BATS

Date/Time:

Apr 5, 2019 - 12:00 PM

Location:

Hosts:

Bevin Engelward

Speaker:

Title:

Toward Building Liver: Engineering Solutions for Scalable Tissue Constructs

Abstract:

Liver failure is only curable by donor transplantation, which is limited by a severe donor organ shortage. Alternatively, cell-based therapies have curative potential, though they face several challenges at scale including achieving phenotypic stability and vascularization. In this work, we build upon a series of ‘tools’ from our lab that utilize fibroblast co-culture to enable the study of hepatic tissue ex vivo, with an end goal of building artificial liver implants.

Speaker:

Title:

Designing Bacterial Therapeutics for Use in the Human Gut

Abstract:

Engineered bacteria are emerging as a promising treatment for metabolic, immunological, and other disorders. These living medicines can localize therapeutic production to effector sites in the gut, minimizing undesired systemic effects. Typical lab strains are inappropriate for use as bacterial therapeutics, but gut-resident bacteria can be difficult to engineer. In this work, we have created an easy-to-engineer probiotic strain of E. coli Nissle, which we will enable us to produce therapeutics in response to desired signals.