Events

Date of Talk: Wednesday, February 5th, 2025 @12PM

Location: In Person and Online Via Zoom

Talk Title: Engineered In Vitro & Computational Models for Studying Mechanobiology of Soft Tissue (e.g., skin) Remodeling

Speaker Details: Professor Edward Sander

Roy J. Carver Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Uni. of Iowa, USA

Short Biography: 

Abstract for talk: 

During development, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions orchestrate the formation of organized, functional tissues. Later in life these same tissues have limited capacity to regenerate themselves in response to injury, disease, or the aging process.
Efforts to direct tissue self-structuring and remodeling are progressing but are hampered by a lack of understanding of how interactions are coordinated locally and globally across multiple length and times scales, particularly in terms of the role of the mechanical environment.
This environment is dependent in part on the composition, organization, and stiffness of the local extracellular matrix and by how physical forces are communicated throughout the tissue to a cellular level. To understand these interactions (esp. mechanochemical interactions) amongst different skin cell types (fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and adipocytes), our lab combines computational modeling and in vitroengineered systems to understand the mechanobiology of tissue remodeling and to develop tissue engineering-based strategies to reduce scarring and improve tissue function.