Events for September 06, 2024
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Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series
Fri, Sep 06, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Dennis Discher, Ph.D., Robert D. Bent Professor, and Director, Physical Sciences Oncology Center/Project University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Talk Title: From Anti-Tumor Macrophages to Nuclear Mechanobiology
Abstract: Acquired immunity against tumors can in principle exploit the genetic differences that always drive cancers. Myeloid-type innate immune cells typically initiate immunity, but the cohesiveness and microenvironment of solid tumors tends to oppose such functions. We engineer tumoricidal macrophages that engulf cancer cells to initiate acquired immunity, and have discovered a cooperative mechanism for overcoming tumor cohesion. Nucleus mechanosensing has a role in model systems and helps clarify a broader landscape mechano-regulation that extends to trends for mutations across different liquid and solid tumors.
Biography: The Discher lab at Penn has contributed across cell and molecular bioengineering, biophysics, and materials biology. The lab discovered matrix elasticity effects on stem cell differentiation (Cell 2006) and nucleus mechanosensing (Science 2013). Recent efforts have focused on the mechanbiology of genetic changes in cancer and engineering of macrophages against solid tumors (Nat BME 2023). The latter followed molecular studies of ‘foreign’ versus ‘self’ recognition (Science 2013) and were motivated by delivery studies of block copolymer nano-assemblies (Science 2002). Discher is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the US National Academy of Engineering, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he serves on Editorial Boards of Science, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and PNAS Nexus, among other journals.
Host: Peter Wang
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
