M-CELS (Multi-cellular Engineered Living Systems) is a student-led seminar series made in conjunction with students from UIUC, Georgia Tech and MIT to enhance communication and collaboration across campuses. Each session we invite one faculty member and one graduate student or postdoc to present their research and the outlook in the field.
This week we invite Professor YongTae Kim and graduate student Rachel Ringquist (Dr. Krishnendu Roy lab) from Georgia Tech to present their research on organs-on-a-chip.
https://bluejeans.com/633010332/6610
Yongtae "Tony" Kim, PhD
Title: Microengineered Human Blood-Brain Barrier Model: Introducing Manufactured Tissue Barrier Chip
Abstract: The central nervous system (CNS) has a specialized vascular barrier, the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which possesses a highly selective barrier function that restricts the permeability of drugs, leading to a high failure rate in the development of CNS therapeutics. Despite the valuable contribution of animal models to drug discovery, it remains difficult to conduct mechanistic studies on the barrier function and interactions with drugs at molecular and cellular levels. This talk will present a microphysiological platform that recapitulates the key structure and function of the human BBB with cellular interactions, key gene expressions, low permeability, and 3D astrocytic network with reduced reactive gliosis and polarized aquaporin-4 (AQP4) distribution. In addition, the model will show the ability to precisely capture 3D nanoparticle distributions at cellular levels and demonstrates the distinct cellular uptakes and BBB penetrations. This talk will also introduce the recent successful manufacturing of a customizable 3D tissue barrier chip called MEPS-TBC using plastic injection molding. MEPS-TBC will be widely used in laboratories for several organ-on-a-chip applications like tissue-tissue barrier models.
Rachel Ringquist
Title: Current and future directions in organ-on-chip technologies
Abstract: Advances in the field of microphysiological organ-on-chip (OOC) technologies have enabled spatiotemporal investigation into the biology of organ systems in healthy and disease- like conditions in vitro. The highly-tunable nature of on-chip models permits direct manipulation of the microenvironment and analysis of the system at the cellular level. These complex in vitro systems provide the framework to study disease progression in a way not feasible through other in vitro or in vivo models. Currently, on-chip models exist for the lung, gut, kidney, liver, colon, brain, vasculature, bone marrow, and heart. Many organ-on-chips are microfluidic and incorporate flow to simulate the shear stresses present in the in vivo organ system. In addition to modelling the healthy organ system, organ-on-chip devices have also been used to generate models of various disease states including but not limited to cancer, viral or bacterial infection, and fibrosis. To further increase the physiological relevancy of these models, researchers are working to incorporate immune components such as tissue specific macrophages and circulating immune cells into the organ-on-chip devices in order to model immune dysfunction and immune response in vitro. Current work is also focused on generating iPSC-derived OOCs. IPSCs provide a more physiologically relevant cell source than cell lines and, due to their essentially limitless replicative potential, can be used to generate large numbers of rare cells that are difficult to isolate from biopsy tissue. Furthermore, the use of iPSCs allows for the incorporation of disease- and patient- specific mutations in OOC models, which have the potential to predict patient-specific drug response. Additionally, multiple OOCs can be connected to model the human body and predict therapeutic efficacy in the target organ as well as potential toxicity in other organs. Overall, advancements in the field of on-chip technologies have provided insight into organ biology, disease progression, and therapeutic response in ways previously unattainable and future work in this field is sure to further our understanding of how the body responds to disease states as well as therapeutics at both the organ and cell level.
