Microtechnologies for cells Phototunable Spatiotemporal Presentation of Viscoelastic and Adhesive Cues in HA Hydrogels Erica Hui1, Kathryn I. Gimeno2, Thomas H. Barker2, Steven R. Caliari1,2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/646778v1.full Developed a hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel system to study the role that spatially-patterned matrix mechanical (viscoelastic) and adhesive…

Cancer cell metastasis is responsible for 80 percent of cancer-related death. The metastatic cells migrate through tight constricting spaces, therefore constricted migration and its enabling mechanisms have received a lot of attentions in recent years. The most famous research groups that are working in this field are Lammerding group, Discher group, Wolf and Friedl group,…

There were lots of interesting talks and posters on organ-on-a-chip models with emphasis on modeling blood-brain barrier. I have selected four of them as a summary. 3D model of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma growth, migration and blood-brain barrier interactions Alanna M. Farrell, Raleigh M. Linville, Gabrielle N. Grifno, Peter C. Searson Johns Hopkins University, Department…

Introduction Sepsis related projects had a decent presence at this years Biomedical Engineering Society (2019). I will detail a few of the talks I found most relevant to our group and research. Nanomedicine for Acute Criticial Illness by Dr. Jacob Brenner (U Penn Medical) Dr. Brenner is a practicing physician working on ICAM-1, PECAM-1, and…

Summary: Dan and I went to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to learn about the current state of microplastics research. There were a number of things that we learned that we did not know. The common sentiment among researchers agreed climate change was a much bigger threat to humans than microplastics, but the reality and immediacy…

Design and Manufacturing Plans from Aline: 2019-09-23 Rochester Assembly Step by Step Prototype Runs @ ALine Post-fabrication assembly (cutting with lower power to eliminate bubbles) …  

To try to calibrate the STED for imaging on our membranes, Bill and I have been trying to use 50 nm silica beads that have been captured on the membrane. However, we discovered initially that the beads were actually not too easy to work with and clumped like crazy. On STED, we weren’t really able…

INTRODUCTION The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective endothelial barrier that serves a crucial role in maintaining tissue homeostasis in the brain. Many current models, however, suffer from low TEER and permeability values far greater than physiological levels. Recently, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) have been differentiated into BMECS with very high TEER…