Biomimetic materials for cardiovascular applications
Date
Time
@ -
About the talk: Biomaterials play a central role in modern regenerative medicine and tissue engineering strategies, where they serve as tuneable environments that direct cellular behaviour and function. However, one of the biggest obstacles in translating advances in biomaterials research to clinical applications is lack of sufficient vascular tissue regeneration. We develop silk fibroin-based biomaterials for cardiovascular applications, including vascular grafts and cardiac patches, with a particular emphasis on enhancing blood vessel ingrowth and integration of these devices with the host tissue. I will discuss our work in the development of novel silk biomaterial platforms and how the physical properties of each including pore size and shape, material stiffness and topography directly influence cell interactions and tissue and blood vessel ingrowth in vivo.
Speaker
-
Associate Professor Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney
Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina is an Associate Professor and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow/ARC Future Fellow (from 2022) at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney. Her research interests are at the interface of biology and engineering, focusing on the development of biomimetic biomaterials that direct cell interactions for enhanced vascularisation and treatment of cardiovascular disease ..Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina is an Associate Professor and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow/ARC Future Fellow (from 2022) at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney. Her research interests are at the interface of biology and engineering, focusing on the development of biomimetic biomaterials that direct cell interactions for enhanced vascularisation and treatment of cardiovascular disease. She completed her doctoral degree in Anthony Weiss’ lab at the University of Sydney and postdoctoral training in David Kaplan’s group at Tufts University in Boston. She joined UNSW in 2014 where her research has been supported by funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Heart Foundation, the National Health & Medical Research Council and NSW Health. Her work has been recognised through multiple awards, including most recently being named the NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year in the 2020 NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science & Engineering and receiving the 2021 Ministerial Award for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research.
