Please join us for the next talk in the TCES Virtual Seminar Series, which will be on Thursday 11th March from 10:00-11:00hrs GMT. Our seminar will feature Dr Luca Urbani & Lola Ajayi of the Institute of Hepatology, Foundation for Liver Research, speaking on “The extracellular matrix in liver disease, liver cancer and bioengineering for disease modelling”
Dr Gavin Jeffries, Chief Scientific Officer for Fluicell
Patterning tissues for cell microenvironment engineering using the Biopixlar single-cell resolution bioprinter
The progress of bioprinting technologies and applications has accelerated tremendously in recent years. However, reproducing the complexity of tissue biology, especially mimicking the architecture of cellular microenvironment on an individual cell level remains a challenge.
In this presentation we will demonstrate how Fluicell employs hydrodynamically confined devices to build biological tissues from individual cells. Furthermore, we will demonstrate the advantages of patterning tissues and controlling the microenvironment using an open-volume microfluidic approach.
Who should attend: scientists in the fields of cell biology, cancer, regenerative medicine and associated research areas, who are looking to generate in-vitro models using multiple cell types, with exquisite control over cell positioning.
We would like to invite you to the second talk in our winter virtual seminar series, which will be this Thursday 10th December from 10:00-11:00hrs.
Our seminar will feature Dr Luca Urbani & Lola Ajayi of the Institute of Hepatology, Foundation for Liver Research, speaking on “The extracellular matrix in liver disease, liver cancer and bioengineering for disease modelling” The link to join on the day is https://ukri.zoom.us/j/99047140403
Modular PEG hydrogels for organoid-based disease modelling
Dr Eileen Gentleman, King’s College, London
Thursday 19th November 2020, 1130am
Pathological matrix remodelling plays a central role in many human diseases, but is challenging to study as in vitro models often cannot replicate the complex 3D cell-matrix interactions that drive pathologies. In this seminar, I will discuss how we built a 3D model of the human gut that allowed us to uncover an unexpected role for a rare immune cell type called ILC1 in driving gut fibrosis in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. We used molecular dynamics simulations to design PEG hydrogels that cross-link quickly, but can still mimic the stiffness of normal intestinal tissue. We then co-cultured encapsulated human intestinal organoids with ILC1, and using a combination of atomic force microscopy force spectroscopy and multiple particle tracking microrheology, found that ILC1 drive intestinal matrix remodelling through a balance of MMP9-mediated matrix degradation and TGFβ1-driven fibronectin deposition. Our findings demonstrate the potential of using hydrogels in disease modelling, and open the possibility of unravelling how pathological matrix remodelling contributes to disease.
Eileen Gentleman is a Senior Research Fellow and Principal Investigator in the Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology at King’s College London.
She joined Imperial College London in 2005 as post-doctoral research associate (Stevens Group) after completing her PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Tulane University, USA). In 2011, she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship and moved to King’s where her research focuses on developing biomaterials to modulate the physical and biological properties of the 3D cell niche to control stem cell differentiation for tissue engineering. Her work has been published in Nature Materials, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and Biomaterials.
Eileen has received funding awards from the Wellcome Trust, the Rosetrees Trust, the Royal Society and Orthopaedic Research UK, and is a recipient of both a Wellcome Image Award (2016) and an MIT Koch Institute Image Award (2016). The Orthopaedic Research Society named her as a finalist for their New Investigator Recognition Award (2010) and in 2013 her work in regenerative medicine was recognised with a prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize.
On behalf of the Cardiff Institute of Tissue Engineering and Repair (CITER) Research Committee I am pleased to notify you of details for this year’s CITER Annual Scientific Meeting 2020. The two-day meeting is taking place between 14th – 15th September and is being held online. Please note there will be no fee to attend this meeting.
The Programme comprises of six sessions over the two days and four research themes including:
· Immunology, Infection and Inflammation;
· Applied Healthcare Technology;
· Mind, Brain and Neurosciences;
· Cancer
There are four keynote speakers relevant to each aforementioned theme, invited guest speakers and talks from our bursary awardees on how the CITER funding has allowed for collaborations of an interdisciplinary nature and any future work.
Our keynote speakers are:
· Professor Yamni Nigam, Swansea University
· Professor Philip Rowe, University of Strathclyde
· Dr Zameel Cader, University of Oxford
· Professor Xin Lu, University of Oxford
The meeting provides an excellent means of encouraging the participation of academic staff and students to present their research in either a poster or delivering a talk in a supportive but critical environment which helps your career development. In addition, the meeting provides an excellent opportunity for students and early stage researchers to Chair academic sessions.