Download Biomimetic Material Guidance of Stem Cell Differentiation and

TRANSFORMING ENGINEERING EDUCATION
IMPACTING HEALTH OUTCOMES
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING SEMINAR SERIES:
Biomimetic Material Guidance of Stem Cell Differentiation
and Tissue Formation
Wednesday, October 19
1034 Emerging Technologies Building
9:10 a.m.
Elizabeth
Lipke
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Auburn University
Dr. Lipke completed her graduate studies at Rice University
followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins
University. Dr. Lipke’s research focuses on the use of cellmaterial interactions to create cellular microenvironments
that guide tissue formation and direct cellular function. To
better understand congenital heart defect formation and
advance cardiac regeneration, Dr. Lipke’s research group
employs biomimetic materials to direct pluripotent stem cell
differentiation and create 3D developing human engineered
cardiac tissues; this platform for ontomimetic differentiation
has been recently shown to also support in vitro cardiac
tissue maturation, including t-tubule formation. To support
cells in vivo, Dr. Lipke’s research group has established a
platform for fabricating injectable, cell-laden hydrogel
microspheres and demonstrated successful microspherebased delivery of autologous endothelial progenitor cells in
an equine wound healing model. Dr. Lipke’s group is also
investigating novel peptide ligands for capture of endothelial
progenitor cells under physiological shear stress. For cancer
research projects, the Lipke lab has created spheroidal and
microfluidic chip-based tissue-engineered tumor models that
recapitulate key native tumor characteristics for improved
drug testing. In recognition of her research, Dr. Lipke has
received several national awards including a National Science
Foundation CAREER award, a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award,
and an American Heart Association Scientist Development
Grant. Dr. Lipke was recently invited to participate in the
National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering
Symposium. In addition to the recognition of her research
accomplishments, Dr. Lipke has received awards for teaching
and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Lipke’s research group employs biomimetic materials
to create engineered tissues for drug testing and for
understanding development and disease. We are particularly
interested in the role of microenvironmental cues in directing
pluripotent stem cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes.
Contemporary treatments for heart disease are insufficient in
restoring myocardial function and donor organs are scarce.
Biomimetic materials offer a novel approach for directing
cardiac regeneration, drawing upon the characteristics
of developing myocardium to influence the mechanical,
structural, and electrical properties of stem cell-derived
cardiomyocytes. We have demonstrated for the first time that
human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can successfully
be differentiated into contracting cardiomyocytes within a
controlled biomimetic hydrogel microenvironment, achieving
developmentally-appropriate temporal changes in gene
expression, high cardiomyocyte yield, and calcium handling
properties.
Further work in the Lipke Lab has demonstrated that
employing conductive substrates, mimicking the resistivity of
native heart tissue, enhance cardiomyocyte function. Utilizing
biocompatible, conductive polypyrrole-polycaprolactone (PPyPCL) films for the first time as a platform for cardiomyocyte
culture, we have demonstrate that cardiomyocytes underwent
changes in localization of connexin-43, leading to higher
velocities for calcium wave propagation and reduced
calcium transient durations among cultured cardiomyocyte
monolayers.
In addition to utilizing biomimetic materials for advancing
cardiac cell production, the Lipke Lab has identified
novel integrin-specific peptides that support endothelial
progenitor cell (EPC) capture under shear. EPCs have the
potential to become a reliable source of autologous cells for
endothelialization of intravascular devices and vascularization
of tissue engineered constructs. In order to design biomaterials
that can employ EPCs to enhance endothelialization, however,
a better understanding of their dynamic adhesion to material
surfaces under physiological shear is needed. Employing the
novel peptides found in our research in coatings for stents
and vascular grafts could lead to improvements in the efficacy
of these devices. Our research substantiates the importance
of biomimetic materials in the quest to form engineered
tissue that replicates the native human heart and facilitates
cardiovascular repair.
engineering.tamu.edu/biomedical