Posts classified under: BME

Dr. Pathak directs the Laboratory for Image-based Systems Biology, which works at the interface of engineering, medicine, and design to develop new hardware, software and “wetware” tools for basic and translational applications in tissue engineering and cancer. For the past several years he has collaborated with Dr. Grayson to spearhead the new field of “image-informed biomanufacturing” for tissue engineering applications. These efforts have included the development of novel in vivo and ex vivo imaging tools to acquire data to “inform” the design and deployment of more efficacious biomaterials for eventual clinical translation. More recently, he is collaborating with Dr. Grayson and other investigators to harness imaging and sensing technologies in health and disease models for applications in the Digital Twin (DT) and Precision Medicine (PM) space. Dr. Pathak has a long track record of leveraging in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo imaging techniques for clinical biomarker development for cancer and other diseases. This includes multiscale imaging technologies and time-resolved characterization of disease evolution in vivo, all of which are critical for establishing the feasibility of DTs in the preclinical space. Dr. Pathak and his team are also leveraging cutting-edge miniaturized microscopy methods to characterize neurovascular changes longitudinally in preclinical models of brain aging. These approaches represent the first time that changes in multiple physiological variables can be measured continuously in vivo, over the lifetime of the aging model. These nascent studies have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of aging and its effects on the brain and other tissues. Finally, Dr. Pathak and his team are leveraging imaging-based artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to generate predictive models of engraftment success and biomaterial efficacy in vivo. Collectively, the imaging and computational tools that Dr. Pathak and his team are developing are synergistic with all the “Pillars” and “Horizontals” proposed in TTEC’s strategic plan for “Adaptive Therapeutics”, which make him an excellent fit as an affiliate faculty member of our Center.

The Cahan Lab is a hybrid computational/experimental group that invents computational tools that distill omics data down to specific, testable hypotheses in the contexts of stem cell biology, developmental biology, and cell engineering. Most of our computational efforts are ‘single cell’ or spatial in nature, and thus this central part of our research fits with the ‘Single-cell/Spatial Transcriptomics’ theme of TTEC. Examples of computational platforms that we have created are 1. machine learning tools that measure the extent to which engineered cell populations reflect their natural counterparts, and 2. algorithms that predict the impact of cellular perturbations on cell engineered fidelity. Both of these applications can help to create and evaluate iPSC-derived disease models, which is another TTEC theme. Finally, we use these and other tools to uncover how cell lineages of the synovial joint emerge during development with the long term goal of leveraging this knowledge to engineer cells for regenerative medicine. This long-term goal aligns well with TTEC’s Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Pillar and Healthy Aging theme.

Immunotherapy relies on the manipulation of the immune system to induce a potent and durable attack on diseased cells. T cells play an integral role in this by directing immune responses against infected or cancerous cells. My laboratory uses biomaterials to induce natural T cell responses for personalized cancer immunotherapy. This includes development of nanoparticle-based artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPC) that activate tumor-specific T cells targeting multiple tumor-specific targets. These tumor-specific T cells can be reintroduced in a process called adoptive cell transfer (ACT), resulting in persistent anti-tumor activity with immunologic memory. With recent advances the our lab has made aAPC that can also be used to transfer genetic material, such as CAR constructs to T cells. Additionally, using biocompatible platforms, we have synthesized an artificial lymph node (aLN) capable of activating T cells in vivo.

Collectively, our interests’ and tools are synergistic with the “Foundational Pillars” and “Cross-Cutting” themes in TTEC’s strategic plan for “Adaptive Therapeutics”, which make him an excellent fit for TTEC.