{"id":1897,"date":"2021-10-10T19:44:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T23:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/?page_id=1897"},"modified":"2021-10-10T19:45:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T23:45:03","slug":"jeroen-eyckmans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/research-projects\/projects-2025\/current-summer-projects\/jeroen-eyckmans\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeroen Eyckmans"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Effect of Adhesion and Substrate Stiffness on Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/04\/Headshot-Jeroen-Eyckmans-002-1-700x700.jpg\" class=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/>PROJECT DESCRIPTION<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent advances in mechanobiology have demonstrated that substrate stiffness and adhesive ligands regulate differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into bone, fat or cartilage cells. It is, however, unclear to what extent substrate mechanics and adhesion regulate differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) into cardiomyocytes. To address this question, the REU will evaluate cardiac differentiation of human iPSCs that are seeded on dextran hydrogels with different stiffnesses and are coated with different extracellular matrix proteins. To assess cardiac differentiation, the REU will employ immunohistochemistry to stain the cells for cardiac muscle proteins that indicate the maturation state of the cardiac cells.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>LABORATORY MENTOR<br \/>\n<\/b><a href=\"mailto:Jewoldt@bu.edu\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jourdan Ewoldt<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>RESEARCH GOALS<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ultimate goal of this project is to define the optimal combination of substrate stiffness and coating of the substrate with ECM molecules to optimally differentiate iPSCs into cardiomyocytes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>LEARNING GOALS<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span>\u2022 <\/span>Make dextran hydrogels with different mechanical properties.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span>\u2022 <\/span>Coat substrates with different extracellular matrix proteins.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span>\u2022 <\/span>Culture human iPSC cells and differentiate the cells into cardiomyocytes (with help of mentor).<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span>\u2022 <\/span>Assess cardiac differentiation of human IPSCs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>TIMELINE<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Week 1:<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Getting acquainted with lab<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Week 2:<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Learn the basics of cell culture and making of dextran hydrogels<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Week 3: <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up first round of experiments<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Week 4:<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Set up second round of experiments<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weeks 5-6:<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Stop and analyze both experiments<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weeks 6-10:<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Troubleshoot what didn&#8217;t work and repeat the experiments.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><b>Learn more about Jeroen Eyckmans on his <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/profile\/jeroen-eyckmans-phd\/\"><b>faculty page<\/b><\/a><b>.<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Effect of Adhesion and Substrate Stiffness on Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells PROJECT DESCRIPTION Recent advances in mechanobiology have demonstrated that substrate stiffness and adhesive ligands regulate differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into bone, fat or cartilage cells. It is, however, unclear to what extent substrate mechanics and adhesion regulate differentiation of human induced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19768,"featured_media":0,"parent":1647,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1897"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1900,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1897\/revisions\/1900"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-ret\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}