{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129202"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129202","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Establishing a joint 2D/3D high throughput approach for evaluation of the effects of Wnt signaling and microenvironemtnal cues on liver progenitor cell differentiation","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Grenci, Brock"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Bioengineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Underhill, Gregory H"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-04-16","date_published":"2025-04-16","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:04Z","subjects":["Liver Progenitor Cell","Wnt Signaling","Microenvironmental Cues"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Brock Grenci"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129202","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Underhill, Gregory H"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Grenci, Brock"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-04-16","2025-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Bioengineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Liver Progenitor Cell","Wnt Signaling","Microenvironmental Cues"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Brock Grenci"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129202"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","The student, Brock Grenci, accepted the attached license on 2025-04-15 at 17:27.","The student, Brock Grenci, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-04-15 at 17:36.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-04-16 at 07:54.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #21782 on 2025-10-19 at 18:09:23","Liver development is a complex process mediated by intrinsic cell genetics and the surrounding microenvironment. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway plays a crucial role in early liver development and homeostasis. Dysregulation of various parts of this pathway can cause disease, including many types of cancer. The mechanisms behind how these genetic alterations affect cell fate or spatial patterning in combination with microenvironmental cues is not fully understood, though. Here we demonstrate the effect of Wnt signaling alterations in combination with microenvironmental cues on liver progenitor cell fate and spatial patterning using well defined high throughput 2D and 3D culture platforms. Microcontact printing is used to create protein islands on polyacrylamide gels of varying stiffness, allowing for modulation of the 2D cellular microenvironment. Similarly, a high throughput PEG-acrylate microwell system is employed to study microenvironmental effects on liver progenitor cell differentiation in 3D. This is used in conjunction with shRNA mediated knockdowns to study combinatorial effects of intrinsic and extrinsic cellular factors on liver cell differentiation. We demonstrate that impairing the destruction complex increases biliary differentiation and decreases hepatic differentiation while also shifting spatial patterning of the cells. These changes in differentiation can be further tuned by the tissue microenvironment and show that recapitulating a diseased microenvironment can affect differentiation."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Establishing a joint 2D/3D high throughput approach for evaluation of the effects of Wnt signaling and microenvironemtnal cues on liver progenitor cell differentiation"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Underhill, Gregory H"],"dc:creator":["Grenci, Brock"],"dc:date":["2025-04-16","2025-05"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","The student, Brock Grenci, accepted the attached license on 2025-04-15 at 17:27.","The student, Brock Grenci, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-04-15 at 17:36.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-04-16 at 07:54.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #21782 on 2025-10-19 at 18:09:23","Liver development is a complex process mediated by intrinsic cell genetics and the surrounding microenvironment. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway plays a crucial role in early liver development and homeostasis. Dysregulation of various parts of this pathway can cause disease, including many types of cancer. The mechanisms behind how these genetic alterations affect cell fate or spatial patterning in combination with microenvironmental cues is not fully understood, though. Here we demonstrate the effect of Wnt signaling alterations in combination with microenvironmental cues on liver progenitor cell fate and spatial patterning using well defined high throughput 2D and 3D culture platforms. Microcontact printing is used to create protein islands on polyacrylamide gels of varying stiffness, allowing for modulation of the 2D cellular microenvironment. Similarly, a high throughput PEG-acrylate microwell system is employed to study microenvironmental effects on liver progenitor cell differentiation in 3D. This is used in conjunction with shRNA mediated knockdowns to study combinatorial effects of intrinsic and extrinsic cellular factors on liver cell differentiation. We demonstrate that impairing the destruction complex increases biliary differentiation and decreases hepatic differentiation while also shifting spatial patterning of the cells. These changes in differentiation can be further tuned by the tissue microenvironment and show that recapitulating a diseased microenvironment can affect differentiation."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129202"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Brock Grenci"],"dc:subject":["Liver Progenitor Cell","Wnt Signaling","Microenvironmental Cues"],"dc:title":["Establishing a joint 2D/3D high throughput approach for evaluation of the effects of Wnt signaling and microenvironemtnal cues on liver progenitor cell differentiation"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Bioengineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:04Z"}