*********************************
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
*********************************
Jonathan Chang
BME PhD Proposal Presentation
Date:2022-01-18
Time: 2:00 PM
Location / Meeting Link: https://bluejeans.com/554073001/0180
Committee Members:
Shuichi Takayama, PhD (Advisor) Hang Lu, PhD Young Jang, PhD Melissa Kemp, PhD Louise Hecker, PhD
Title: An in vitro model of persistent lung fibrosis for high-throughput drug testing
Abstract: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease which predominantly affects the elderly population. There are currently two FDA-approved drugs for IPF which have shown the ability to slow disease progression; however, they do not stop or reverse the fibrotic process. There is a need to identify new therapeutic compounds and treatment strategies capable of treating well-established lung fibrosis. Moreover, the majority of preclinical models used to discover new IPF drugs fail to incorporate characteristics of established or persistent disease. Therefore, this proposal’s objective is to build a high-throughput in vitro model that better recapitulates persistent lung fibrosis and to utilize this system to investigate novel therapeutic strategies for IPF. This project builds off previous work printing microscale fibroblast-laden fibrin drops in a 96 well microplate – a system mimicking early wound healing. First, senescent myofibroblasts – a key cellular driver of IPF – will be integrated into this system. Second, experimental IPF therapeutics will be tested in this adapted model over a wide range of concentrations. Finally, IPF drugs will be combined in a high-throughput screen to identify synergistic treatment strategies.
