Christopher Frewin
Dr. Christopher L. Frewin is a National Institute of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida. He began as materials scientist. He designed and generated a chemical vapor deposition reactor for the heteroepitaxial growth of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC). He used the AFM at Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany to evaluate topographic changes in the etched surfaces of SiC. He employed AFM techniques to characterize his 3C-SiC crystals grown in the CVD reactor. During his Ph.D. candidacy, he switched focus from materials science to bioengineering by characterizing the in vitro biocompatibility of 3C-SiC and diamond to neural cells. The key of this investigation centered on living cell AFM measurements which were used to assess cellular lamellipodia/ filopodia permissiveness. Currently he is developing 3C-SiC implantable neural prosthetics for brain machine interface devices.