The physical properties of the extracellular matrix such as stiffness, viscoelasticity, fiber diameter, and chemical composition are well known as important modulators of cell behavior in vivo. Therefore, over the past decade, there has been a major emphasis on characterizing the…
Author: Adeel Ahmed
Microfluidic control over millimeter scale alignment of collagen fibers
Type I collagen is a fibrous protein and the largest constituent of the ECM by mass. Collagen fibers are aligned across several millimeters to centimeters within load-bearing tissues, like the musculoskeletal tissue, cardiac tissue, and the cornea. Millimeter scale regions of…
Posted in NRG
Microengineered three-dimensional collagen fiber landscapes with independently tunable anisotropy and directionality
Link to BioRxiv paper The extracellular matrix in vivo is composed of fibers arranged with varying degrees of alignment in different directions. The extent of alignment (anisotropy) and the directionality of fibers are an indicator of breast cancer metastasis, influence…
Posted in NRG
BMES 2019 – Cell matrix interactions and platforms for creating engineered ECMs
BMES 2019 saw a number of talks being presented on the topic of controlling extracellular matrix architecture and understanding how cells respond to physical cues from their in ECM. My focus was primarily on talks pertaining to the tumor microenvironment…
