ChE Seminar Series: Biomaterials to unlock the regenerative capacity of tissues

ChE Seminar Series Presets: Dr. Tatiana Segura

Tatiana Segura, PhD

Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University

Biomaterials to unlock the regenerative capacity of tissues

Abstract: Injectable materials that can conform to the shape of a desired space are used in a variety of fields including medicine. The ability to fill a tissue defect with an injectable material can be used for example to deliver drugs, augment tissue volume, or promote repair of an injury. This talk will explore the development of injectable materials that are based on assembled particle building blocks, for tissue repair. We find that using microparticle building blocks to build the scaffold generates a porous network by the space left behind between adjacent building blocks. Due to the injectability of this microporous material we have explored its wide applicability to tissue repair applications ranging from skin to brain wounds. In this talk, I will describe how MAP scaffolds can modulate the wound healing immune response and lead to regenerative wound healing.

Biography: Professor Tatiana Segura received her BS degree in Bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley and her doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University. Her graduate work in designing and understanding non-viral gene delivery from hydrogel scaffolds was supervised by Prof. Lonnie Shea. She pursued post-doctoral training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne under the guidance of Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell, where her focus was self-assembled polymer systems for gene and drug delivery. Professor Segura’s Laboratory studies the use of materials for minimally invasive in situ tissue repair. On this topic, she has published 113 peered reviewed publications to date. She has been recognized with the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, the American Heart Association National Scientist Development Grant, and the CAREER award from National Science Foundation. She was Elected to the College of Fellows at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE) in 2017. She spent the first 11 years of her career at UCLA department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and has recently relocated to Duke University, where she holds appointments in Biomedical Engineering, Neurology and Dermatology.