Seminar: Instructive biomaterials for regenerative medicine and stem cell engineering

Dr. Brendan Harley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

All dates for this event occur in the past.

E001 Scott Lab
201 W. 19th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Abstract:

Advances in the field of tissue engineering are increasingly reliant on biomaterials that instruct, rather than simply permit, a desired cellular response. Instructive biomaterials hold significant promise for clinical applications as well as to enable mechanistic investigations in the laboratory. As tissues can be dynamic, spatially-patterned, or inhomogeneous over multiple length and time scales, we are developing novel approaches to engineer biomaterials at the structural and biomolecular level in order to replicate these heterogeneities. Our efforts provide valuable new insight regarding the degree of biomaterial complexity required to instruct cell behavior in the context of development, disease, and regeneration. I will describe a collagen biomaterial to address current barriers preventing regeneration of orthopedic insertions such as the osteotendinous (tendon-bone) junction. Here we also use inspiration from nature (e.g., porcupine quills, honeycomb, and plant stems) to improve bioactivity and mechanical competence. I will subsequently describe a microfluidic forming technique to create libraries of optically-translucent hydrogels containing overlapping patterns of cell, matrix, and biomolecule cues. We are using this platform to dissect the coordinated impact of cell and matrix signals on (1) niche-mediated regulation of hematopoietic stem cell fate; and (2) malignancy and therapeutic response of human glioblastoma. I will show how these biomaterials can be used as rheostats to regulate processes such as self-renewal vs. differentiation; tissue regeneration and vascularization; and the etiology and malignancy of cancer.

About the Speaker:

Brendan Harley received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University (2000) and a Sc.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (2006). He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Joint Program for Transfusion Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School (2006 – 2008). In 2008 he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he is an Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and directs the Engineered Cellular Microenvironments and Microstructures Laboratory. Harley co-founded UK-based Orthomimetics, Ltd. (now TiGenix, Ltd.), currently performing Phase I clinical trials on a material to repair osteochondral defects in the knee. He also co-authored the book ‘Cellular materials in nature and medicine’ (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Harley has received funding from the NSF, NIH, American Cancer Society, and the AO Foundation. He is a 2013 recipient of a NSF CAREER award, the 2014 Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois, and in 2014 received the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials.

Hosted by Professor Carlos Castro