Tim Hammond, M.B.,B.S.  is a co-founder of Cell Spinpod LLC. 

 

He received his medical degree at the University of Melbourne in Australia and was a fellow at Harvard University. 

 

He is a practicing nephrologist in the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham and is a Professor at Duke University School of Medicine in the USA. 

 

Tim has flown over 25 payload experiments in space and was one of the first users of the low-shear suspension culture technology as embodied in the rotating wall vessel developed by NASA.  He was one of the co-inventors on a patent for this technology to the production of biomolecules.

 

Several companies, including SE Johnson Wax and Rejuvel, licensed the technology, but currently available commercial options are expensive and difficult to use.  As a result, few researchers have embraced the technology and its ability to support and maintain differentiated cells in vitro has not been fully exploited.  

 

Cell Spinpod now produces small, inexpensive vessels that make low-shear suspension culture technology cost-effective, easy to use, and simple to automate.   This zero-headspace low shear technology increase the fidelity of in vitro cell models by providing fluid shear flow to optimize differentiation and improve drug toxicity testing.