Jonathan Chang
BME PhD Proposal Presentation

Date:2022-01-18
Time: 2:00 PM
Location / Meeting Link: https://bluejeans.com/554073001/0180

Committee Members:
Shuichi Takayama, PhD (Advisor) Hang Lu, PhD Young Jang, PhD Melissa Kemp, PhD Louise Hecker, PhD


Title: An in vitro model of persistent lung fibrosis for high-throughput drug testing

Abstract: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease which predominantly affects the elderly population. There are currently two FDA-approved drugs for IPF which have shown the ability to slow disease progression; however, they do not stop or reverse the fibrotic process. There is a need to identify new therapeutic compounds and treatment strategies capable of treating well-established lung fibrosis. Moreover, the majority of preclinical models used to discover new IPF drugs fail to incorporate characteristics of established or persistent disease. Therefore, this proposal’s objective is to build a high-throughput in vitro model that better recapitulates persistent lung fibrosis and to utilize this system to investigate novel therapeutic strategies for IPF. This project builds off previous work printing microscale fibroblast-laden fibrin drops in a 96 well microplate – a system mimicking early wound healing. First, senescent myofibroblasts – a key cellular driver of IPF – will be integrated into this system. Second, experimental IPF therapeutics will be tested in this adapted model over a wide range of concentrations. Finally, IPF drugs will be combined in a high-throughput screen to identify synergistic treatment strategies.