Probing the role of cell-cell interactions in hepatic ensembles

While organ transplantation is one of the greatest advances of modern medicine and provides immense therapeutic benefit to patients suffering from severe and fatal liver disease, donor tissue is scarce. Alternatives such as engineered cell-based therapies aim to restore tissue-specific functions of solid organs, but leave much to be desired. Key challenges hindering the translation of cell-based therapies relate to (1) cell sourcing, (2) graft scale-up, and (3) vascularization, all of which contribute to therapeutic performance. The performance of an implantable graft is a function of the underlying cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. These grafts typically consist of a multicellular ensemble in which combinations of epithelial, stromal, and immune cells give rise to physiologic function. Currently, precise, spatiotemporal control of these interactions is experimentally intractable.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Amanda X.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sangeeta N. Bhatia and Robert S. Langer.

• Biological Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130801

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130801