Research Initiation Award: Engineered demographic-specific in vitro microfluidic bone microenvironment models

研究启动奖为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学的教职员工提供支持，他们正在建立一个研究项目。预计该奖项有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和有效性，改善其所在机构的研究和教学，并让本科生和高中生参与研究经验。授予汉普顿大学的奖项可能在许多领域产生更广泛的社会影响。该项目专注于骨组织工程领域的跨学科研究，以促进基于种族特定制度的复杂骨骼疾病的优化治疗。这些研究将建立在汉普顿大学和布兰代斯大学材料研究科学与工程中心之间目前的关系基础上，通过最近建立的材料研究和教育合作项目。该研究项目将应用生物材料、细胞培养、3D打印和微流体的基础科学和工程技术来制造种族特定的微环境骨骼模型。该项目的目标是：1)确定信息量最大的3D打印和微流控技术，其中结合了工程生物材料来模拟骨稳态；2)使用工程骨微流控系统确定关键的细胞/骨基质相互作用，因为它与不同患者群体之间的骨稳态差异有关；以及3)基于使用工程骨微流控系统的人群之间的骨基质差异，预测骨稳态的紊乱。这项工作被设计为在几个层面上具有变革性：人类组织整合的方法学以创建特定于种族的体外系统，用于生物医学应用的溶剂3D打印微流控设备的进步，以及旨在研究受控环境中细胞和细胞外基质之间关系的多学科方法。预期的结果将包括在高通量系统中确定关键的种族特定细节的骨内稳态的独特能力。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building a research program. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at his home institution, and involves undergraduate and high school students in research experiences. The award to Hampton University has potential broader and societal impact in a number of areas. The project focuses on transdisciplinary research in the area of bone tissue engineering to facilitate the optimization of treatment of complex bone diseases based on race-specific regimes. These studies will build upon the current relationship between Hampton University and the Brandeis University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center through the recently established Partnership for Research and Education in Materials project.This research project will apply the basic science and engineering techniques of biomaterials, cell culture, 3D printing, and microfluidics to fabricate race-specific microenvironment bone models. The objectives of this project are to: 1) determine the most informative 3D printing and microfluidic techniques that incorporate an engineered biomaterial to model bone homeostasis; 2) identify key cell/bone matrix interactions using an engineered bone microfluidic system as it relates to differences in bone homeostasis among various patient demographics; and 3) predict disturbances in bone homeostasis based on bone matrix differences between demographic groups with an engineered bone microfluidic system. The work is designed to be transformative on several levels: the methodology of human tissue integration to create race-specific in vitro systems, the advancement of solvent 3D printed microfluidic devices for biomedical applications, and the multidisciplinary approach designed to study the relationship between cells and extracellular matrices in a controlled environment. Expected outcomes would include the unique ability to ascertain key race-specific details about bone homeostasis in high throughput systems.