Engineering Microenvironment-triggered Self-reporting Immunotherapy
Mentors
Project Description
Precision medicine has a transformative impact in managing heterogeneous disorders, including cancer, metabolic, and neurological diseases. At the living interface of precision engineering and health, the Hao laboratory develops molecular and cellular tools to precisely track and control disease biology in intact organisms. The specific research interests include (1) noninvasive disease detection and treatment monitoring at the Point-of-Care, (2) tissue-specific transcriptome engineering, and (3) multimodal systemic imaging. Research opportunities in this laboratory include hands-on experiments and in silico data analysis. Experimental work includes engineering genetically or chemically encoded diagnostics and therapeutics at the nanoscale, or performing high-throughput data analysis to identify functional disease biomarkers.
These projects will be part of our efforts to address some grand challenges of getting precision medicine into healthcare practice, such as comorbidities, timely interventions, and access in low-resource areas. Specifically, REU participants will learn to analyze differential gene expression profiles from publicly available databases, such as the Cancer Genomic Atlas and Human Protein Atlas, to propose new functional biomarkers for disease detection and monitoring. The participant will also provide hands-on opportunities for molecular and cellular experiments to construct and validate bioinspired nanosensors or programmable therapeutics.
Research projects for REU participants include (1) cloning and expression of disease-targeting moieties in the format of antibodies or antibody fragments to improve tissue specificity, (2) engineering precision diagnostics and therapeutics responsive to tissue-specific biochemical cues, and (3) mammalian cell culture-based functional validations of (2). From these research opportunities, the learning outcomes from this project include comprehensive experimental skills ranging from bioinformatics, chemical biology, and molecular engineering. Students will work on a multidisciplinary research group to engage in collaborative research efforts and start building teamwork skills for advanced education. They will also receive training on effective scientific communication through written and oral presentations.
Weeks 1: Learning about the project and how to use the relevant equipment in the lab.Research Goals
Learning Goals
Timeline
Weeks 2-3: Design and fabrication of the first liquid film frame, followed by the deployment of film in an aqueous environment. Coupling the optical fiber to the frame.
Weeks 4-7: Designing, constructing, and integrating the first thermal elements into the supporting frame, followed by a first proof of concept experiment.
Week 8-9: Data acquisition and analysis for different optical, thermal and geometric parameters.
Weeks 10: Preparing the final presentation.