Cellular Response to Nanotopography
Dr. Kam Leong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Surgery
Duke University
Friday, April 20, 2012
1:15 p.m.
SCOB 228
Speaker biosketch:
Professor Leong is the James B. Duke Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987 and was a Research Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1983 to 1986. A major focus of his lab is to understand and exploit the interaction of stem cells with their microenvironment for tissue engineering applications. Cells in their natural environment interact with extracellular matrix that contains structures in the nanometer scale. Nanotopographyof synthetic materials, through its resemblance to in vivo surroundings, may provide potent cues to influence the behavior of the seeded cells, particular stem cells, in regenerative medicine applications. It may also influence the implant-tissue interface reaction. We have fabricated polymeric continuous nanostructures by either electrospinningor nanoimprintingfor studies of cell-substrate and cell-topography interactions.
