BioE Seminar Series: Jennifer Elisseeff
Thursday, December 7, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Wilkinson Building, room 021 auditorium
Presenter
Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD
There are profound deficits in how humans, and adults in particular, heal and recover from tissue damage. The alternative to productive tissue healing is the formation of dysfunctional scaring, which underlies chronic degenerative arthritic conditions, chronic autoimmune diseases and the fibrosis associated with the foreign body response to implants. Our clinical translation experiences in orthopedics and plastic surgery yielded the unexpected discovery of adaptive immune cells in the biomaterial response. Distinct pathways of adaptive immunity, T cells together with linked activity of innate lymphocytes, regulate productive versus destructive tissue responses and should therefore be the primary targets of regenerative medicine. Recent data further implicate cellular senescence as a major therapeutically targetable player in local tissuedestructive immune responses and fibrosis. Understanding and subsequent manipulation of the local tissue microenvironment with regenerative immunotherapies and biomaterials is a mechanism by which the effector class and T cell function and senescence can be engaged. We are now working to understand the role of the immune system and cellular senescence in the biomaterial response and repair across different tissues across lifespan.
Contact
Canning, Jessica
919-613-1321
Jessica.Canning@duke.edu