.
  6. Vongaseuth, K. (speaker), Nims, E., Walker, E., and Roberts, S. “Novel systems for functional characteriza-tion of Taxus genes related to paclitaxel metabolism in plant cell culture” Banff Conference for Plant Meta-bolism (2008), Alberta, Canada (note: first place in poster competition).
  7. Vongpaseuth, K. (speaker), Nims, E., Walker, E., and Roberts, S. “Development of a novel gene characteri-zation system for paclitaxel-related genes” Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Conference (2007), Tilton, NH (poster).
  8. Nims, E. (speaker), Dubois, C., Roberts, S., and Walker, E. “Regulation of Taxol metabolism in suspension cell culture” Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Conference (2007), Tilton, NH.
  9. Nims, E. (speaker), Dubois, C., Roberts, S., and Walker, E. “Regulation of Taxol metabolism in suspension cell culture” New England American Society of Plant Biologists (2007), Syracuse, NY (poster).
  10. Chin, K. (speaker), Bhatia, S., and Roberts, S. “Perfluorocarbons for enhanced oxygen transport in tissue en-gineering devices” paper 191e, AIChE Annual Meeting (2005), Cincinnati, OH.
  11. Roberts, S. (speaker), Nims, E., Dubois, C., Boutaoui, N., Vongpaseuth, K., and Walker, E. “Molecular ap-proaches for identification of metabolic engineering targets for enhanced paclitaxel accumulation” paper 196f, AIChE Annual Meeting (2005), Cincinnati, OH.
  12. Nims, E., Boutaoui, N., Dubois, C., Roberts, S., and Walker, E. (speaker) “Expression profiling of genes in-volved in biosynthesis of paclitaxel” American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting (2005), Seattle, WA.
  13. Nims, E. (speaker), Boutaoui, N., Dubois, C., Roberts, S., and Walker, E. “Expression profiling of genes in-volved in biosynthesis of paclitaxel,” Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Conference (2005), Tilton, NH (poster).
  14. Naill, M. (speaker), Nims, E., Walker, E., and Roberts, S. “Metabolic control of taxane accumulation at the mRNA level” paper 479b, AIChE Annual Meeting (2004), Austin, TX.
  15. Khattak, S. (speaker), Chin, K., Bhatia, S., and Roberts, S. “Improved oxygen supply in cell encapsulation systems” paper 463g, AIChE Annual Meeting (2004), Austin, TX.
  16. McPartland, T, Malone, M. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Liquid-liquid extraction for recovery of paclitaxel from plant cell culture: Solvent evaluation for partitioning and selectivity and the utilization of reactive agents” paper 464f, AIChE Annual Meeting (2004), Austin, TX.
  17. Dubois, C. (speaker), Esclassan, J., and Roberts, S. “Paclitaxel stability and conversion through metabolite analysis in Taxus cell suspension cultures” paper 87, Third International Congress on Plant Metabolomics (2004), Ames, Iowa (poster).
  18. Naill, M. (speaker), Nims, E., Walker, E., and Roberts, S. “Correlation of metabolite profiling and gene ex-pression in paclitaxel-accumulating Taxus cell suspension cultures” paper 88, Third International Congress on Plant Metabolomics (2004), Ames, Iowa (poster).
  19. Khattak, S. (speaker), Spatara, M, Bhatia, S., and Roberts, S. “Perfluorocarbon oxygen carriers in cell encap-sulation” paper 384a, AIChE Annual Meeting (2003), San Francisco, California.
  20. Naill, M. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Flow cytometric analysis of Taxus cell suspension cultures” paper 469c, AIChE Annual Meeting (2003), San Francisco, California.
  21. Naill, M. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Investigating cell subpopulation dynamics of Taxus cell suspension cul-tures: A single cell method” paper 383, ACS Annual Meeting (2003), New Orleans, Louisiana.
  22. Khattak, S. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Designing an in vitro cell culture model to predict drug pharmacoki-netics and stability” paper 12, ACS Annual Meeting (2003), New Orleans, Louisiana.
  23. Matthew, J., Bhatia, S., and Roberts, S. (speaker) “PEO-PPO-PEO gels as materials for mammalian cell en-capsulation” paper 298a, AIChE Annual Meeting (2002), Indianapolis, Indiana.
  24. Roberts, S. (speaker) “Initiatives to establish bioengineering and bioinformatics at the University of Massa-chusetts” paper 165c, AIChE Annual Meeting (2002), Indianapolis, Indiana.
  25. Roberts, S., Laurence, R., and Conner, W. (speaker) “Unit operations laboratory: A moveable feast” paper 166a, AIChE Annual Meeting (2002), Indianapolis, Indiana.
  26. Naill, M. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Characterization of plant cell culture variability via flow cytometry” paper 304a, AIChE Annual Meeting (2001), Reno, Nevada.
  27. Bhatia, S. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Development of communication skills in beginning engineering stu-dents” paper 222c, AIChE Annual Meeting (2001), Reno, Nevada.
  28. Esclassan, J., Naill, M. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Paclitaxel stability in plant cell suspension cultures” paper 300ak, AIChE Annual Meeting (2001), Reno, Nevada (poster).
  29. McAuliffe, G. (speaker), Roberts, L., and Roberts, S. “Development of an in vitro system to study the effects of the anti-cancer drug Taxol on mammalian cell cultures” paper 300aj, AIChE Annual Meeting (2001), Re-no, Nevada (poster).
  30. Lovy Wheeler, A. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “The study of Taxol trafficking and release using TEM and flu-orescence microscopy” Northeast Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists, Worcester Polytech-nic Institute (May 4-5, 2001), Worcester, Massachusetts (poster).
  31. Esclassan, J. (speaker), Michon, J., and Roberts, S. “Study of the taxane biosynthetic pathway and the degra-dation of paclitaxel in plant cell suspension cultures” Northeast Section of the American Society of Plant Bi-ologists, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (May 4-5, 2001), Worcester, Massachusetts (poster).
  32. Roberts, S. (speaker), McAuliffe, G., Fisher, R., and Roberts, L. “Paclitaxel metabolism by clinically relevant cell lines and its effects on cell metabolism in vitro” paper 713.8, Experimental Biology Annual Meeting (2001), Orlando, Florida (poster).
  33. Roberts, S. (speaker) “A successful introduction to chemical engineering first-semester course focusing on connection, communication and preparation” paper 62e, AIChE Annual Meeting (2000), Los Angeles, Cali-fornia; proceedings available.
  34. Naill, M., and Roberts, S. (speaker) “Variability in paclitaxel accumulation in Taxus cell suspension cul-tures” paper 295b, AIChE Annual Meeting (2000), Los Angeles, California.
  35. Roberts, S. (speaker), Fisher, R., and Roberts, L. “Development of an in vitro cell culture system for the study of drug metabolism using encapsulation technologies: Paclitaxel as a model drug” BMES Annual Meeting (2000), Seattle, Washington; published abstract, Annals Biomedical Engineering, T7.19.
  36. Fisher, R., Roberts, S., Peattie, R. (speaker), and Bronzino, J. “Characterization of a spinning cone contactor as a tissue engineering bioreactor” BMES Annual Meeting (2000), Seattle, Washington; published abstract, Annals Biomedical Engineering, T12.38.
  37. Roberts, S. (speaker), and Fisher, R. “Efficacy, stability and hysteresis in encapsulated cellular systems” IEEE Northeast Regional Biomedical Engineering Conference (2000), Storrs, Connecticut; proceedings available.
  38. Ghanem, A. (speaker), and Roberts, S. “Group self-assessment surveys as a tool to improve teamwork” Fron-tiers in Engineering Annual Conference (1999), San Juan, Puerto Rico; proceedings available.
  39. Roberts, S. (speaker) “Development of experimental and mathematical techniques for the characterization of the biosynthetic pathways of valuable plant products” Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc. (1999), Washington D.C. (poster).
  40. Roberts, S. (speaker), and Shuler, M. “Characterization of Taxol release from plant cell tissue cultures” IEEE Northeast Regional Biomedical Engineering Conference (1999), Hartford, Connecticut.
  41. Roberts, S. (speaker), Brincat, M., Gibson, D., and Shuler, M. “The study of secondary metabolite biosyn-thetic pathways in plant cell tissue cultures: Paclitaxel as a model compound” paper 267d, AIChE Annual Meeting (1998), Miami Beach, Florida.
  42. Roberts, S. (speaker), and Shuler, M. “The effect of methyl jasmonate on the kinetics of paclitaxel produc-tion, taxane distribution, and degradation in plant cell cultures” AIChE Annual Meeting (1997), Los Angeles, California.
  43. Roberts, S. (speaker), and Shuler, M. “Strategies for bioproduct optimization in plant cell tissue cultures” Biohydrogen Conference (June 1997), Kona, Hawaii.
  44. Roberts, S. (speaker), Hollar, K., and Carlson, V. “Looking back: Lessons learned from 10 years of training teaching assistants” ASEE Annual Meeting (1997), Milwaukee, Wisconsin; proceedings available.
  45. Roberts, S. (speaker), and Shuler, M. “Formulation of a metabolic model for the fate of Taxol after synthesis in plant cell cultures” paper 158g, AIChE Annual Meeting (1996), Chicago, Illinois.