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As part of the PI's outreach, a course-based undergraduate research experience engaged undergraduate women in research from examining the literature to identify a gap, formulating a research hypothesis, designing experiments to test the hypothesis, analyzing the data, writing and submitting an abstract and presenting the research to the scientific community. This project was as follows: Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has increasingly been used to reliably encapsulate cells within solid microspheres. Although hollow microcapsules have also been demonstrated, there remain challenges for their use. Microfluidics can reliably form empty hollow microcapsules, but tend to clog when cells are introduced. Emulsion methods have shown success with encapsulating cells within microcapsules; however the capsules tend to burst. Here, we compare an emulsion technique with our new dropwise method that combines extrusion with vibration of a device. Light exposure and photoinitiator concentration was varied to probe their effect on the microcapsules. 

We previously demonstrated that insulin secreting cells (ISCs) accelerate healing of chronic wounds, and it is known that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) also accelerate wound healing. Here, we report that the combination of both cell types coencapsulated into a synthetic hydrogel dressing accelerates chronic wound healing 3x faster than control and 2x faster than each cell type delivered singly. Specifically, insulin released by ISCs activates the PI3/Akt pathway, which is vital to the function and survival of MSCs. MSCs in turn improve the viability and function of ISCs. 

As part of the PI's outreach, a course-based undergraduate research experience engaged undergraduate women in research from examining the literature to identify a gap, formulating a research hypothesis, designing experiments to test the hypothesis, analyzing the data, writing and submitting an abstract and presenting the research to the scientific community. This project was as follows: Current clinical approaches to repair breast damage from cancer resection, injury, or deformity focus on synthetic implants or autologous muscle grafts. While there are drawbacks and benefits to each, neither restore the function lost should the woman desire to nurse children. Tissue engineering methods have the potential to restore breast tissue volume and function that circumvent the reconstructive limitations of contemporary surgical procedures. There is a large body of research on breast tissue engineering; however, much of the research focuses on restoring breast volume rather than breast function and seek to replace the missing tissue with fat or muscle.​ Here, we aim to develop a scaffold capable of supporting both breast adipose and glandular tissue (the main components of breast tissue) towards restoring both form and function to the breast. 

As part of the PI's outreach, a course-based undergraduate research experience engaged undergraduate women in research from examining the literature to identify a gap, formulating a research hypothesis, designing experiments to test the hypothesis, analyzing the data, writing and submitting an abstract and presenting the research to the scientific community. This project was as follows: Recently, reports of the success of phototherapy for use in wound healing, acne treatment, and other dermatological applications have increased.​ A large number of studies use laser light in the evaluations, while relatively few use LED light. This is significant since LED light has recently been marketed to consumers of phototherapy for improving skin tone. While it has been demonstrated that keratinocyte viability and migration is negatively impacted by blue LED light and positively impacted by red LED light,​ the effects of using such over the counter devices have been scarce. In this study, we evaluated the effect on keratinocytes of one 10 minute dose of red, blue, or UV light delivered from one such over the counter LED device. 

As part of the PI's outreach, a course-based undergraduate research experience engaged undergraduate women in research from examining the literature to identify a gap, formulating a research hypothesis, designing experiments to test the hypothesis, analyzing the data, writing and submitting an abstract and presenting the research to the scientific community. This project was as follows: in the US, 5 million people require blood transfusions each year. Although generally safe, there are drawbacks to blood transfusions including fever, acute immune or delayed hemolytic reactions, anaphylactic reactions, transfusion related acute lung injury, and bloodborne infections. Despite screening for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis, the risk of contraction is nonzero, and there are continually emerging bloodborne diseases such as Zika that are not yet screened for. Additionally, there are often blood bank shortages. These complications have driven decades of research into artificial blood, yet to date there are no blood substitutes clinically available. While hemoglobin based oxygen carriers have shown promise, they also show oxidative damage to tissues, particularly in cardiac and renal tissues. Both high and low oxygen PEGylated hemoglobin (Hb) have shown such oxidative stress. We hypothesized that this oxidative stress was due to direct delivery of the PEGylated Hb and conjugated PEGylated Hb onto PEG hydrogel microspheres. In this study, we probed the ability of the Hb microspheres to deliver oxygen. 

Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries. AMD occurs due to dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell basement membrane, the Bruch’s membrane. Previous work in the lab demonstrated that retinal pigment epithelial cells preferred stiff substrates to soft ones, and that RGD-conjugated polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels alone were not sufficient to support long term RPE cell health.​ There is evidence that epithelial and neural cells prefer laminin-derived peptides over fibronectin-derived peptides. Therefore, we examined the fate of RPE cells when seeded on PEG hydrogels conjugated with synthetic laminin peptides. 

Previous work demonstrated an accelerated in vitro and in vivo wound healing response when insulinoma cells were used to deliver insulin to scratches in keratinocyte mono- layers and chronic diabetic excise wounds in mice, respectively. When combined with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the response was amplified (healing in 14 vs. 35+ days). To isolate the role of insulin in the response and exclude any potential contribution of an unknown cancer moiety released by the insulinoma cells, the effect on wound healing of multiple lines derived from the same insulinoma was examined. 

Previous work demonstrated an accelerated in vitro and in vivo wound healing response when insulinoma cells were used to deliver insulin to scratches in keratinocyte mono- layers and chronic diabetic excise wounds in mice, respectively. When combined with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the response was amplified (healing in 14 vs. 35+ days). To isolate the role of insulin in the response and exclude any potential contribution of an un known cancer moiety released by the insulinoma cells, the effect on wound healing of multiple lines derived from the same insulinoma was examined.