Three explorer projects granted to IMSEAM Scientists
Sadaf Pashapour, Federico Colombo and Athanasios Athanassiadis, all three young scientists at IMSEAM, have each been awarded an Explorer Project, which allows them to work on their own project together with their project partners for two years.
Sadaf Pashapour is working on Engineering reconfigurable advanced heart-on-chip (adHoC) devices to model cardiovascular development and disease together with Kai Melde (IMSEAM) and Eric Schoger (Cardiology, University Hospital HD). Federico Colombo will take a deeper look into Mechanical Forces and Cellular Plasticity in IBD: Advancing Patient-Specific Intestinal Regeneration with Matthias Schewe (Medicine II, Mannheim University Hospital). Focused ultrasound activation of sensory neurons will be investigated by Athanasios Athanassiadis and Katrin Schrenk-Siemens Institute for Pharmacy).
Engineering reconfigurable advanced heart-on-chip (adHoC) devices to model cardiovascular development and disease
Heart-on-chip devices promise great potential to study cardiac development, disease progression, and testing of drugs in vitro. Underlying microfluidic platforms are very deterministic and provide for repeatable culture conditions - yet they offer very limited spatio-temporal control for cell stimulation and advanced culture protocols. In this project, we will create an advanced heart-on-chip platform (AdHoC) based on reconfigurable microfluidic networks and a modular engineering approach to selectively expose targeted cells to growth factors and defined flow conditions. Using AdHoC devices we will explore how bidirectional communication between cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells influences organotypic identities under specific biochemical and biophysical conditions and thus elucidate developmental drivers in cardiac organogenesis.
Mechanical Forces and Cellular Plasticity in IBD: Advancing Patient-Specific Intestinal Regeneration
This project focuses on understanding the role of mechanical forces in the cellular plasticity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to advance patient-specific intestinal regeneration. The main objective is to explore how mechanical cues influence stem cell fate and de-differentiation, processes critical for tissue repair in IBD. Using patient biopsies and advanced imaging techniques (figure), the team aims to develop 3D-printed, patient-specific synthetic intestinal scaffolds that mimic the unique mechanical properties of healthy and diseased tissue. These models will allow researchers to study cell behavior and identify molecular pathways that could serve as therapeutic targets, with potential implications for IBD treatment and prevention of colorectal cancer progression in IBD patients. By integrating biophysical tools and regenerative medicine, this interdisciplinary study aims to create viable, regenerative tissue scaffolds, offering a path to more precise therapeutic options for IBD.
Focused ultrasound activation of sensory neurons
The project will investigate the connection between ultrasonic forces on neurons and their biological responses, in order to develop new methods and devices for US neuromodulation in therapeutic applications.
