Events calendar
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Please join us for a live webinar on the 11th November 15.00–16.00 (GMT) at which Professor Axel Behrens (Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre Scientific Director) is pleased to host Professor Darryl Overby and Dr Adam Celiz.
As part of its mission to facilitate collaboration between traditionally separate and distinct disciplines to innovate new ways to address challenges in cancer - the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre will be bringing you a series of webinars over the coming months showcasing the expertise and technology of Imperial chemists, bioengineers, physicists and mathematicians. Please join us to inspire consideration of how these novel technologies could be used to shed light on unresolved problems in cancer biology and bring innovative treatment to cancer patients faster.
Join us for a live webinar on the 11th November 15.00–16.00 (GMT) at which Professor Axel Behrens (Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre Scientific Director) is pleased to host Professor Darryl Overby and Dr Adam Celiz.
To receive information about how to access this event please email icr-imperial-convergence.centre@imperial.ac.uk
Please note: This webinar is exclusively available only to colleagues across the Institute of Cancer Research, Imperial College London, the Royal Marsden Hospital and Imperial College Healthcare.
About the speakers and presentations:
Professor Darryl Overby
Darryl Overby is a Professor of Mechanobiology in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial. He serves as Director of the Organ-on-Chip Network of Excellence. His research investigates how mechanical forces affect physiological function of endothelial cells, particularly in the eye as relevant for eye pressure regulation and glaucoma. He laboratory uses microfluidic and microfabricated systems to probe the biomechanics and mechanobiology of living tissues.
The Overby laboratory is developing “top-down” organ-in-chip technologies to maintain the viability and function of large tissue explants or patient biopsies outside of the body for ex vivo screening and analysis. Large samples capture more of the native tissue microenvironment (TME), which includes the diversity of cell types, matrix components and 3D tissue architecture that defines the form and function of living tissues. “Top-down” contrasts with conventional organ-on-chip or 3D culture models that engineer the TME from the "bottom-up” using a toolbox of cell types or matrix components that have a limited ability to replicate the TME of individual patients. The challenge is that large explants die quickly in culture due to hypoxia and limited nutrient delivery. In this presentation, he will discuss a bioengineering solution to achieve perfusion and advective nutrient delivery through an explant without needing to cannulate individual microvessels. Feasibility studies demonstrate that perfusion is able to preserve the viability of liver explants for at least 48 hrs. The technology can be applied to tumour biopsy specimens for ex vivo screening against a panel of potential therapies to identify which drug or drug combinations best kill cancer cells in a patient’s own tumour.
Dr Adam Celiz
Dr. Adam Celiz has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and was awarded a Marie-Curie fellowship to develop his research in Biomaterials at the University of Nottingham and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. He was appointed as Lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial in 2017 where his lab focusses on developing biomaterials for tissue repair and regeneration.
During this talk he will discuss high-throughput screening approaches to identify novel materials for diverse applications including culture substrates for human pluripotent stem cells and dental implants for tissue regeneration.