Event
CHBE Seminar: Dr. Rebecca Carrier, Northeastern University
Friday, December 6, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Room 2108 Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Patricia Lorenzana
301-405-1935
plorenza@umd.edu
Engineering the Intestinal Mucosal Barrier
Abstract: The intestinal mucosal barrier is highly significant to effective oral drug delivery, nutrient absorption, and interactions between microbes and underlying tissues. In vitro experimental models of the intestinal mucosal barrier must capture essential features of native biology to serve as useful tools. Our laboratory is working to define essential features of engineered intestinal models incorporating microbiota in homeostasis with intestinal epithelium and immune cells for studying the links between ingested material and intestinal homeostasis/inflammation. Such models can be useful for studying mucosal transport in a physiological context, and for understanding how changes in mucosal barrier properties may contribute to disruptions in homeostasis of the microbiome-epithelium-immune axis. The mucosa is exposed each day to dynamic and variable intestinal lumen contents, yet the impact of these contents on the mucosal barrier is not well understood. We have demonstrated that mild stimuli such as those presented by ingested materials (e.g., lipids in food or drug delivery systems), can modulate the intestinal mucosal barrier, for example to impact oral drug delivery or microbial invasion, and that permeation through mucus is highly dependent on the physical and chemical properties of the penetrating material (drug, particle, microbe). We hypothesize, given the crucial role of intestinal mucus in modulating interactions between intestinal contents and underlying tissues, that ingested materials directly impact the mucus barrier in vivo, and that an altered mucus barrier modifies interactions of microbes and other lumen contents (e.g., drugs, signaling molecules including bile acids) with underlying tissues.
Bio: Rebecca Carrier is a Professor and the Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering with affiliations in Bioengineering and Biology at Northeastern University. She earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. After completing her graduate studies, Rebecca worked at Pfizer, Inc., as a Senior Research Scientist in oral controlled release drug delivery. She joined Northeastern in 2003, and built a research program focused on the interaction between biological systems and materials, with specific applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. She has had the honor of working on collaborative research projects with multiple industrial partners including Pfizer, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme, and AbbVie, and has received honors including the NSF CAREER award, Soren Buus Outstanding Research Award (2017), and R H Sioui Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering Teaching (2022). She was also invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering (2016) and Frontiers of Engineering Education (2013) Symposia, served as the Member-At-Large for the Society for Biomaterials from 2018-2019, was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2019, and was named a fellow of the Controlled Release Society in 2024.
