(604g) Invited Talk: Microengineered Biomimicry of Human Physiological Systems

Remarkable progress in life science and technology in the past century has advanced our fundamental understanding of the human body beyond our imagination. The ever increasing knowledge of human anatomy and biology, however, has done surprisingly little to improve the way we experimentally model the complex inner workings of human health and disease. Even today, our ability to emulate and probe human physiological systems relies on the century-old practice of cell culture or animal experimentation that has raised significant scientific and ethical concerns. A paucity of realistic and human-relevant model systems with high predictive capacity is emerging as a critical impediment to our scientific endeavors for a wide variety of biomedical applications. Motivated by this major problem, this talk will present interdisciplinary research efforts in my laboratory to develop advanced in vitro models and preclinical research platforms that leverage the power of microengineering technologies to emulate the complexity of human tissues and organs for biomedical and environmental applications.