Recently, our group's Ph.D. student, Jinhyung Lee, published a review paper in collaboration with Dr. Yupeng Chen and Dr. Kazunori Hoshino and Mingze Sun titled "Studies of Nanoparticle Delivery with In Vitro Bio-engineered Microtissues" in Bioactive Materials

You can check out the publication here in ScienceDirect

We have summarized the articles below, but more information can be obtained by reading the publication posted above!

THE review focuses on the uses of various types of nanoparticle vehicles such as polystyrene beads, gold nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, quantum dots, and others in the application of drug delivery. Nanoparticles that come in all shapes and sizes have been utilized and applied in many areas such as cancer treatment, atherosclerosis treatment, osteoarthritis treatment, neuro-degenerative treatment, and many more. As the nanoparticles are becoming more complex, the efficacy can be tested with the utilization of in vitro bio-engineered microtissues, which is explained more in-depth in the paper.

The paper also discussed ways to synthesize these nanoparticles and modifications used to enhance the efficiency of drug delivery such as the presence of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) improving the hydrophilicity of copolymers, reducing the concentration of lactic acid produced after degradation. These modifications or functionalization of the surfaces of the nanoparticles are especially useful because they improve penetration as well as an increase in targeting delivery. With improve penetration, these functionalized particles could change the mechanism of membrane transport and even promote the penetration of drugs to biofilm and biological barriers in vivo.

Because there are different types of nanoparticles developed, the easiest way to study the impact of the delivery of these nanoparticles quantitatively is by using engineered tissue models. These models can be bioengineered 3D cell culture models like multicellular spheroids, that can provide a better perspective than conventional monolayer 2D cell culture method, as seen on figure 2 in the paper that showed the penetration of doxorubicin (DOX) to multicellular spheroids and the uptake into the core can be observed within 30 minutes. Figure 3 in the paper shows the penetration of different sized gold nanoparticles with spheroids after incubation of 3 and 24 hours. Figures 2 and 3 can be seen below.

Figure 2 and Figure 3. The penetration of gold nanoparticles into tissues as well as doxorubicin (DOX) into spheroids tissues.

The paper concluded that the current most commonly used methods for the study of nanoparticles are the utilization of multi-cellular spheroids because it can be easily prepared. However, the challenges scientists face currently is that these spheroids syntheses are dependant on the biological characteristics of cells used, therefore, quite unpredictable, in preparing a standard size/ shape/ properties across the board for more uniform testing. Other challenges faced by scientists are the lack of data in the correlation of mechanical characteristics and transport properties, such as the measurement of the elastic modulus allowing simple and direct means for quantitative tissue analysis.

Hello everyone,

I hope everything is well with everyone. It is an unprecedented time now that everything is close at UConn (Almost) I hope everyone is home safe and sound! On March 11th of 2020, right before the campus closed, Jin and I (Anne) were able to participate in SoE Poster Competition for Graduate Students!

Jin was able to present his poster on what he was doing the month before during the UCONN RNA Salon on Valentine's day! His poster presentiation titled "DNA-inspired Nanopiece for Enhanced Endosomal Escape and Efficient RNA Deliver"  was great and those images are amazing 🙂

Next, Anne (me!) is still working on the research! However, I was able to present some of my data in this presentation "Self-assembled Biomimetic Nano-matrix For Stem Cell Anchorage in Tissue Chips" Currently I am working on the development of Tissue chips to culture cells! We are at the beginning of the stage where we are making the chips with PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) via a master mold printed from a fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printer - MAKERBOT that we have on campus. Then we poured liquid PDMS polymer in and let it cured to obtain a solid resin, and we can go from there! The next step would be identifying the flow rate of the media, and inserting agarose in the channels to see how feasible it is before we do cell culture!

Currently, researchers are struggling to bridge the gaps to translate preclinical data into clinical data largely due to the use of animal models in the preclinical settings. The success of animal models often do not link to the success in human trials possibly because there were lack of human cells and tissues in the animal models. Not only animal models are expensive, they are also time consuming albeit the data was needed for FDA approval.

In the past few decades, researchers have been looking into different routes to bypass the need for animals in drug development and toxin testing before heading towards clinical trials in humans. One of them is with the use of Organ-on-a-chip (OOC). OOC is a 3D microfluidic chip that can simulate organs' activities by introducing mechanical or physiological response to the chip. Currently, there are many other organs-on-chips that have been simulated by microfluidic devices such as the heart, lung, kidney, artery, bone and more. There are many advantages when it comes to using OOC instead of animal models such as it being less time consuming, erases the ethical concerns in handling animals, less expensive and many more. Although this technology is new, this is a promising approach in eliminating the use of animal models once and for all.

Image: Link 

Happy Holidays to all~ and HAPPY 2020! A new decade is here, and let's face it with confidence and a positive mindset! Do you guys have new year resolutions? I, (Anne), kinda gave up a couple of years ago, because I never seem to get it done by end of the year. But I am willing to try to set a goal for myself this year, academically as well as personally!

New Year is also a wonderful time of the year and the perfect time to wish everyone well. A New Year is like a blank book and the pen is in your hands. It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself! Every year-end marks a new beginning! I wish everyone a Happy New and Fulfilling Year of 2020 (and many years to come)

How was Winter Break so far? We hope it has been a great one! It didn't snow much other than the couple times before the winter solstice, but we heard more snow is coming since the real "winter" is here (January/ February?) Everyone in the lab is working hard this winter break and I hope everyone got to at least take some time off to relax before the semester starts again on 1/21/2020!

Be prepared for more snow and cold! Stay warm, everyone.

Two weeks ago we had our very first HOLIDAY PARTY! Thanks, Dr. Chen, for providing both pizza and sandwiches! I know, sadly we did not get TURKEY (you know, for Thanksgiving!)! Maybe next time! 🙂
We all had a great time, getting to know each other. In the beginning we tried to search for music in youtube! We were wondering if there were actually any THanksgiving songs! Well, youtube did not dissapoint and we found another version of "baby shark" for Thanksgiving song. It did not last long before Ian changed it to Christmas songs 😛

Anne made white chocolate green tea matcha cookies and Jin brought a Korean rice drink (picture below) It was quite good, but beware of the rice in the bottom! Amazing how you can try different food in a diverse research group! 🙂

Dr. Chen is giving a few words before the feast starts!

That is the drink Jin brought! Pretty good! (Background of sandwiches lol)

That was the baby shark Thanksgiving music playing with Emily as the decoration 😛

Last Friday, we had the honor of inviting Dr. Webster to come to give a talk in our school on the topic "Goodbye Hospitals: Hello Implantable Nanosensors”

He gave a great talk and he was an amazing teacher. And guess what?! He was our PI's PI. He told us that the students under Dr.Chen are now his (Professor Webster's) grand-students! (Get it? Get it?  Grandkid??)

This is his WEBSITE

Research:
There is an acute shortage of organs due to disease, trauma, a congenital defect, and most importantly, age-related maladies. While tissue engineering (and nanotechnology) has made great strides towards improving tissue growth, infection control has been largely forgotten. Critically, as a consequence, the Centers for Disease Control have predicted more deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria than all cancers combined by 2050. Moreover, there has been a lack of translation in real commercial products. This talk will summarize how nanotechnology can be used to increase tissue growth and decrease implant infection without using antibiotics but using sensors (while getting regulatory approval). Our group has shown that nanofeatures, nano-modifications, nanoparticles, and most importantly, nanosensors can reduce bacterial growth without using antibiotics. This talk will summarize techniques and efforts to create nanosensors for a wide range of medical and tissue engineering applications, particularly those
that have received FDA approval and are currently being implanted in humans.

Biography:

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 90) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995) and in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S., 1997; Ph.D., 2000). Prof. Webster has graduated/supervised over 189 visiting faculty, clinical fellows, post-doctoral students, and thesis completing B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. students. To date, his lab group has generated over 13 textbooks, 68 book chapters, 276 invited presentations, at least 583 peer-reviewed literature articles and/or conference proceedings, at least 867 conference presentations, and 42 provisional or full patents. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Nanomedicine (pioneering the open-access format). Prof. Webster currently directs or co-directs several centers in the area of biomaterials: The Center for Natural and Tropical Biomaterials (Medellin, Colombia), The Center for Pico and Nanomedicine (Wenzhou China), and The International Materials Research Center (Soochow, China). Prof. Webster has received numerous honors including but not limited to: 2012, Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE, representing the top 2% of all medical and biological engineers); 2013, Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society; 2015, Wenzhou 580 Award; 2015, Zheijang 1000 Talent Program; 2016, International Materials Research Chinese Academy of Science Lee-Hsun Lecture Award; 2016, International College of Fellows, Biomaterials Science and Engineering; 2016, Acta Biomaterialia Silver Award; 2018, Fellow, National Academy of Inventors; 2019, Overseas Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine (UK); and 2019, Fellow, International Journal of Nanomedicine. He also served as the President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials. He has appeared on BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, the Weather Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the recent special ‘Year Million’ TV series on National Geographic talking about the future of medicine and science.

As you all know, our Post-docs and a senior in the lab went to the BMES conference in Philly two weeks ago (Middle of October 2019)! They had so much fun they forgot to take pictures! The weather was very nice and they have learned a lot from going there!

Did anyone go to BMES? If so, did you have a chance to check out their poster presentation?

Dr Wuxia with his Poster 🙂 The title of his poster is "DNA-inspired Janus Base Nanotubes for Hydrophobic Drug Delivery"

Dr. Wuxia explaining and presenting his work!

Dr Libo with her Poster presentation! 🙂 The title of her poster is "Self-assembled Biomimetic Nano-Matrix for Stem Cell Anchorage"

Looked like it was great week for them. I hope we will be getting more pictures from other conferences soon! Ian Sands (a senior in our lab) presented on his Frontier's conference on 10/30/2019! We will chase him for photos and updates if possible!