*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Advisor: Andrés J. García
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee:
Johnna S. Temenoff, Ph.D. - Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Edward A. Botchwey, Ph.D. - Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Thomas H. Barker, Ph.D. - Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Thomas J. Burkholder, Ph.D. - School of Applied Physiology, Georgia Institute of Technology
A functional, contractile unit mainly consisting of muscle cells can form the force actuator component of a cellular machine. Locomotion using biological elements remains a challenge, yet the potential impact of biological machines is high: significantly enhancing or transforming our ability to perform certain tasks such as detecting harmful contaminants in food and drugs, harvesting energy or mimicking aspects of organ function. Meanwhile, there is a need for regenerative medicine strategies to enhance or induce de novo formation of functional skeletal muscle as a treatment for congenital absence or traumatic loss of tissue.
Alignment and differentiation of skeletal progenitor monolayers into myotubes has been achieved on a variety of synthetic scaffolds, while functionality of 3D skeletal muscle constructs has been limited to biological scaffolds. The purpose of this research project is to engineer a 3D microenvironment, using synthetic, polymer-based hydrogels, to promote the development of differentiated muscle tissue from skeletal muscle progenitor cells to form contractile units. We hypothesize that by modulating controllable hydrogel properties we can create critical environmental features and modes of interaction to promote attachment, proliferation and differentiation for the stable formation of multinucleated myotubes and consequently, functional skeletal muscle tissue constructs.
