BioE Seminar: Engineering Central Nervous System Tissues
Thursday, February 25, 2021
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Presenter
Stephanie Seidlits, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of California-Los Angeles
The Seidlits lab works to design matrix-mimetic biomaterials for engineering tissues of the central nervous system (CNS). We work with hyaluronic acid (HA), a major component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the CNS, as a base material to create ex vivo models of brain and tumor tissues. I will discuss our work modeling glioblastoma (GBM), the most lethal, yet common, cancer originating in the brain. We have developed HA-based culture platforms that provide a controlled experimental context in which to characterize how the ECM microenvironment facilitates GBM tumor aggression. These biomaterial-based cultures of patient-derived GBM cells can model several aspects of clinical tumors, including 1) kinetics of acquired resistance to chemotherapies and 2) vasculature-associated infiltration. In addition, I will discuss our work developing injectable scaffolds to interface with the spinal cord and deliver potent biological therapies, such as genetic vectors and stem cells, to promote regeneration after injury. Email Michael Humphreys (michael.humphreys@duke.edu) for Zoom information.
Contact
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