Engineering Vascular Beds That Connect to Ex Vivo Tissue
Mentors Project Description Following a myocardial infarction, the necrotic tissue in the infarction zone is replaced by a fibrotic scar. Even though this scar tissue helps to hold the heart together and maintain its structure, it does not contribute to the heart’s function and can impair its ability to contract and relax properly. One of […]
Optimizing a 2D Culture Device for Characterization of iPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes
Mentors Project Description Cardiomyocyte (CM) culture is a useful platform to model cardiac biology and disease. However, iPSC-derived CMs in 2D often have heterogeneous characteristics both within and between differentiations. This is, in part, due to the relatively immature state of these cells. Most notably, these cells lack uniform and aligned sarcomere structures. Using microfabrication […]
Well Plate Reader For Micro-Tugs
Mentors Project Description In our CELL-MET project, a key building block is the “micro-tug”, a millimeter scale piece of engineered tissue supported like a hammock between two compliant polymer pillars. We use these micro-tugs to evaluate chemical, mechanical, and electrical environmental impacts on tissue health. Our main sensing approach is to measure tissue beat rate […]