Graduate Seminar Series: Cell and Tissue Stream – Lauren Banh

Graduate Seminar Series: Cell and Tissue Stream
Graduate Seminar Series for the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME). This day is for cell and tissue stream presenters.
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Presentation Title: Joint-on-a-chip: advanced in vitro models to recapitulate the osteoarthritic knee joint with microfluidic organ-on-a-chip technology
Abstract: The “joint-on-a-chip” (JOC) model is an instrumental tool for assessing human-relevant drug responses to novel osteoarthritis (OA) therapies. OA is a whole-joint disease presenting with chronic pain. Symptom management approaches are commonly used as treatment options, but invasive joint replacement surgery is eventually required because there is currently no cure for OA. The lack of effective therapies is partially due to the absence of experimental models that replicate the complex human joint pathology, dynamics, and immune cellular responses. Therefore, our objective is to develop a novel microfluidic cell culture platform referred to as a “JOC” that provides a more physiologically relevant model of the human joint. Our proposed JOC builds on our static “joint-on-a-dish” model that captures the importance of incorporating multiple tissue crosstalk with immune cells. It will include multiple joint tissues, a circulatory immune compartment, and a diffusional joint space to mimic a pathologically relevant OA joint. The JOC is currently being built in modules that contain human cartilage explant tissue and vascularized synovium tissue on two separate chips. Preliminary results reveal that cartilage explants on-chip have a similar gene expression and extracellular matrix degradation profile to the joint-on-a-dish model and that a vascular network forms on-chip by day three of culture. Ongoing experiments are being conducted to combine the modules with various components. Once all components are integrated, our JOC model will allow for the elucidation of complex mechanisms necessary for targeted drug development and will facilitate the screening of potential therapeutics before entering the clinical setting.
Supervisor Name: Dr. Sowmya Viswanathan and Dr. Edmond Young
Year of Study: 2
Program of Study: MASc
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89610372821?pwd=azd4SCtYVWtreVovaGNPV1c2NGY2Zz09
Meeting ID: 896 1037 2821
Password: 483329
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