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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
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Summary Sentence: Impact of Extracellular Matrix in Biomedical Research - Katja Schenke-Layland, PhD, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology
Full Summary: Katja Schenke-Layland, PhD, will speak as a guest of the Stem Cell Engineering Center on March 13th in the Petit Institute.
Katja Schenke-LaylandKatja Schenke-Layland, PhD - Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology
Impact of Extracellular Matrix in Biomedical Research
In addition to cellular components, extracellular matrix (ECM) is one of the most important components of all tissue types in the human body. It consists of fibers and networks composed of structural proteins, such as collagen or elastin. The ECM directs cell orientation in the three-dimensional (3D) space, is essential for cell migration and affects cell communication and differentiation. In my presentation, I will focus on non-invasive microscopy methods used to visualize ECM structures - multiphoton-induced autofluorescence microscopy and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) imaging as well as Raman spectroscopy - and discuss their application in the areas of matrix biology and regenerative medicine. I would also like to give a quick summary of our groups work in the field of biomaterials and stem cell biology, focusing on stem-/progenitor cell-ECM interactions.
Katja Schenke-Layland, PhD, received a master of science in biology, psychology and sociology in 2001 and her doctorate degree in biology in 2004 from the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) in Jena, Germany. She worked as a researcher at the Departments of Anatomy (2000-2001) and Cardiothoracic Surgery (2001-2004) at the FSU Jena, Germany before she went to Los Angeles, California where she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (2004-2005) and the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles at UCLA (2005-2008). In 2008 she was appointed as Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Medicine/Cardiology at UCLA. In January 2010, she became the group leader of the Fraunhofer-Attract Group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Department of Cell and Tissue Engineering in Stuttgart, Germany and later accepted the position of deputy department head. Schenke-Layland just recently accepted her call as professor of biomaterials at the University Tübingen.
Every semester, the SCEC welcomes a keynote speaker to the Georgia Tech stem cell research community to speak on behalf of their university, institution, industry, or research lab in regards to stem cell engineering. This experience is meant to broaden the stem cell research alliance between local researchers and worldwide experts for the purposes of communicating stem cell advancements across the globe while developing future collaborative opportunities.
