{"689612":{"#nid":"689612","#data":{"type":"event","title":"uPS X MCELS seminar series_Microphysiological Systems","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMulti-Cellular Engineered Living Systems (M-CELS) is a student-led organization founded by students from Georgia Tech, UIUC, and MIT. We coordinate a joint seminar series focused on advancing research and discussion in multicellular systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlease join us for our next Micro-physiological Systems (uPS)\u0026nbsp;seminar\u0026nbsp;in collaboration with the cross-institutional Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems (M-CELS) team on the theme of\u0026nbsp;\u0022 Microphysiological Systems \u0022.\u0026nbsp;This\u0026nbsp;seminar\u0026nbsp;is in collaboration with MIT and UIUC and will feature one speaker from each of the universities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;seminar\u0026nbsp;will be held virtually on\u0026nbsp;Apr 13th\u0026nbsp;at 2:30 \u2013 3:30 PM Eastern Time, and the zoom link is \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96832323232\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96832323232\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESeminar\u0026nbsp;Speakers:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJoscelyn Mejias, Ph.D. (GaTech)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u0026nbsp;Microphysiologic Devices for the Study of Fibrotic Diseases in Women\u2019s Health and Aging\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;The fields of biomaterials and organs-on-a-chip have given us an unprecedented ability to recapitulate units of human organs to better understand health and disease. However, applying these tools to female-specific physiology or even recapitulating female-specific organs has lagged far behind, as has adapting these tools to the physiologic changes associated with aging. Our work spans biomaterial systems and organ-on-a-chip platforms to recapitulate the biologic complexities of sex, age, and immune status in driving fibrosis. The discussion will provide an overview of current work on microphysiologic devices related to women\u2019s health, efforts replicate the organ microenvironment, and the vision of future directions for microphysiologic systems to enable discovery in diseases that remain understudied and undertreated.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQin Maggie Qi, Ph.D. (MIT)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Building Advanced In Vitro Models to Study Neuroinflammation in Retinal Diseases\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;A grand challenge in retinal research is the lack of suitable in vitro tools to understand disease mechanisms, manufacture cells and test therapeutic outcomes. Our group has been developing new in vitro devices mimicking the retina and retinal diseases using microfluidic principles. In this work, I will discuss our ongoing work to study immunopathology regulating glaucoma disease progression in collaboration with Dr. Dong Feng Chen at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. In addition, we have recently made progress on device-specific quantitative modeling that can extract more information about cell-cell interactions from in vitro data, which can further expand the power of \u2018retina-on-a-chip\u2019.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESusan E. Leggett , Ph.D. (UIUC)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EEngineering Microphysiological Systems to Study Tumor Heterogeneity and Metastatic Spread in Breast and Ovarian Cancer\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003ETumor heterogeneity and metastatic spread are shaped by dynamic interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment. My lab develops microphysiological systems to reconstruct key features of breast and ovarian cancer and to study how physical context, multicellular interactions, and tissue architecture drive disease progression. This talk highlights an on-chip breast tumor model that reveals how tumor heterogeneity influences tumor growth and invasion kinetics, alongside a newly engineered peritoneal cavity platform that models the transcoelomic spread of ovarian cancer. Using live-cell imaging across these systems, we investigate how tumor cells move, interact with surrounding tissues, and disseminate during early metastatic colonization. Together, this work shows how engineered microphysiological systems provide new insight into tumor heterogeneity and cancer spread.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPlease join us for our next Micro-physiological Systems (uPS)\u0026nbsp;seminar\u0026nbsp;in collaboration with the cross-institutional Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems (M-CELS) team on the theme of\u0026nbsp;\u0022 Microphysiological Systems \u0022.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Please join us for our next Micro-physiological Systems (uPS)\u00a0seminar\u00a0in collaboration with the cross-institutional Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems (M-CELS) team on the theme of\u00a0\u0022 Microphysiological Systems \u0022.\u00a0"}],"uid":"36837","created_gmt":"2026-04-10 14:32:50","changed_gmt":"2026-04-10 14:34:12","author":"ejenkins47","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-04-13T14:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-04-13T15:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-04-13T15:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-04-13 18:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-04-13 19:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-04-13 19:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Online Zoom Meeting","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1182","name":"General"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"194683","name":"Talk"},{"id":"1791","name":"Student sponsored"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"194945","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"177814","name":"Postdoc"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:lchen668@gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELiang-Hsin (Sally) Che\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}