Jungwook Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Sogang University, South Korea
Seminar Information
Recent studies have demonstrated the non-additive responses of endothelial cells (ECs) to synchronous mechanical inputs applied by in vitro vascular systems, which is presumably due to shared signaling pathways, and thus if any non-biological mechanical inputs are present, ECs responses to biological mechanical inputs may be disturbed and even misguided. Here, we describe the hybrid microphysiological system providing ECs with four principal mechanical inputs that are adjustable combinatorially within physiological and pathological ranges. Local luminal geometries mimicking those of arterial tree in normal and diseased states were reconstituted. When mechanically mimicking early-stage atherosclerosis without plaque formation, the endothelial permeability rose unexpectedly in the transition zone where the mural stress is concentrated as confirmed numerically. Tunable mechanical and geometrical features would expand the utility of our system in mechanobiological studies of ECs.
Dr. Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Sogang University, South Korea. He received his BE degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Seoul National University in 2006 and a PhD degree in Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst in 2011. He then pursued postdoctoral training in Chemical Engineering at MIT for one year. His research focuses on understanding structure-property relationships of hydrogel – a crosslinked polymer network swollen in water, and utilizing hydrogels in the biological study including mechanobiology of endothelial cells and directed cell migration as well as in the biomedical devices.