8/7/2024 4 min read
Written by
Three MechSE faculty are among the 16 Illinois researchers who were selected to become part of the inaugural cohort of Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago investigators. The 48-member group, which will focus on instrumented tissues, inflammation, and the functions of the immune system, also includes investigators from Northwestern University and University of Chicago.
Professors Bumsoo Han, Taher Saif and Amy Wagoner Johnson all have projects funded by the initiative.
Han, in collaboration with Professor Martha Gillette in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, aims to develop a microfluidic brain model to measure molecular features of neuroinflammation, which is a precursor of various brain disorders. Specifically, they are interested in reconstructing microbleeding scenarios in the brain to measure how brain cells are affected by blood components and lead to subsequent coagulation/fibrinolysis activities.
“I am very excited to participate in this cohort at CZ Biohub, which provides new collaboration opportunities across all three participating institutions as well as researchers at CZ Biohub Chicago,” said Han.
As PI of the project, “Cellular contractility and mechanotransduction in the neuroinflammatory response,” alongside co-PIs Qian Chen and Hyun Joon Kong, Saif will develop a novel instrumented neurovascular tissue platform with embedded force sensors, integrated with fluorescent microscopy and electron microscopy techniques, to study the biophysics of neuroinflammation at the tissue level with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. These measurements will enable novel explorations of the mechanobiology of neuroinflammation which have never been considered before, and potentially help identify new therapeutic targets for neuroinflammation.
“We have been developing micro fabricated instruments for hosting in vitro tumors to study the role of the tumor microenvironment on cancer progression. Our instruments measure various biophysical cues, such as tumor stiffness, contractility of stromal cells, motility, and invasion of cancer cells under various drugs. Our vision of instrumented cancer tumors align with CZI’s core goal of developing instrumented tissues for understanding human diseases in search for cures,” said Saif.
A team co-led by Wagoner Johnson will explore inflammation’s role in problems in the female reproductive system.
“Inflammation is common to many diseases affecting only females or predominantly females. This project, which was awarded $900K in funding over three years, will spatially image interactions between inflammation, estrogen and extracellular matrix (ECM) changes in female reproductive tissues using multimodel magnetic resonance imaging,” said Wagoner Johnson. “Inflammation can lead to extracellular matrix changes, like fibrosis, which can affect tissue and organ function (e.g., fertility, pregnancy). We expect that this work will help to illuminate fundamental interactions between inflammation, ECM, and estrogen by providing a spatial map of temporal changes, which we will couple with more traditional readouts of gene and protein expression.”
Launched in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) aims to build a “better future for everyone” by addressing some of society’s most troubling challenges in healthcare, education, community development, and technology. CZI shows no signs of easing off the accelerator in their collective push to address these wide-ranging problems, launching multiple initiatives in recent years, including the Human Cell Atlas, CellxGene, and the Rare as One Project.
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network, announced in 2023, is one of these visionary endeavors, with CZ Biohub Chicago serving as one of the three exclusive research centers in the network. The biohub’s unique grand challenge is to develop engineering-driven solutions for an unprecedented molecular understanding of inflammation that underly many diseases.
“The CZ Biohub Chicago is focused on high-risk, high-reward research, and the selection of these 16 Illinois investigators—from so many colleges and institutes across the university—underscores the breadth of research excellence on our campus," said Susan Martinis, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Illinois.
The full list of Illinois researchers who are part of the inaugural cohort includes the following:
- Indrani Bagchi
- Rohit Bhargava
- Qian Chen
- Martha Gillette
- Bumsoo Han
- Amy Wagoner Johnson
- Auinash Kalsotra
- Hyunjoon Kong
- Catherine Murphy
- M. Taher Saif
- Mei Shen
- Shannon Sirk
- Bradley Sutton
- Jonathan Sweedler
- Yurii Vlasov
- Ayelet Ziv-Gal