Nordsletten Lab
David Nordsletten is a professor at University of Michigan. He received his PhD in Biology from Oxford University.
The Norsdletten lab focuses on the biomechanics and hemodynamics of the heart and cardiovascular system, with particular emphasis on the interface between mechanics and imaging. Current projects include tissue-specific modeling of engineered heart tissues and viscoelasticity and modeling of myocardial and arterial tissues.
Projects
Understanding the Variations in Microtissue Deformations and their Relation with iPSC-CMs Maturity (2023)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The mechanical environment where cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) develop has shown to be an important factor in the degree of function that engineered heart tissues (EHTs) achieve. This was experimentally studied in the so-called fibroTUG setup, where fibers were suspended between two posts, and iPSCs were seeded on top. Traditionally, the mechanical assessment of these tissues is limited to measurements of whole tissue output (measured as post-deformation).
This value is important, but it cannot be used as a proxy of cellular function since the mechanical properties and structure of the extracellular matrix and the structure of the contractile apparatus of the cells (including its density and alignment) will impact how the iPSC-CMs contraction translates to the force output. Therefore, the study of local deformations alongside an understanding of the local tissue structure is key to providing a better assessment of cell function. This project aims to use digital image correlation tools to analyze videos of contractile cardiac microtissues that were grown under different mechanical environments. This will provide essential information that can be used to understand how local deformations are related to experimental observations and as input for computational models that can be used to study tissue mechanics further. The specific research goals were to:
1. Use available software to compute displacement and regional strain values of contractile videos
2. Characterize the deformation pattern per each experimental condition.
3. Correlate these results with biological markers of maturity.
LABORATORY MENTOR
Javiera Jilberto Vallejos
LEARNING GOALS
• Use software and coding languages to analyze, compile, and summarize research outputs.
• Get to know the field of tissue engineering, its challenges and opportunities, and how different disciplines can aid its development.
• Effectively communicate research motivation, methods, and results to an interdisciplinary audience.
