(604g) Tissue-Inspired Synthetic Biomaterials (Invited Speaker)
AIChE Annual Meeting
2021
2021 Annual Meeting
Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division
In Vitro and In Vivo Cancer Models
Thursday, November 11, 2021 - 2:18pm to 2:58pm
Improved experimental model systems are critically needed to better understand cancer progression and bridge the gap between lab bench proof-of-concept studies, validation in animal models, and eventual clinical application. Many methods exist to create biomaterials, including hydrogels, which we use to study cells in contexts more akin to what they experience in the human body. Our lab has multiple approaches to create such biomaterials, based on combinations of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with peptides and zwitterions. In this presentation, I will discuss our synthetic approaches to building life-like materials, how we use these systems to grow cells and understand how a cellâs environment, particularly the extracellular matrix regulates cancer cell growth, dormancy, and drug sensitivity.