W. N. Lacey Lectureship in Chemical Engineering

The cellular microenvironment influences cell fate both in vitro and in vivo.  For the former, we are interested in screening cells in an environment that mimics that of native tissue, and to this end, we designed a hydrogel for 3D cell culture. With 3D cell culture, we gain an understanding of both cell invasion and cell viability, thereby providing insight that is inherently unavailable with traditional 2D cell culture.  To achieve a suitable environment, we synthesized hyaluronan-based hydrogels because hyaluronan is often over-expressed in invasive tumours including those in the breast and lung.  With precise control of the crosslinking chemistry, we influence the physical and mechanical properties, enabling us to investigate both breast and lung cancer cell invasion and their responses to different therapeutic treatments.  For the latter, we are interested in stimulating the host tissue to achieve repair. Here, we have created novel strategies for protein delivery based on affinity and electrostatic interactions and have tested these strategies in animal models of spinal cord injury and stroke.