Extracellular matrix regulation for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Abstract

Living cells in our body constantly sense a diverse array of spatial, chemical and physical signals presented by their surrounding local microenvironment, comprising an intricate meshwork of macromolecules known as the extracellular matrix (ECM). The complex cell-ECM interactions occurring on a micro-nano length scale are perceived to regulate tissue development/homeostasis in healthy tissues, while any aberrant changes in these interactions can lead to disease progression and loss of tissue function. Hence, manipulating cell-ECM interactions synthetically using various biomaterial-based strategies has been very promising in regenerative medicine to drive specific therapeutic outcomes. In this backdrop, the talk will summarize my research work in understanding the role of distinct physical factors such as stiffness, topography, dimensionality, geometry and conductivity in guiding desired cellular responses, namely cell proliferation and stem cell differentiation and how it can be incorporated in the scaffold design to create functional tissue constructs. Altogether, these findings will possibly create new avenues for development of novel therapeutic approaches and improved human disease models for drug discovery and screening.

Biography of the speaker

Dr. Greeshma holds a B.Tech degree in Bioengineering from SASTRA University and M.Tech degree in Nanomedical Science from Amrita Centre for Nanosciences; Molecular Medicine, Kochi. Subsequently, she pursued her Ph.D. from the Center for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. After the completion of her Ph.D., she was awarded the Canadian Institute of Health Research postdoctoral fellowship, which she declined for a position at the Oregon Health; Science University, Portland, USA. After 2 years, she pursued her second postdoc in the department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, USA. During her postdoctoral tenure, Greeshma also served as an early career advisory board member for the ACS Biomaterial Science; Engineering journal. In her brief career, Greeshma has authored 2 book chapters and over 25 peer-reviewed research publications in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, PNAS, Science Translational Medicine, Biomaterials, and Advanced Materials. At IITM, Greeshma’s lab will primarily focus on the key aspects of regenerative biomaterials and tissue engineering, especially on the development of engineered 3D tissue/organ equivalents and manipulation of extracellular matrix to understand tissue morphogenesis and diseases.