Janna Nawroth,
Principal Investigator, R&D Lead,
Emulate, Inc.
Dr. Nawroth is Principal Investigator and Research & Development (R&D) Lead at Emulate, Inc. Based on their Organs-on-Chips technology, Emulate is developing a new living system that places cells within micro-engineered environments, allowing researchers to understand how different diseases, medicines, chemicals and foods affect human health.
Nawroth has more than six years' experience in academia and industry in leadership roles in basic research and discovery and in managing technology development. Prior to joining Emulate, she led the development of engineered cardiac muscle and Heart-Chip technology as a Technology Development Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Her work on the Heart-Chip and other Organ-Chips has been published in high-impact scientific journals and has been presented at international conferences.
Nawroth earned her Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology in collaboration with Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research career has focused on the biomechanics and fluid interactions of living tissues and organs and on the development of micro-engineered systems for drug safety and efficacy testing. She has co-authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents.
Organs-on-Chips Technology Enables Better Understanding of Human Pathogenesis and Development of Therapeutics
Thursday, 4 October 2018 at 14:30
Add to Calendar ▼2018-10-04 14:30:002018-10-04 15:30:00Europe/LondonOrgans-on-Chips Technology Enables Better Understanding of Human Pathogenesis and Development of TherapeuticsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Organs-on-Chips are micro-engineered systems that recapitulate the tissue microenvironment. Each Organ-Chip, which is composed of a clear flexible polymer, is about the size of an AA battery and contains tiny hollow channels lined with living cells. The Chips are cultured under continuous flow within engineered 3D microenvironments that go beyond conventional 3D in vitro models by recapitulating in vivo intercellular interactions, spatiotemporal gradients, vascular perfusion, and mechanical forces — all key drivers of cell architecture, differentiated function, and gene expression. In this presentation, we discuss data from studies conducted with academic and industry collaborators that demonstrates the utility of the system as a more predictive, human-relevant alternative for preclinical disease modeling and drug discovery. In one case, we investigated the potential for our Small Airway-Chip to demonstrate asthma exacerbation in response to viral infection. First, we induced key pathophysiological hallmarks of the asthmatic epithelium by exposing the epithelial side to clinically relevant doses of IL-13. Then, we administered a rhinoviral infection and recapulated complex clinical features of viral-induced asthma exacerbation in real time. For example, we observed increased ciliated cell sloughing, altered ciliary beating frequency, goblet cells hyperplasia, increased expression of adhesion molecules in microvascular endothelial cells and inflammatory mediator release that have been observed in asthmatics and individuals infected with rhinovirus. A novel, high resolution temporal analysis of secreted inflammatory markers revealed alteration of IL-6, IFN-?1 and CXCL10 secretory phases after rhinovirus infection in the IL-13 enriched environment. Furthermore, using real time high resolution imaging and quantitative analysis of circulating inflammatory cells, we also demonstrated the efficacy of a CXCR2 antagonist to reduce adhesion, motility and transmigration of perfused human neutrophils. These studies demonstrate how our Organs-on-Chips technology provides a platform to obtain powerful preclinical data for understanding the mechanisms that underlie disease pathologensis and enable development of new therapeutics.
Add to Calendar ▼2018-10-04 00:00:002018-10-05 00:00:00Europe/LondonOrgan-on-a-Chip and Body-on-a-Chip: In Vitro Systems Mimicking In Vivo Functions "Track A"SELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Add to Calendar ▼2018-10-04 14:30:002018-10-04 15:30:00Europe/LondonOrgans-on-Chips Technology Enables Better Understanding of Human Pathogenesis and Development of TherapeuticsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
