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学术报告
2012年秋季先进机器人与MEMS技术系列学术讲座(49)
添加日期:2012-12-07 作者:王富春老师 来源:

南开大学机器人与信息自动化研究所
Institute of Robotics and Automatic Information System
2012年秋季先进机器人与MEMS技术系列学术讲座
Seminar Series:Advanced Robotics & MEMS

题目:Directing Tissue Morphology via Micro-manipulation and Cellular Self-Assembly
地点:主楼227室
时间:12月12日(周三)上午10:00~11:30
报告人:Dr. Ting-Hsuan Chen
单位:香港城市大学,机械与生物医药工程学院

Abstract:

What is the role of mechanical engineering in the exploration of biological science? One of the global challenges in biological research is regenerative medicine, which aims at cell-based therapy to rebuild the non-regenerative tissue. The reconstruction of tissue function requires the orchestration of its constituent cells, soluble chemical factors, and extracellular matrix in a spatiotemporal pattern. As such, the success of tissue regeneration requires “manufacture technology” to reproduce the structural features mimicking the spatial pattern in native tissue. However, natural tissue development heavily relies on self-organizing activities, which would defeat and frustrate the applied artificial guidance. Here, by working in concert with cellular self-organization rather than against it, we experimentally and mathematically demonstrate a method which directs self-organizing vascular mesenchymal cells (VMCs) to assemble into desired multicellular patterns. Incorporating the inherent chirality of VMCs revealed by interfacing with micro-engineered substrates and VMCs’ spontaneous aggregation, difference in distribution of initial cell plating can be amplified into the formation of exquisite radial structures or concentric rings mimicking the cross- sectional structure of liver lobules or osteons, respectively. Furthermore, when co-cultured with VMCs, non-pattern-forming endothelial cells tracked along the VMCs and formed a coherent radial or ring pattern in a coordinated manner, indicating the applicability to heterotypical cell organization. Thus, as a new way to control the tissue development, we demonstrated how BioMEMS serve as a role in biological investigation, with broad implications for functional replacements of injured tissue or construction of biomimetic micro-system platform.

Biography:

Ting-Hsuan Chen received his Bachelor’s degree (2003) and Master’s degree (2005) from National Tsing Hua University and Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles (2012). He is currently an Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include BioMEMS, Tissue Engineering, Turing-type Instability, Wettability and Microfluidics. Dr. Chen has been spearheading an array of multidisciplinary projects addressing the pattern formation of self‐organizing biological systems. He has made a fundamental discovery of cellular left-right symmetry breaking of vascular stem cells and successfully exploited this finding to engineer intricate pattern of tissue architecture. This work has a major implication for tissue engineering, cardiology disease and cancer. His recent researches include the in-vitro development of 3D tissue culture and a novel computational model of branching mechanism to explain the lung-airway-type tissue morphogenesis. In the early phase of his researches, he also conducted projects such as using deformable metal/polymer membrane for wettability modulation, a separation mechanism for using coffee ring effect, characterization of electrochemical sensors, and droplet-based microfluidics.