Microfabricated Tissue Models Laboratory
Internationally Recognized for Contributions to Cell and Tissue Engineering
The MTM lab develops and utilizes microfabrication tools and biomaterials to precisely engineer the microenvironmental cues around primary and stem cell-derived mammalian cells towards stabilizing their long-term phenotype in vitro for applications in the following key areas:
- Drug development (e.g. drug metabolism/toxicity screening)
- Disease modeling for novel drug discovery
- Regenerative medicine (i.e. cell-based therapies)
Public Health Relevance: Tissues and cells can be utilized in long-term experiments to better understand diseases, improve drugs and enhance treatments for chronic conditions.
Innovations for Liver Disease Treatments & Therapies
The MTM Lab has made significant breakthroughs with the Liver (e.g. drug-induced liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis B virus infection, and cell-based therapies) and we have several publications in that space that are being actively cited in the field.
Develop & Utilize Microfabrication Tools
The MTM Lab develops and utilizes tools such as protein micropatterning, high-throughput extracellular matrix (ECM) microarrays, biomaterials, and microfluidic platforms to precisely control the microenvironment of both primary and stem cell-derived cells in various culture formats depending on the hypotheses being posed.
Our engineered tissues can mimic key aspects of diseases in vitro and elucidate underlying molecular mechanisms of disease progression as a function of cell-cell, cell-matrix, and cell-soluble factor interactions..
We are using 3D bioprinting to develop a human liver tissue surrogate that has multiple integrated compartments as in the body. Such a surrogate can have applications in regenerative medicine.
Expanding Repertoire of Stem Cell-Derived Cells
Over the last few years, we have expanded our repertoire to stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (heart) to study the underlying genetic determinants of atrial fibrillation and develop a drug screening platform for this disease in close collaboration with leading cardiologists. More recently, we have applied our technologies to microfabricated models of the intestine, placenta, blood, and brain.
Commercial Translation and Funding
Dr. Khetani, MTM lab director, co-founded Hepregen Corporation (now part of BioIVT, Inc.) in 2008 and directed research and development at the company until 2011 to commercialize some of his previous liver inventions. Today, these liver models continue to make a positive impact in the marketplace via use by pharmaceutical/biotech industry.
Our culture platforms have been successfully translated to the commercial space through licensing of issued and pending patents to companies.
We are well funded through the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM), and the pharmaceutical/biotech industry to pursue the research directions above.
Long Term Goals of the MTMLab
Disseminate
Disseminate our engineered platforms to the wider academic and pharmaceutical communities for use in drug screening, disease modeling, and cell-based therapies (regenerative medicine).
Discover
Make fundamental discoveries into how underlying genetics and cell-microenvironment interactions dictate worsening outcomes of several major diseases (e.g., alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis B virus infection, and atrial fibrillation) in different patient populations.
