Dean’s Seminar Series featuring Kristi Anseth, PhD – “Biomaterials as Synthetic Extracellular Matrices: Designer Materials for Tissue Regeneration”

Distinguished Professor

Tisone Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Associate Faculty Director of the BioFrontier Institute

University of Colorado at Boulder

“Biomaterials as Synthetic Extracellular Matrices: Designer Materials for Tissue Regeneration”

My research group is interested in the development of polymeric biomaterials that can interface with cells and promote tissue regeneration and repair.  From a fundamental perspective, we seek to decipher the critical extracellular matrix (ECM) signals that are relevant for tissue development, regeneration, and disease and then design materials that integrate these signals.  From an applied perspective, we use this knowledge to engineer materials that can promote tissue regeneration in vitro and in vivo.  This talk will illustrate our recent efforts towards the synthesis of new hydrogel chemistries for 4D cell culture and regenerative medicine, and how one can dynamically control biochemical and biophysical properties through orthogonal, photochemical click reaction mechanisms.  Some specific examples will include the design of hydrogels that promote musculoskeletal tissue regeneration, materials-directed growth of intestinal organoids from a single stem cell, and super-swelling matrices to visualize cell-matrix interactions with unprecedented resolution.  These efforts will then be placed in the context of designing precision biomaterials to address demands for patient specific products and treatments.