Conveners
S15-2 Biologically inspired and Engineered disease models
- Y. Shrike Zhang (Harvard Medical School)
"Introduction:
Pericytes reside outside of capillary blood vessels. In the brain, pericytes, brain microvascular endothelial cells, and astrocytes form the neurovascular unit (NVU). A normally functioning NVU regulates cerebral blood flow and the permeability of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Breakdown of the NVU and dysfunction of the BBB are increasingly recognised early biomarkers of...
"Introduction
Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19, new variants of concern (VOC) such as Delta and Omicron are emerging. In these surges, governments and institutions around the world urgently need ways to rapidly respond to outbreaks of new VOCs or other infectious respiratory diseases with pandemic potential.
In this context, tissue-engineered...
"Introduction: Craniosynostosis (CS) is a bone developmental condition that affects 1 in 2100 children worldwide, characterised by premature ossification of the cranial sutures. Particularly, non-syndromic-CS (NS-CS) has been associated to microenvironmental causes. However, little is known about the signalling pathways that govern this skull suture premature ossification. Thus, we hypothesize...
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Introduction
The intervertebral disc (IVD) distributes multiaxial loads applied to the spine, namely axial compression, tension, lateral bending, and torsion. The effect of mechanical loading on IVD health and degeneration is commonly investigated in bioreactors used for ex vivo culture of IVD organ models. Currently available bioreactors have mainly integrated one or two degrees of...
Cancer continues to be a leading cause of mortality in modern societies; therefore, improved and more reliable in vitro cancer models are needed to expedite fundamental research and anti-cancer drug development. Here, we describe the use of a miniaturized continuous stirred tank reactor (mCSTR) to first fabricate and mature cancer spheroids (i.e, derived from MCF7 cells, DU145 cells, and a mix...
Introduction
Plasma cell malignancy - multiple myeloma (MM), occurs primarily in the bone marrow (BM) and appears to be strongly regulated by interactions with BM mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). In addition, collagen is an important constituent of the BM environment and provides not only structural, but functional support to many of its cells. Improved understanding of MM pathology requires...
Epithelial Ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal malignancy in women. Despite de-bulking surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy almost 90% of EOC patients will relapse and succumb. One of the main causes of drug resistance and metastasis is the tumor microenvironment (TME) consisting of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), endothelial cells (ECs), anergic immune cells, adipocyte stem cells...
Introduction. In recent years tumor microenvironment has been recognized as one of the main actors in cancer relapses and metastasis. Indeed, the crosstalk between malignant cells and the niche, as well as the extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, not only favor tumor mass growth, but are also preliminary mechanisms to dissemination. These processes have been mainly investigated in tumors of...
Introduction: Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is a genodermatosis caused by mutations in the COL7A1 gene, in which patients exhibit mechanically fragile skin (1). The underlying mutation determines the clinical phenotype, which can range from a severe condition characterized by widespread blistering associated with the development of chronic wounds-RDEB (recessive subtype) - to a...
