Dr. Albert Banes, P.h.D

Dr. Banes started his science career with a P.h.D in Microbiology from the Medical College of Virginia. He completed his Post-Doctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University in the Microbiology and Immunology Departments. He has over 45 years of academic research and biotech business experience. Dr. Banes’ theory that cells should be exercised in culture, not only grown on static substrates, pushed him to create a product offering for other researchers to observe how cells respond to strain. His love of athletics and science came together with his endeavor to find a method of growing cells on a flexible surface and stretching them by vacuum from below. In 1987, he founded Flexcell® International Corporation, a niche biotech company to design and manufacture mechanobiology devices and disposables. He was the first to market a patented, pneumatic-driven, microprocessor-controlled, cell stretching device that regulated the magnitude, duration and frequency of applied strain to rubber-bottomed culture plates. 

The Flexcell® dynamic cell culture systems allow controlled, standard conditions for strain application to cultured cells so that repeatable dose response experiments can be conducted. Today, Flexcell® produces dynamic bioreactor systems for applying mechanical load to cells in 3D and monolayer culture with an array of disposables and accessories. Dr. Banes continues to develop new ideas for designing the next generation of cell culture solutions.