“Stretch-sensitive ion channels and aqueous humor dynamics in glaucoma”

Abstract:

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and is frequently associated with dysregulated and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). A key tissue in determining IOP is the inner wall of Schlemm’s canal, a phenotypically unique endothelial monolayer that is traversed by pores that allow fluid drainage from the eye. Much is known about these pores, yet we do not understand the mechanobiology of their formation. Here we investigate the effects of the stretch sensitive ion channel, TRPV4, on Schlemm’s canal endothelial function, including pore formation. We use a variety of assays, including a novel microbead-based pore forming assay to find that TRPV4 interacts strongly with substrate mechanosensing; that TRPV4 can modulate cell stiffness and pore formation rate; and that microtubule stability has intriguing implications for Schlemm’s canal function.

Bio:

Professor C. Ross Ethier is the Lawrence L. Gellerstedt, Jr. and Mary Duckworth Gellerstedt Chair in Bioengineering and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he was Head of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College, London for 5 years, and Director of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto for 2 years before that. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1986, his S.M. from MIT in 1983, his M. Math. from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, in 1982 and his B.Sc. from Queen’s University, Ontario, in 1980.

Prof. Ethier’s research is in the biomechanics of cells and whole organs, with specific emphasis on ocular biomechanics. His primary focus is on developing treatments for glaucoma - the second most common cause of incurable blindness with more than 80 million patients worldwide, and for myopia, which will affect more than half of all people in the world by 2050. In recognition of his work, he has received both the Steacie and Humboldt Fellowships, and the Lissner Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is also the co-founder of an early-stage biotech company.

Related Info

Samantha Pattenden, PhD - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Friday, April 18 @ 12pm CT - Live on Zoom

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/bdh992n5

Abstract

The Pattenden Lab develops epigenetic technologies to accelerate cancer biomarker and therapeutic target discovery. One of our strategies exploits tumor-specific changes in chromatin accessibility, a universal feature that is directly linked with transcription activation, DNA damage repair, replication, RNA processing, and nuclear organization. Since chromatin accessibility offers a comprehensive overview of the rewiring of transcriptional networks that accompanies processes such as cellular differentiation, tumor growth, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance, it is frequently more reliable in predicting cell behavior than gene expression profiles alone. To assess the diagnostic potential of chromatin accessibility patterns in tumor cells, we invented and patented a method for extraction of high-quality accessible chromatin from formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues. Further, we developed a novel high throughput screen for small molecule inhibitors of aberrant chromatin accessibility that is currently supported by the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) program. In addition to our assays focused on chromatin accessibility, we have developed and implemented a first-in-class screen for inhibitors of the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway in the ALT-positive pediatric cancers, neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. This screen identified several confirmed modulators of ALT activity that are now being explored.

About Samantha Pattenden

Dr. Pattenden is an Associate Professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a B.Sc. in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of epigenetics. Her laboratory is focused on the invention of technologies that advance our understanding of chromatin regulation and in the development of phenotypic screening platforms for the discovery of new cancer therapeutic targets. Dr. Pattenden is also a co-founder of Triangle Biotechnology, Inc., which is developing innovative, high-quality, high-throughput sonication solutions for biological sample preparation.

Related Info

Register Now

Coming soon!

Related Info

"The impacts of age and frailty on atrial remodeling and atrial arrhythmogenesis"

Abstract:

Atrial remodeling, including changes in ion channel expression and function, as well as atrial fibrosis, are critical determinants of impaired atrial electrical function and susceptibility to atrial arrhythmias including bradycardia, chronotropic incompetence, and atrial fibrillation. Atrial remodeling is prevalent in aging; however, it is critical to recognize that not all individuals age at the same rate. Rather, aging is highly heterogeneous. This has led to the concept of frailty, defined as a state of increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes due to a diminished capacity to tolerate stressors. Frailty can be quantified in aging mice using a ‘mouse clinical frailty index’. This presentation will address the (1) the development and implementation of the mouse clinical frailty index, (2) the impacts of frailty on sinoatrial node and atrial remodeling in aging mice, and (3) novel interventions designed to modulate frailty and how these impact sinoatrial node and atrial remodeling in aging mice.

Bio:

Dr. Robert Rose is a Professor in the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He holds appointments in the Department of Cardiac Sciences as well as the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Dr. Rose obtained his PhD in cardiovascular physiology from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Calgary in 2005. After this, he undertook Postdoctoral Fellowship training at the University of Toronto from 2005-2008. Dr. Rose then obtained his first faculty position in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, at Dalhousie University where he ran an independent laboratory from 2008-2017. In 2017, Dr. Rose joined the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Rose’s research program is focused on the study of cardiac arrhythmias in the setting of prevalent forms of cardiovascular disease such as hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes mellitus as well as in association with aging and frailty. Areas of interest include sinoatrial node dysfunction and atrial fibrillation. His research program is supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, The Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Libin Cardiovascular Institute. Work from Dr. Rose’s laboratory in these areas is consistently published in highly regarded, high impact journals.

Dr. Rose previously held New Investigator awards from The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (2014-2019), The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2009-2014) and The Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation (2008). He was awarded the MacDonald Scholarship from the Heart and Stroke Foundation in 2014. Dr. Rose has also received the Greg Ferrier Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia in 2009 and 2012. Dr. Rose currently holds the DG Wyse-Libin Cardiovascular Institute Professorship in Cardiovascular Research and is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society.

Dr. Rose is routinely sought after as a reviewer for many scientific journals as well as to serve on peer review committees for CIHR and The Heart and Stroke Foundation. He is on the Editorial Board of several journals (Heart Rhythm, Heart Rhythm O2, The American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, and Frontiers in Physiology).

Dr. Rose has also been heavily involved in leadership, mentorship, and education. He has an established track record of supervising trainees at all levels of experience. Dr. Rose has developed graduate courses in the areas of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology and has previously served as Director of Science Education in the Libin Cardiovascular Institute. Presently, Dr. Rose is Deputy Director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute.

Related Info

Coming Soon!

Related Info

1:30pm on Thursday, May 15 @ Ryan Hall Room 4003, Evanston Campus

In-Person Only, Refreshments Provided

Prof. Kamm is the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

With our aging population, neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise, far outpacing increases in other common diseases. Recent advances from the pharmaceutical industry have produced new drugs capable of reducing the rate of decline in patients with Alzheimer’s disease with many more in the drug development pipeline. This, combined with improved understanding of the factors that influence a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, has given rise to increased interest both in the delivery of drugs to the brain and their efficacy in alleviating symptoms or preventing disease progression. Innovative in vitro platforms are needed to explore novel modalities of drug delivery to the brain and enable pharmaceutical companies to screen for new therapeutics. In this presentation, neurovascular models will be presented that recapitulate in vivo morphology and function and can be used both to quantify transport across the blood-brain barrier and replicate their effects in models of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.

About Roger Kamm

Professor Kamm began his career at Northwestern University earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He subsequently earned both a master’s and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Since 1978, he has been a professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Professor Kamm was one of the founding members of the Biological Engineering Department when it was created in 1998. Kamm’s research focuses on problems at the interface of biology and mechanics, formerly in cell and molecular mechanics, and now in complex in vitro systems. Current interests are in developing models of healthy and diseased organ function using microfluidic technologies, with a focus on vascularization, cancer and neurological disease. Kamm is a member of the National Academies of Medicine and Engineering. He is co-founder of AIM Biotech, a manufacturer of microfluidic systems for 3D culture.

"Seeing the Unseen Using Molecular Fingerprints"

ABSTRACT:
Spectrochemical imaging, using intrinsic fingerprint spectroscopic signals from molecules as a contrast mechanism, opens a new window for understanding life at the molecular level and also enables molecule-based precision diagnosis of diseases. Yet, the intrinsic spectroscopic signal, especially the vibrational signals from chemical bonds, is weaker than the fluorescence signal from a dye by many orders of magnitude. Detecting such weak signal from a tight focus (i.e., a small volume of ~1 femtoliter) under a microscope is extremely challenging and was considered nearly impossible. Ji-Xin Cheng devoted his career to overcoming such daunting barrier through developing advanced chemical microscopes over the past 25 years. In this lecture, Cheng will tell his journey of serendipity-driven innovation, scientific discovery, clinical translation, and entrepreneurship in the growing field of chemical imaging, with a focus on the invention of vibrational photothermal microscopy.

BIO:

Ji-Xin Cheng attended University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) from 1989 to 1994. From 1994 to 1998, he carried out his PhD study on bond-selective chemistry at USTC. As a graduate student, he worked as a research assistant at Universite Paris-sud (France) on vibrational spectroscopy and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on quantum dynamics theory. After postdoctoral training on ultrafast spectroscopy in 1999 at HKUST, he joined Sunney Xie’s group at Harvard University as a postdoc from 2000 to 2003, where he focused on the development of CARS microscopy that allows high-speed vibrational imaging. Cheng joined Purdue University in 2003 as Assistant Professor in Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, promoted to Associate Professor in 2009 and Full Professor in 2013. He joined Boston University as the Inaugural Theodore Moustakas Chair Professor in Photonics and Optoelectronics in summer 2017. Cheng devoted his research career to chasing a far-reaching goal – harnessing intrinsic molecular signatures for label-free imaging, molecule-based diagnosis, and drug-free treatment.

Scholarship: Professor Cheng is authored in 350 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 105 (Google Scholar), holder of >40 patents. Cheng’s research has been supported by >50 grants, ~50 million ($) funding, from federal agencies including NIH, NSF, DoD, DoE and private foundations including Chan-Zuckerburg Initiative and Keck Foundation.

Entrepreneurship: In 2014, Professor Cheng co-founded Vibronix Inc which is devoted to vibration-based imaging technologies and medical device innovations. In 2019, Professor Cheng co-founded Pulsethera aiming to kill superbugs by photolysis of intrinsic chromophores. Professor Cheng is the Scientific Advisor of Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp in Santa Barbara and of Axorus in Paris. Chemical microscopes based on his innovations (e.g., mIRage by Photothermal Spec Corp) are installed and used in many countries worldwide.

Related Info

Coming soon!

Related Info

Coming soon!

Related Info

2024-2025 Commencement Ceremony

Related Info