Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for February
-
CANCELLED
Mon, Feb 03, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nicholas Schweighofer, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy, USC
Talk Title: Computational Neurorehabilitation: Modeling Recovery Post-Stroke
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENR)
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Megan McCain, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Biomedical Engineering Department
Talk Title: TBA
Series: Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH Seminars)
Biography: http://bme.usc.edu/directory/faculty/core-faculty/megan-mccain.htm
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
More Info: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfpLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfp
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
Event Link: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Jungwoo Lee, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Enabling 3D Microenvironments for Bone Marrow Bioengineering
Abstract: Bone marrow, a sponge-like gelatinous and vascular tissue located at the inside of bone matrix is a vital part of human body as a major reservoir of adult stem cells, an exclusive site for hematopoiesis, and a key regulator of body homeostasis via continuous cellular trafficking. Bone marrow is also deeply involved in metastasis of many prominent tumors e.g. breast and prostate tumors as a direct metastatic target for disseminated circulating tumor cells and/or a potent instigator of their metastatic spread to other peripheral tissue sites. Therefore, in depth understanding of bone marrow biology is critical to advance many fields of modern medicine. However, probing the bone marrow microenvironments has been challenging because of its anatomical inaccessibility, tissue complexity and lack of relevant preclinical models. In this talk, I will introduce bioengineering strategies to develop functional and standardized bone marrow models based on 3D hydrogel scaffolds that closely emulate physical and anatomical features of the bone marrow in a controlled and reproducible manner. Specifically I will discuss development of in vitro and in vivo human bone marrow tissue analogues combining the 3D hydrogel scaffolds with primary human bone marrow stromal cells that recapitulate essential bone marrow functions with high analytical power. In the last part of my talk, I will introduce an exciting application of our in vivo bone marrow model for studying human prostate tumor metastasis with several enabling features. Biomimetic design of 3D hydrogel scaffolds coupled with a powerful set of material, microfluidic, imaging and cellular engineering tools offer unique opportunity to build functional and analytical preclinical bone marrow models for studying many complex, dynamic physiological and pathological processes in the bone marrow.
Biography: Jungwoo Lee received his Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2009 under Prof. Nicholas Kotov. He then joined the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital as a postdoctoral research fellow. Currently Jungwoo is a NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) fellow from National Cancer Institute. He has authored and co-authored over 24 papers in PNAS, Nature Materials, Biomaterials, Small and other major research journals, and has won several honors and awards including Postdoctoral Fellowship from Shriners Hospital for Children, Poster Distinction Award from Annual MGH Research Symposium, Selection of "Cell Biology 2010" from ASCB Annual meeting, 1st Place in Entrepreneurial Challenging from MRS meeting, Distinguished Achievement Award from Univ. Michigan, and Horace H. Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. His research has focused on developing preclinical in vitro and in vivo human bone marrow models that can be used in a diverse range of bone marrow related fundamental and translational studies.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
President's Day - HOLIDAY, NO SEMINAR
Mon, Feb 17, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Wed, Feb 19, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Keyue Shen, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Engineering Cell Microenvironments for Cancer Therapeutics
Abstract: Host stromal cells have been increasingly recognized as key regulators in cancer microenvironment. As cancer progresses, normal suppressive stroma is replaced by an activated, cancer-promoting one. This is accompanied by suppression of tumor-inhibiting infiltrating lymphocytes, and an increasingly disorganized tumor-stroma interface. In this talk, I will present subcellular microengineering approaches to control T cell activation through spatial and mechanical cues for cancer immunotherapy. I will also demonstrate an interfacial interaction model for understanding spatially resolved tumor-stromal signaling and discovering cancer chemotherapeutics that target the tumor-stroma interface.
Biography: Keyue Shen is a Research Fellow at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he has won an MGH Fund for Medical Discovery Award. He received his Ph.D with Distinction in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, and obtained M.S. in Biology and B.Eng. (summa cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University of China. His research interests are in developing in vitro microengineered models of cell microenvironments in immune system, cancer, and stem cell niches, for applications in immune and cancer therapeutics, as well as regenerative medicine.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 136
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Perla Ayala, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Engineering Materials to Support Tissue Regeneration
Abstract: There is increasing evidence that the efficacy of tissue regeneration is likely dependent on creating a suitable microenvironment that can support cell function. Moreover, the design of successful engineered therapies for tissue regeneration relies on discerning how cell behavior in the biological microenvironment can be modulated by chemical and physical cues. In the first part of this work, the combinatorial effect of stiffness and micro-scale topographical cues on cell proliferation and gene expression is investigated in 2D and 3D. Results demonstrate that regulation of extracellular matrix production by cells on 2D and 3D cultures can be influenced via microscale physical cues alone and highlight the role of stiffness on the physical regulation of cells. Furthermore, biocompatible microstructures are developed as injectable micro-scaffolds and as growth factor delivery devices to influence tissue regeneration in vivo after myocardial infarction in the rat model. The major objective in the development of engineered tissues is to design and create scaffolds that will properly integrate with the host tissue to support the regenerative process. In the second part of this work, a strategy for abdominal wall repair is developed by engineering a mechanically robust composite scaffold laden with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) designed to improve therapeutic outcomes. My studies are focused on designing and fabricating engineered implantable materials that support tissue regeneration by influencing the in vivo microenvironment to direct cells to regenerative behavior.
Biography: Perla Ayala is postdoctoral research fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and an affiliate postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Boston, MA. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco in 2011 and obtained her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with honors from the University of California, Riverside in 2005. As an undergraduate she carried out research at UCR and did summer research internships at Cornell University and at MIT.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100C
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Seminars in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yuguo Lei, Ph.D., Postdoctoral CIRM Scholar, Postdoctoral Fellow, the David Schaffer Laboratory Department of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: Building Scalable 3D Culture Systems for the Cost-effective Production of Clinical Grade Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Abstract: Building Scalable 3D Culture Systems for the Cost-effective Production of Clinical Grade Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have the capacities for indefinite in vitro expansion and differentiation into presumably all cell types in the human body. They therefore represent highly promising cell sources for numerous biomedical applications, such as cell therapy, tissue engineering, drug discovery and toxicity testing. These applications require large numbers of cells of high quality and purity. For instance, ~105 surviving dopaminergic (DA) neurons, ~109 cardiomyocytes, or ~109 ò cells are required to treat a patient with Parkinson�s disease (PD), myocardial infarction (MI), or type I diabetes respectively. Analogously, ~1010 hepatocytes are needed for an artificial human liver, and ~1010 cells may be required to screen a million compound library. Considering the large patient populations with degenerative diseases, as well as the millions of chemical/peptide/nucleotide compounds that can be screened against many cell types, massive numbers of hPSCs are thus needed. It is becoming clear that the current 2D-based cell culture systems are incapable of producing sufficient cells with high quality. An attractive approach for scaling up cell production is to move the cell culture from 2D to 3D, and accordingly several 3D suspension systems have been probed for hPSCs production, specifically cell aggregates, cells on microcarriers, and cells in alginate microencapsulates. While these approaches have some attractive aspects, they also highlight significant challenges for 3D hPSC culture including: i) the use of components from human or animal tissue (such as Matrigel, serum, BSA), which limits reproducibility and scalability as well as poses risks for pathogen and immunogen transfer that are problematic for GMP cell production; ii) substantial cell agglomeration that can lead to differentiation and/or death; iii) shear force in agitated cultures that can compromise cell viability; iv) modest cell expansion rates and low cell yields per volume and v) unclear potential for long term serial expansion.
In this presentation, I will introduce a 3D culture system that utilizes a thermoreversible hydrogel as matrix for versatile and multi-scale hPSC culture. With this simple, defined, scalable, GMP compliant system and protocol that are free of animal derived products, we achieved long-term, high rates of expansion (~20-fold per passage over 5 days, 1072-fold over 280 days, and ~2.0x107 cells/ml gel yield), and high level maintenance of pluripotency (~95%) for multiple hESC and hiPSC lines, all of which offer considerable improvements over the current approaches. Based on this system, we then developed a defined bioprocess for the scalable production of DA neurons from hPSCs for treating PD. We made a small molecule cocktail that can efficiently convert hPSCs into DA progenitors in the 3D hydrogel with a yield of ~8x107 DA progenitors/ml hydrogel and ~80-fold expansion by the end of a 15-day derivation. These cells could survive, mature and function in vivo. I will also present data on using these cells to treat PD in a rodent model. This versatile culture system has the potential to resolve a major challenge that is currently limiting the applications of hPSCs.
Biography: Dr. Yuguo Lei received his B.S. in chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China and his M.S. in polymer science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. He then went to UCLA for a M.S. in pharmacology and Ph.D. in chemical engineering before doing his postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley.
His research interests are to resolve some unsolved human health problems with hPSC-based products. He develops new technologies to address significant challenges that limit the advancement of hPSC-derived cells or products from the benchtop to the bedside. To achieve this goal, he pursues fundamental advances at the intersection of biomaterial design, molecular, cellular and tissue engineering as well as hPSC biology. The resulting technologies are useful for drug discovery, tissue engineering and cell therapies, and Dr. Lei is applying them to treat a number of degenerative diseases, with a focus on the central nervous system.
Host: David D'Argenio
Location: 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENR)
Mon, Feb 24, 2014 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Paola Cesari, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Talk Title: Action observation and action imagination: from pathology to the excellent sport performance
Series: Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH Seminars)
Biography: http://www.dsnm.univr.it/?ent=persona&id=1611
Host: Francisco Valero-Cuevas
More Info: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
Webcast: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfpLocation: Center For Health Professions (CHP) - 147
WebCast Link: http://capture.usc.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/946350f1ca8440e7b867e16adba01e4e21/?state=xJE9EJIqlAdw4AAliKfp
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
Event Link: Refreshments will be served from 3.30 to 4 pm.
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
