Cancer on a chip: From new
technologies and basic science to translational medicine
Wednesday, November 8th, 2017 at
11:00am
Johnson Center, Room C
Dr. Nitin Agrawal
Department of Bioengineering,
George Mason University
Despite the medical advancements of
the 21st century, cancer has remained a formidable disease
exceeding 8 million annual deaths worldwide. Due to heterogeneity
of cancer cells from patient to patient, and their adaptability to
hostile microenvironments (e.g. low oxygen or ‘hypoxic’
conditions), it is incredibly difficult to develop a universal
anticancer approach for a broad population. These challenges
highlight the need to better understand cell functions and develop
new technologies for personalized medicine.
Hypoxia alters cellular metabolism
and leads to acquisition of drug resistance and metastatic
progression. In most solid tumors, these hypoxic conditions exist
as gradients of oxygen with the tumor core being most hypoxic due
lack of vascularization. In the m-SCALE (Microfluidic Single Cell
Analysis Laboratory in Engineering) group, we have developed a
novel lab-on-a-chip strategy to establish linear gradients of
dissolved oxygen and study cancer cell behavior under biomimetic
conditions. We have also identified a novel molecular mechanism,
that regulates transformation of breast epithelial cells to
stem-like phenotypes, necessary for metastasis. The focus of our
research revolves around breast and brain cancers as model disease
systems. In addition to the above projects, we are also
concentrating our efforts towards developing liposome based
immunological techniques to engineer cytotoxic T lymphocytes for
increased efficacy against cancer.
In this seminar, development and
functionality of the microfluidic hypoxia platform as well as its
utility to explore cellular responses in real-time will be
demonstrated. In addition, the unique capability to establish
overlapping hypoxia and drug gradients and the potential for
personalized diagnostics and treatments will be discussed.
Biography: Dr. Nitin Agrawal is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason
University. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Texas
A&M University in 2006 and Postdoctoral training from Harvard
Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in the field of
Bioengineering in 2009. He worked at the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory for 2.5 years before joining GMU. Dr.
Agrawal’s research spans across three critical scientific areas:
i) Development of chip based technologies for disease diagnostics
and therapies, (ii) Fundamental understanding of the molecular
mechanisms of cancer, and (iii) Translation of lab-on-a-chip
technologies for clinical and personalized medicine. His research
is supported by multiple NSF awards in the areas of
nanobiosensing, and biomanufacturing of therapeutic cells. He has
authored/co-authored 20 peer reviewed journal articles and several
refereed conference articles.
Besides research, Dr. Agrawal has
served on multiple NSF review panels. He is also actively involved
in student mentoring at all levels and was nominated for the OSCAR
mentoring excellence award in 2017 at GMU.
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Stephen G. Nash
Senior Associate Dean
Volgenau School of Engineering
George Mason University
Nguyen Engineering Building, Room 2500
Mailstop 5C8
Fairfax, VA 22030
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Phone: (703) 993-1505
Fax: (703) 993-1633
https://volgenau.gmu.edu/profile/view/10248