BME7900 Seminar - Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD

Description

For our next speaker in our seminar series, we welcome Dr. Jennifer Elisseeff from Johns Hopkins University. She is the Morton Goldberg Professor and Director of the Tranlational Tissue Engineering Center at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute. Mapping the Cellular Response to Biomaterials in Young and Aged ABSTRACT: Biomaterials serve as the basis of implants, tissue engineering scaffolds, and multiple other biomedical therapeutics. New technologies, such as single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), are enabling characterization of the biomaterial response to an unprecedented level of detail, facilitating new discoveries in the complex cellular environment surrounding materials. We performed scRNAseq and integrated data sets from multiple experiments to create a single cell atlas of the biomaterials response. We identified condition specific intercellular signaling patterns connected to transcription factor activation in the biomaterial response defining interactions between immune, fibroblast, and tissue-specific modules with biomaterials-specific communication patterns in young and aged animals. Understanding local, regional and systemic cell populations and their communication in wounds and biomaterials will uncover new mechanisms and therapeutic targets in tissue repair and fibrosis. BIO: Dr. Elisseeff is the Morton Goldberg Professor and Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute with appointments in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Orthopedic Surgery. She was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum. In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine and in 2019 she received the NIH Directors Pioneer Award. Jennifer received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Medical Engineering from the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Later she was a Fellow at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Pharmacology Research Associate Program, where she worked in the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. She has published over 200 papers, book chapters, and patent applications and received a number of awards including the Carnegie Young Alumni Award and in 2002 she was named by MIT Technology Review as a top innovator under 35. She is committed to the translation of regenerative biomaterials and has founded several companies and participates in several industry advisory boards including the State of Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). Jennifer’s initial research efforts focused on the development of biomaterials for studying stem cells and designing regenerative medicine technologies for application in orthopedics, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and ophthalmology. In clinical translation of these technologies, the group recognized the importance of the immune response in regenerative medicine responses. This led to a significant shift in research efforts to biomaterials-directed regenerative immunology and leveraging the adaptive immune system to promote tissue repair. The group is now characterizing the immune and stromal environments of healing versus non-healing wounds and tumors. Biomaterials are now being applied to model and manipulate tissue environments and studying the impact of systemic and environmental factors such as aging and senescent cells, sex differences, and infection/microbiome on tissue repair and homeostasis.