Seminar Series
“Generating Aligned Tissues to Enhance Skeletal Muscle Regeneration”
Jonathan Grasman, PhD
NJIT
Biomedical Engineering
Abstract: A significant limitation in the fabrication of tissue mimetics for skeletal muscle tissue engineering is that constructs often result in misaligned myofiber growth, which impedes efficient force production and ultimately limits functional regeneration. Our goal is to rationally design biomaterial environments that recapitulate myogenic niches to promote aligned muscle growth and enhance wound healing. In this talk, we will discuss ongoing strategies in the Grasman lab to develop mimetics for the study of muscle growth. First, we will describe efforts to incorporate insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) into anisotropic scaffolds using chaperone proteins as an acellular, off-the-shelf product to enhance muscle regeneration after traumatic injury. We will transition to cellular constructs, where we carefully manipulate material composition and boundary conditions to promote myofiber alignment in a platform where we can simultaneously quantify construct contractile properties.
Bio: Jonathan Grasman (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where he directs the Tissue Innervation and Muscle Mimetics lab. His research program focuses on regenerating skeletal muscle using both cellular and acellular strategies, as well as studying mechanisms of innervation to achieve targeted axonal guidance. He received his B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and he completed his postdoctoral training in tissue engineering at Tufts University. Dr. Grasman received NRSA fellowships in support of both his pre- and postdoctoral studies, and is currently funded by the NIH and the New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research. He has recently been honored as a member of the National Academy of Inventors, and has received several teaching and mentoring awards at NJIT.
For a zoom link please contact Kate Harrison at kharrison@wpi.edu