David Simpson

Dr. David Simpson is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Engineering program at Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT). Prior to joining WIT, he was the Associate Director for the Veterinary Institute for Regenerative Cures, Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory and an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Davis. While at UC Davis, Dr. Simpson help to build the stem cell program at the School of Veterinary Medicine and taught classes in regenerative medicine. Before joining UC Davis, he was a Senior Scientist with Capricor Therapeutics and assisted in leading research and development strategies for the company’s therapeutic pipeline. As a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Maryland-Baltimore he led investigations in the use of pediatric-derived cardiac progenitor cells for cardiac repair, epigenetic characterization of cardiac progenitor cells and the tissue engineering of cardiac structures using autologous cell sources. He earned his PhD from the joint Biomedical Engineering program at Georgia Tech and Emory University. During this time, Dr. Simpson successfully developed tissue engineering strategies to enhance stem cell delivery to cardiac tissue, determined the regenerative potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived from pluripotent sources and characterized the stress response of MSCs in three-dimensional culture. His current research centers on stem cell biotechnology and cardiac tissue engineering and has been featured in top tier journals including Circulation, Stem Cells and Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Courses taught: ENGR1500 Introduction to Engineering Design, BIOE2100 Biostatistics for Bioengineers, BIOE3500 Genetics and Transgenics, BIOE3025 Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, BIOE4000 Cell Physiology and Signaling, BIOE4500 Biotransport Phenomena, ENGR 5000/5500 Engineering Senior Design I/II

My Work: At Wentworth Institute of Technology, Dr. Simpson is building an undergraduate research program centered on the development of biological models in regenerative medicine using microsystem and high-throughput platforms. The goal is to develop models that can be used to understand therapeutic mechanism of action, used for drug discovery and used to predict patient response to regenerative medicine therapeutics.