Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Biomaterials (2)
- Cancer (2)
- Hydrogel (2)
- Atherosclerosis (1)
- Block copolymers (1)
-
- CRISPR/Cas9 (1)
- Cancer therapeutics (1)
- Cell Biology (1)
- Cell biology (1)
- Cell tension (1)
- Drug Delivery (1)
- Drug resistance (1)
- Drug screening (1)
- Extracellular matrix (1)
- Films (1)
- Gene editing (1)
- Immune Modulation (1)
- In vitro (1)
- Integrin (1)
- Integrins (1)
- Intestine (1)
- Lateral mobility (1)
- Materials Chemistry (1)
- Matrix remodeling (1)
- Mechanotransduction (1)
- Mesothelin (1)
- Metastasis (1)
- Microbiome (1)
- Microfluidic (1)
- Molecular imaging (1)
Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Extracellular Matrix Stiffness As A Cue To Shape Phenotypic Evolution Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Ning-Hsuan Tseng
Extracellular Matrix Stiffness As A Cue To Shape Phenotypic Evolution Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Ning-Hsuan Tseng
Doctoral Dissertations
Accumulation of epigenetic and genetic changes results in oncogenic transformation of epithelial cells. During breast cancer metastasis, while the extracellular matrix (ECM) becomes stiffer, breast cancer cells transmit mechanical forces into intracellular tension and activate signaling pathways influencing growth, migration, and metastasis. Once cancer cells detach from the primary tumor, they intravasate into the vasculature, survive in the circulation, extravasate and adapt to a new microenvironment of a secondary site. Throughout the process, only a very small population of cancer cells survive, and they are likely to reside at the metastatic sites for several years. The most frequent metastatic sites …
Engineering Stimuli-Responsive Polymeric Nanoassemblies: Rational Designs For Intracellular Delivery Of Biologics, Kingshuk Dutta
Engineering Stimuli-Responsive Polymeric Nanoassemblies: Rational Designs For Intracellular Delivery Of Biologics, Kingshuk Dutta
Doctoral Dissertations
Biologic drugs have gained enormous research attention in recent years as reflected by the development of multiple candidates to the clinical pipelines and an increased percentage of FDA approval. This is reasoned by the fact that biologics have been proven to deliver more predictive and promising benefits for many hard-to-cure diseases by ‘drugging the undruggable’ targets. However, the challenges associated with biologic drug development are multi-fold, viz, poor encapsulation efficacy, systemic instability, low cellular internalization and endosomal escape capability. Thus, it is essential to develop new molecular strategies that can not only address the associated drug delivery challenges, but also …
Micro-Physiological Models To Mimic Mucosal Barrier Complexity Of The Human Intestine In Vitro, Abhinav Sharma
Micro-Physiological Models To Mimic Mucosal Barrier Complexity Of The Human Intestine In Vitro, Abhinav Sharma
Doctoral Dissertations
The mucosal barrier in the intestine is vital to maintain selective absorption of nutrients while protecting internal tissues and maintaining symbiotic relationship with luminal microbiota. This bio-barrier consists of a cellular epithelial barrier and an acellular mucus barrier. Secreted mucus regulates barrier function via in situ biochemical and biophysical interaction with luminal content that continually evolves during digestion and absorption. Increasing evidence suggests that a mucus barrier is indispensable to maintain homeostasis in the gastrointestinal tract. However, the importance of mucus barrier is largely underrated for in vitro mucosal tissue modeling. The major gap is the lack of experimental material …
Engineering Mesothelin-Binding Proteins As Targeted Cancer Diagnostics And Therapeutics, Allison Rita Sirois
Engineering Mesothelin-Binding Proteins As Targeted Cancer Diagnostics And Therapeutics, Allison Rita Sirois
Doctoral Dissertations
Cancer is a significant global health concern; and traditional therapies, including chemotherapeutics, are often simultaneously toxic yet ineffective. There is a critical need to develop targeted cancer therapeutics which specifically inhibit molecules or molecular pathways essential for tumor growth and maintenance. Furthermore, a targeted therapy is only effective when a patient's tumor expresses the molecular target; therefore, companion diagnostics, including molecular imaging agents, are a necessary counterpart of targeted therapies. Mesothelin (MSLN) is a cell surface protein overexpressed in numerous cancers, including triple-negative breast, pancreatic, ovarian, liver, and lung, with limited expression in normal tissues. Aberrant MSLN expression promotes tumor …
Elucidating Mechanisms Of Metastasis With Implantable Biomaterial Niches, Ryan Adam Carpenter
Elucidating Mechanisms Of Metastasis With Implantable Biomaterial Niches, Ryan Adam Carpenter
Doctoral Dissertations
Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer related deaths, yet it remains the most poorly understood aspect of tumor biology. This can be attributed to the lack of relevant experimental models that can recapitulate the complex and lengthy progression of metastatic relapse observed in patients. Mouse models have been widely used to study cancer, however they are critically limited to study metastasis. Most models generate aggressive metastases in the lung without the use of unique cell lines or specialized injection techniques. This limits the ability to study disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in other relevant metastasis prone tissues. Prolonged observation of …
Protein-Nanoparticle Co-Engineering: Self-Assembly, Intracellular Protein Delivery, And Crispr/Cas9-Based Gene Editing, Rubul Mout
Doctoral Dissertations
Direct cytoplasmic delivery of gene editing nucleases such CRISPR/Cas9 systems and therapeutic proteins provides enormous opportunities in curing human genetic diseases, and assist research in basic cell biology. One approach to attain such a goal is through engineering nanotechnological tools to mimic naturally existing intra- and extracellular protein delivery/transport systems. Nature builds transport systems for proteins and other biomolecules through evolution-derived sophisticated molecular engineering. Inspired by such natural assemblies, I employed molecular engineering approaches to fabricate self-assembled nanostructures to use as intracellular protein delivery tools. Briefly, proteins and gold nanoparticles were co-engineered to carry complementary electrostatic recognition elements. When these …
Extracellular Matrix Control Of Breast Cancer Metastasis And Dormancy, Lauren Barney
Extracellular Matrix Control Of Breast Cancer Metastasis And Dormancy, Lauren Barney
Doctoral Dissertations
To metastasize, a cell must travel through circulation to a secondary tissue, and this process causes 90% of all cancer deaths. Although inefficient, metastasis is not random, and only capable seeds in hospitable soils are capable of outgrowing into detectable metastases. The overall hypothesis in this work is that the secondary tissue microenvironment, particularly the extracellular matrix (ECM), mediates metastasis. We posit that the ability of metastatic cells to survive dormancy, exit quiescence, and colonize a tissue depends upon the ability of the soil to sustain survival, and subsequently trigger outgrowth. We created a simple biomaterial platform with systematic control …
Bioengineered Platforms To Study Carcinoma Cell Response To Drug Treatment, Thuy V. Nguyen
Bioengineered Platforms To Study Carcinoma Cell Response To Drug Treatment, Thuy V. Nguyen
Doctoral Dissertations
The tumor extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important role in facilitating tumor growth and mediating tumor cells' resistance to drugs. However, during drug development, potential chemotherapeutics are screened in plastic plates, which lack relevant ECM physicochemical cues. In order to improve drug development process, this dissertation includes the development of relevant 2D and 3D biomaterial systems that can be used to study carcinoma cell response to drug treatment. A novel poly(ethylene glycol)-phosphorylcholine (PEG-PC) high-throughput biomaterial platform was developed to study how the ECM mechanochemical properties affect cancer cells' response to drug. The PEG-PC biomaterial is optically transparent, has a mechanical …
Mimicking The Arterial Microenvironment With Peg-Pc To Investigate The Roles Of Physicochemical Stimuli In Smc Phenotype And Behavior, William G. Herrick
Mimicking The Arterial Microenvironment With Peg-Pc To Investigate The Roles Of Physicochemical Stimuli In Smc Phenotype And Behavior, William G. Herrick
Doctoral Dissertations
The goal of this dissertation was to parse the roles of physical, mechanical and chemical cues in the phenotype plasticity of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in atherosclerosis. We first developed and characterized a novel synthetic hydrogel with desirable traits for studying mechanotransduction in vitro. This hydrogel, PEG-PC, is a co-polymer of poly(ethylene glycol) and phosphorylcholine with an incredible range of Young’s moduli (~1 kPa - 9 MPa) that enables reproduction of nearly any tissue stiffness, exceptional optical and anti-fouling properties, and support for covalent attachment of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. To our knowledge, this combination of mechanical range, low …
Cell Adhesion Biophysics On Dynamic Polymer Constructs, Andreas Kourouklis
Cell Adhesion Biophysics On Dynamic Polymer Constructs, Andreas Kourouklis
Doctoral Dissertations
The biophysical characteristics of cell adhesion from single protein to cell length scales have primarily been studied using purely elastic substrates. However, natural extracellular matrix (ECM) is viscoelastic and contains mobile components. In this work, we combined chemistry and cell biology tools to design and characterize laterally mobile viscoelastic polymer films that promote receptor-specific cell adhesion. Moreover, we used amphiphilic block copolymers that are end-labeled with RGD peptide ligands to allow for integrin-mediated cell adhesion. The addition of a trace hydrophobic homopolymer in the supported bilayer block-copolymer films is used to tune the lateral mobility of the films. NIH 3T3 …