Ben Cosgrove

Associate Professor
Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering

Biography

Ben Cosgrove is an Assistant Professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he directs the Laboratory of Regenerative Systems Biology. His research group develops and implements systems bioengineering approaches to study the transcriptional and signaling network dysregulations underlying the decline of muscle stem cell function and tissue regeneration in aging and disease.

The Cosgrove Laboratory is a group of biomedical engineers, stem cell biologists, and systems biologists that are broadly interested in understanding how muscle stem cells use the integrative action of their regulatory circuitry to interpret and balance diverse streams of microenvironmental “information”. They explore these questions by: (1) Developing single-cell analysis and modeling approaches to deconstruct how muscle stem cell fate outcomes are dictated by diverse niche microenvironmental signals; (2) Elucidating the logic of autocrine and paracrine signaling networks influencing muscle stem cells fate decisions in homeostatic and regenerating muscle; and (3) Engineering biomimetic microenvironments for evaluating stem cell-niche interactions and exploiting them for cell manufacturing application. These approaches will enable the improvement of rationally designed, quantitatively predicable stem cell-targeted regenerative medicine therapies to treat tissue aging and degeneration. Visit the Cosgrove Lab website for more information.

Dr. Cosgrove earned a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Lauffenburger and Dr. Linda Griffith, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine with Dr. Helen Blau. His research has been supported by a Whitaker Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars Fellowship, multiple NIH Awards (K99/R00, R01, and two R21 Grants), and a Glenn Medical Research Foundation/American Federation for Aging Research Grant for Junior Faculty. His research has been recognized by a Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Graduate Research Award (2008), a Rising Star Award from the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group of BMES (2015), and a Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Award (2017). His instruction has received a Swanson Teaching Excellence Award (2019) from the Cornell University College of Engineering.

Research Interests

Selected Publications

McKellar DW, Walter LD, Song LT, Mantri M, Wang MFZ, De Vlaminck I, Cosgrove BD. (2020) “Strength in numbers: Large-scale integration of single-cell transcriptomic data reveals rare, transient muscle progenitor cell states in muscle regeneration.” bioRxiv 2020.12.01.407460.
Loiben AM*, Kim KH*, Soueid-Baumgarten SY*, Aguilar VM*, Chin Cheong J, Kopyto RF, Fraczek P, Fong EHH, Mangal R, Archer LA, Cosgrove BD. (2020) “Long-term high-yield skeletal muscle stem cell expansion through staged perturbation of cytokine signaling in a soft hydrogel culture platform.” bioRxiv 2020.06.04.134056.
De Micheli AJ, Spector JA, Elemento O, Cosgrove BD. (2020) “A reference single-cell transcriptomic atlas of human skeletal muscle tissue reveals bifurcated muscle stem cell populations.” Skeletal Muscle 10:19.
De Micheli AJ, Laurilliard EJ, Heinke CL, Ravichandran H, Fraczek P, Soueid-Baumgarten S, De Vlaminck I, Elemento O, Cosgrove BD. (2020) “Single-cell analysis of the muscle stem cell hierarchy identifies heterotypic communication signals involved in skeletal muscle regeneration.” Cell Reports 30:10, P3583-3595.E5.
Loiben AM, Soueid-Baumgarten S, Kopyto RF, Bhattacharya D, Kim JC, Cosgrove BD. (2017) “Data-modeling identifies conflicting signaling axes governing myoblast proliferation and differentiation responses to diverse ligand stimuli.” Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering 10(5): 433-450.

Selected Awards and Honors

Rising Star Award (Biomedical Engineering Society, Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering SIG) 2015
Pathway to Independence Award (NIH) 2012
Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship 2009
Biomedical Engineering Society Graduate Research Award 2008
Whitaker Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering 2003

Education

B.Eng. (Biomedical Engineering), University of Minnesota, 2003
Ph.D. (Bioengineering), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009