Event
CHBE Seminar: Dr. Jason Gleghorn, Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
Friday, April 28, 2023
11:00 a.m.
Room 2108 Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Patricia Lorenzana
301-405-1935
plorenza@umd.edu
Topic: Closing the tech transfer gap: democratizable modular 3D microphysiological tissue models for women’s health and maternal-fetal health applications
Abstract: Microphysiological models (organ-on-a-chip technologies) have enabled advanced invitro tissue models that more accurately recapitulate in vivo physiology across several organ systems. Notably, many of these systems find significant use in drug screening applications. However, technical experience and complex and specialized fabrication processes have limited widespread access to the general scientific community to unlock their capabilities for mechanistic studies of tissue and organ function. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to develop a modular organ-on-a-chip platform that is compatible with standard cell culture methods to create multicellular tissue systems of numerous organs. I will highlight examples of generating placental, vaginal, and endocervical tissue models to investigate drug transport and host-pathogen interactions and the work we have done to translate them to biology and clinical labs.
Bio: Jason Gleghorn joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware in 2014. He earned a Ph.D. in soft tissue mechanics and tissue engineering from Cornell University (Lawrence Bonnassar & Abe Stroock) and subsequently completed postdoctoral fellowships in microfluidics and molecular and developmental biology and at Cornell University (Brian Kirby) and Princeton University (Celeste Nelson) respectively. Jason leads an interdisciplinary laboratory focused on developing disease models that integrate innate and adaptive immune responses and drug transport with applications in women’s health, maternal-fetal health, and challenges with preterm birth. He is the recipient of the March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Award, the ORAU Ralph E.Powe Award, the University of Delaware Bernard Canavan Early Career Research Award, the Michael Bowman Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award, and The Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholar Award from the Francis Alison Society. Additionally, Jason is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, and he has been named a Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star by the Biomedical Engineering Society and a Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering from the CMBE journal.
