Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Stoppel Lab
Led by Whitney Stoppel · Chemical Engineering
What we study
The Stoppel Lab engineers biomaterials like silk for healthcare and medicine, focusing on protein-based solutions for tissue repair and drug delivery. They study how these materials change over time and how to make them tunable for different uses.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Computational
- Wild animals
- Cells in a dish
- Other insects
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 8
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Chemical crosslinking density and linker length tune time-dependent silk fibroin hydrogel mechanical properties
The lab varied chemical crosslinker length and density in silk protein hydrogels to control how quickly they stiffen over two weeks, measuring storage and elastic moduli and stress‑relaxation. The student prepared the hydrogels and performed the mechanical tests.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 554
Enhancing CRISPR-Cas9 Homology Directed Repair in IAL-PiD2 Insect Cells
The project tests how well CRISPR/Cas9 can insert a green fluorescent protein into insect cells called IAL‑PiD2. It compares different transfection reagents and homology arm lengths, finding that a 500‑base‑pair arm works better. Future work will try different Cas9/guide RNA ratios and cell‑cycle timing.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 480
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Aligned Silk Fibroin Scaffolds as an in vitro Skeletal Muscle Tissue Model
The lab makes 3D silk scaffolds that mimic muscle tissue. They boil silk cocoons, remove sericin, dissolve the fibers, freeze them directionally, and seed skeletal muscle cells. Future work will measure cell types and mechanical strength.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 431
Silk nanoparticles: A comparison of fabrication techniques for drug delivery
The lab makes tiny silk particles from two types of silk using either polyvinyl alcohol phase separation or acetone precipitation, then measures their size, shape and charge and tests loading of small molecules like curcumin and doxorubicin.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 356
Silk Fibroin Long-Term Mechanical Performance as Anisotropic Sponges for Engineered Skeletal Muscle Tissue
The lab makes silk‑based sponges that mimic muscle stiffness. Students test how the sponge’s structure changes over time and grow muscle cells inside them to see how the cells grow and connect.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 139
Evaluating the Synthesis of Granular Silk Fibroin Scaffolds for Applications in Tissue Engineering
The lab creates silk‑based scaffolds that slowly release growth factors and allow cells to grow inside. They test how the scaffolds break down in enzymes and how they affect immune cells to improve tissue repair.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 115
Magnetic Particle Imaging of Silk Fibroin Nanoparticles for Bioactive Components
The team mixed tiny magnetic particles into silk‑based nanoparticles and tested how well they can be seen with a special scanner, setting up methods for future medical imaging and drug delivery studies.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 38
Examining Methods to Decellularize Axolotl Tissues
The student compares three chemical methods for removing cells from axolotl heart, lung, skin and connective tissue and evaluates how well the tissue structure is preserved using microscopy and staining.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 15
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Evolution of Highly Repetitive Silk Genes in the Luna Moth, Actias luna
2026 · Genome Biology and Evolution
Studies how gene duplication affects silk protein evolution in the luna moth.
- Mechanical and structural responses of silk fibroin scaffolds to MechanoCulture T6® bioreactor loading and enzymatic degradation
2026 · Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials/Journal of mechanical behavior of biomedical materials
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- Fetal Cardiac Extracellular Matrix Incorporated Into Silk Scaffolds Leads to Beneficial Cardiovascular Patch Remodeling in a Large Animal Model of RVOT Surgical Repair
2026 · Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B Applied Biomaterials
Tests whether fetal heart tissue in silk patches improves healing after heart surgery in pigs.
- Protein Sequence and Structural Diversity in Plodia interpunctella Silk Governs Microparticle Function and Macrophage Response
2026 · Biomacromolecules
Tests how silk protein structure affects microparticle function and immune cell response.
- Tuning hydrogel properties and Schwann cell behavior through microchannel size control in magnetically templated hydrogels
2026 · Biomaterials Science
Makes tiny channels in hydrogels to guide nerve cell growth and behavior.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Whitney Stoppel hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Whitney Stoppel”).