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UID:0-8659@eng.ufl.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260824T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260824T160000
DTSTAMP:20260819T130414Z
URL:https://www.eng.ufl.edu/news-events/events/bme-seminar-understanding-a
 nd-controlling-cell-matrix-interactions-within-engineered-matrices/
SUMMARY:BME Seminar: "Understanding and Controlling Cell-matrix Interaction
 s within Engineered Matrices"
DESCRIPTION:Tommy Pashuck\, Ph.D.\nAssociate Professor of Materials Science
  and Engineering\nUniversity of Florida\n\nAbstract: Hydrogels are a promi
 sing class of biomaterials that can be tailored to mimic human tissues to 
 model them in vitro and for therapeutic applications in vivo. Tuning the p
 roperties of hydrogels is often done by modifying the structure of the pol
 ymer network to modulate the viscoelastic properties\, or by functionalizi
 ng the hydrogel with peptides to improve the bioactivity of the gel. Pepti
 des have the added benefit that they are natural substrates for cell-secre
 ted enzymes\, and which enables hydrogels to be dynamically modified by th
 e encapsulated cells. The Pashuck Lab has developed novel approaches to co
 ntrol dynamic cell-matrix interactions through both the improved character
 ization of hydrogels during culture and by tuning the molecular structure 
 of the gels to understand the significance of different design parameters.
  The goal of this work is to improve our understanding of how cell-matrix 
 interactions guide fundamental processes including endothelial network for
 mation and stem cell differentiation. These platforms are building towards
  our goal of making biomaterials that more closely recapitulate the comple
 x environments found in native tissues. \n\nBio: Tommy Pashuck was born an
 d raised in Orlando\, Florida and received a BS in Materials Science and E
 ngineering from the University of Florida. He received a PhD\, also in Mat
 erials Science and Engineering\, from Northwestern University before movin
 g to the UK to join the lab of Molly Stevens at Imperial College\, London 
 on a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. He worked at the New Jersey Cent
 er for Biomaterials before starting a lab in the Bioengineering Department
  at Lehigh University in 2018\, and joined the Materials Science and Engin
 eering Department at the University of Florida in the summer of 2026.
CATEGORIES:Seminars
LOCATION:Biomedical Sciences Building (BMS) Room JG32\, 1275 Center Drive\,
  Gainesville\, FL\, 32610\, United States
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1275 Center Drive\, Gainesv
 ille\, FL\, 32610\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Biomedical Sc
 iences Building (BMS) Room JG32:geo:0,0
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