Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery Using Combinatorial Screening Technology

微环境中的生物物理参数，如硬度和地形，在健康和疾病期间对体内细胞增殖和分化起着重要作用。上皮细胞到间充质细胞的转化（EMT）就是一个例子，这是胚胎发育过程中必不可少的过程，在伤口愈合和组织再生过程中也会重现，但在癌症转移等病理环境中也很重要。更好地了解EMT机制和微环境在这一过程中的影响具有重要意义。利用这些机制，通过在体外设计微环境，将为创造优化的细胞基质提供强大的工具，这些基质可用于增强细胞生物处理，生物工程组织构建和促进体内组织再生。然而，确定哪些物理化学性质可以达到目标响应是目前的挑战。该项目将使用基于分数因子设计的方法来创建基于生物材料的细胞底物组合阵列，这些底物将用于筛选上皮细胞重编程为间充质细胞。

Biophysical parameters in the microenvironment, such as stiffness and topography, play a prominent role in determining cell proliferation and differentiation in vivo during health anddisease. An example of this is epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), an essential process during embryonic development and recapitulated during wound healing and tissue regeneration, but also significant in pathological settings such as cancer metastasis. A better understanding of EMT mechanisms and the influence of the microenvironment in this process hold significant value. Harnessing these mechanisms, through engineering the microenvironment in vitro, would provide a powerful tool for creating optimised cellsubstrates that could be utilised for enhancing cell bioprocessing, bioengineering tissue constructs and promoting tissue regeneration in vivo. However, identifying which physicochemical properties that achieve the target response is currently challenging. This project will use a fractional factorial design based approach to create combinatorial arrays of biomaterial-based cell substrates that will be used to screen reprogramming of epithelial cells into mesenchymal cells.