Kambez Benam's Biography

Kambez Benam, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering, University of Colorado Denver

Kambez Benam is Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine with a secondary appointment at the Department of Bioengineering. He is the founder of Lung Microengineering Lab, which brings together researchers from the engineering, biology, biopharmaceutical industry, clinical and business communities with the aim of developing new technologies that recreate complex human organ pathophysiology in vitro, and applying them to discover novel therapeutics and personalized biomarkers. His research focuses on applying disruptive technologies that enable his team to elucidate cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern tissue pathology or offer protection during lung injury and host-environment interaction. Dr. Benam received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Pharmacology from the Newcastle University (UK), and his D.Phil. in Immunology from the University of Oxford (UK). He then was trained as a Technology Development Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Dr. Benam has been the recipient of multiple awards including Society of Toxicology IRSS, Baxter and Lush Young Investigator Awards and his work has received extensive press coverage (Fox News, BBC, STAT News, Harvard Gazette, Washington Times, IEEE Spectrum, etc.). He has published in leading scientific journals (NATURE METHODS, CELL SYSTEMS, JCI INSIGHT, etc.) and is a co-inventor on eleven pending patent applications and multiple reports of invention.

Microengineering Human Lung Airway Mimicry: Now and Future

Tuesday, 15 October 2019 at 16:00

Add to Calendar ▼2019-10-15 16:00:002019-10-15 17:00:00Europe/LondonMicroengineering Human Lung Airway Mimicry: Now and FutureOrgan-on-a-Chip World Congress 2019 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Development of new therapeutics for pulmonary disorders, and advancement in our understanding of inhalational toxico-pathology have been hindered by challenges to study organ-level complexities of human lung in vitro. Moreover, clinical relevance of widely used animal models of respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which poses a huge public health burden, is questionable. Here, we applied a tissue microengineering approach to create a ‘human lung small airway-on-a-chip’ that supports full differentiation of a pseudostratified mucociliary bronchiolar epithelium from normal or diseased donors underlined by a functional microvascular endothelium. Small airway chips lined with COPD epithelia recapitulated features of the disease including selective cytokine hypersecretion, increased neutrophil recruitment, and clinical exacerbations by exposure to pathogens. Using this robust in vitro approach, it was possible to detect synergistic tissue-tissue communication, identify new biomarkers of disease exacerbation, and measure responses to anti-inflammatory compounds that inhibit cytokine-induced recruitment of circulating neutrophils. Importantly, by connecting the small airway chip to a custom-designed electromechanical instrument that ‘breathes’ whole cigarette smoke in and out of the chip microchannels, we successfully recreated smoke-induced oxidative stress, identified new ciliary micropathologies, and discovered unique COPD-specific molecular signatures. Additionally, this platform revealed a subtle ciliary damage triggered by acute exposure to electronic cigarette. Thus, the human small airway-on-a-chip offers a powerful complement to animal models for studying human lung pathophysiology.

Add to Calendar ▼2019-10-14 00:00:002019-10-15 00:00:00Europe/LondonOrgan-on-a-Chip World Congress 2019Organ-on-a-Chip World Congress 2019 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Corporate Sponsors