Small Groups

Cardiac Fibrosis

Fibrotic aortic valve stenosis (FAVS) is a heart disease that causes thickening and hardening of the valve leaflets, leading to heart failure. Members of this small group work to better understand disease at the cellular level, striving to elucidate preventative treatments and therapeutics. To accomplish this we use valvular interstitial cells (VICs) and photoresponsive hydrogels to study the transition from a quiescent fibroblast state to the activated myofibroblast phenotype. These studies reveal insights for maintaining valve function and treating chronic heart injury.

Materials & Chemistry

Innovation in materials development and characterization continues to be foundational in the Anseth group. By implementing cytocompatible "click" reactions for hydrogel crosslinking in concert with orthogonal photo-chemistries we have shown that it is possible to sequentially introduce and remove biochemical and biophysical signals with precise spatiotemporal control. While we now have a number of tools for engineering photoresponsive hydrogels, this small group works to expand these strategies by exploring alternative chemistries and materials platforms for cell culture.

Stem Cell Biology

Tissue homeostasis is maintained by a complex interplay between cells and their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). A milieu of chemical signals provide cues directing development, wound healing and disease progression. Likewise, the physical environment, such as stiffness and topography, can have a dramatic impact on cellular fate. The goal of this small group is to engineer material systems to better understand how cells receive biochemical and mechanical information from their microenvironment and exploit this knowledge to design better strategies for directing cell fate and regulating cell behavior for tissue regeneration.

Dynamic Substrates

Using microfabrication techniques such as soft lithography, microfluidics, and functional microparticle synthesis, members of this small group dynamically control the highly complex niches of various cellular microenvironments. Specifically, our focus is to develop microscale biosensors and microdynamically controlled extracellular environments. This helps to identify how key regulatory factors interact synergistically in native three-dimensional cellular environments. In doing so, we hope to apply this knowledge toward better understanding the fundamental aspects of cellular behavior to help guide the development of therapeutic treatments.

Latest Research

Contractions in hydrogels point to biochemical clues of valvular disorders
Check out Joe's new paper on how to repeatably and reversibly pattern signaling proteins in hydrogels
Regenerative BioX Symposium, August 16-17th 2018
Brian publishes about using engineering unit operations to advance precision medicine
Katie reports on lung alveolus co-culture model in Biomaterials
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