ABSTRACT:

My laboratory research spans the disciplinary boundaries between micro/nanotechnology, biomaterials, and mechanobiology with an emphasis on their applications to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Through the use of multi-scale fabrication and integration tools, my laboratory focuses on the development and application of human tissue/organ-on- a-chip platforms and stem cell technologies for elucidating regenerative biology, drug screening, disease modeling, and cell-based therapies. In this talk, I will introduce scalable, nanotopographically-controlled cell and tissue culture models developed in our laboratory, including nanopatterned human 3D cardiac muscle patches, human iPSC-based cardiac microphysiological systems, and a high-throughput drug-induced cardiotoxicity screening assay. Using these biofabricated tools in combination with human pluripotent stem cell technologies, I will highlight how our biomimetic tissue models helps to gain a better understanding of the structure- function relationship in complex 3D tissues, and serve as emerging platforms for regenerative cell therapy, disease modeling, and drug screening.