Baker Lab
Brendon Baker is an associate professor at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Baker Lab focuses on engineering an implantable, vascularized cardiac patch. It develops biomaterials to promote the maturation of engineered cardiac tissue and strategies to incorporate microvasculature into these grafts. They study how structure and mechanics of the cellular microenvironment guide fundamental cell processes such as migration, proliferation, and extracellular matrix synthesis. To do so, they develop synthetic biomaterials that mimic the 3D and fibrous nature of stromal or interstitial tissues. Combined with molecular tools, live imaging, microfabrication/fluidic techniques, and multi-scale mechanical characterization, these materials allow them to model, study, and control the interactions between cells and their surroundings.
Projects
Biomanufacturing Stem-cell Derived Cardiac Grafts with Micro-scale Vasculature (2023)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Acute or chronic cardiac injuries, eg. through myocardial infarction or prolonged cardiac overload, cause irreversible damage to the heart. The field of cardiac tissue engineering aims to develop technologies to biomanufacture engineered tissues that could replace injured or diseased native myocardium and restore normal cardiac function for the patient. The goal of this project is to engineer hydrogel-based 3D tissue grafts containing dense and organized beds of capillaries interspersed between aligned bundles of cardiomyocytes. Students contributing to this project will develop expertise tissue engineering and biomaterials development, in particular melt electro-writing and tissue microfabrication. Through this process REU students developed wet-lab skills including bioprinting, tissue culture, microscopy, and biomaterial fabrication. The specific research goals were to:
1. Perform studies to inform the optimal design of cardiac microbundles.
2. Test methods for integrating micro-scale vasculature into cardiac grafts.
LABORATORY MENTOR
Maggie Jewett
Engineering Fiber-Reinforced Cardiac Microtissues (2019)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Myocardial extracellular matrix (ECM) is predominantly composed of fibrillar type I collagen wrapped around muscle fibers and fascicles. These ECM fibers are important to cardiomyocyte adhesion and function, contractile tissue function, and are altered in disease states such as cardiac fibrosis. The goal of this project is to use engineered fibrous matrices with tunable mechanical properties and adhesion ligands to optimize the formation, maturation, and contractile function of cardiac microtissues. Microtissues will be formed from dextran vinyl sulfone polymer fibers presenting fibronectin will be seeded with induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes. These tissues will be suspended between two PDMS microposts for real time force measurements. Cardiac tissue formation and function will be assessed as a function of ECM fiber architecture and mechanics through immunofluorescent staining, force generation, and electrophysiology.
LABORATORY MENTOR
Samuel DePalma
RESEARCH GOALS
Aid graduate student in the design and fabrication of fiber-reinforced iPSC-cardiomyocyte seeded microtissues. Develop and validate mechanical testing method to characterize the properties of synthetic fiber matrices. Explore the effect of fiber stiffness, density, and alignment on cardiac tissue formation and function.
LEARNING GOALS
Learning objectives for this program include electrospun materials fabrication, microfabrication, confocal microscopy, and micromechanical testing.
