Elisa Nieves
BME PhD Defense Presentation

Date: 2026-02-25
Time: 2:00 pm
Location / Meeting Link: IBB Suddath Seminar Room 1128 | https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98536993455 Meeting ID: 985 3699 3455

Committee Members:
Andrés García, PhD (Advisor); Edward Botchwey, PhD; Jeroen Eyckmans, PhD; Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD; Alyssa Panitch, PhD;


Title: Engineering pulmonary microtissues to investigate fibrotic tissue remodeling

Abstract:
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease characterized by excessive ECM deposition and tissue stiffening. Current therapies available to IPF fail to halt or reverse fibrosis. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is an important mechanosignaling protein involved in tissue repair and homeostasis; however, its role in pulmonary fibrosis remains poorly understood. By engineering a medium-throughput pulmonary microtissue model, I explored the effects of FAK inhibition on fibroblast-mediated ECM remodeling. A pulmonary microtissue protocol was optimized to achieve moderate to high yields across five IPF donors and four healthy donors. Pulmonary microtissues were responsive to fibrotic stimuli and provided multiple metrics of fibrotic burden to evaluate the effectiveness of antifibrotic compounds. Compared with current FDA-approved antifibrotics (pirfenidone, nintedanib, and nerandomilast), FAK inhibition via VS-6063 was the only compound that significantly reduced collagen I and EDA fibronectin expression in pulmonary microtissues generated using IPF cells. These findings highlight the importance of FAK signaling in the fibrotic ECM remodeling and supports further investigation into FAK inhibition as an antifibrotic drug candidate.