Cell-based therapy for fatal liver disease is limited by an incomplete understanding of cell-cell interactions. Our lab has shown that hydrogel biomaterial-embedded hepatocyte-fibroblast aggregate co-cultures can maintain liver phenotype in vitro and support regeneration in vivo. However, full recapitulation of liver phenotype requires a kinetic appreciation for engineered cell-cell interactions. Toward this end, this work aims to develop a tool for probing dynamic cell-cell interactions in 3D engineered tissue constructs.

The gut microbiome is responsible for the production of molecules with large chemical diversity, many of which may have implications in human health and disease. However, our ability to test the function of these molecules in the gut is limited because there are few tools available for engineering gut bacteria. The aim of my work is to express genetic pathways in gut bacteria, which motivates my development of an Integrative and Conjugative Element to engineer these gut bacteria.