Fernando Martinez

BioE MS Defense Presentation

Date: 2024-05-09
Time: 10:00 am
Location: IBB 1316

Meeting Link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/99072754292

Committee Members:
Young Jang, PhD (advisor) (Emory University)

Shuichi Takayama, PhD (co-advisor) (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Valeria Milam, PhD (Georgia Institute of Technology)

3D FIBRIN MICROGEL SYSTEM FOR SENESCENSE DETECTION

With the scientific advances and improvements in quality of life over the past century, the percentage of the aged population has been steadily increasing. With age comes a multitude of age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. One of the 12 hallmarks of aging, cellular senescence, has been directly linked to age-related pathologies. Treatment of cellular senescence via senolytics is a growing niche in aging research, due to the promise it shows in managing senescence accumulation and age-related diseases. Despite growing use of 3D systems in research, there is a lack of models for age-related drug screening. This thesis aims to refine a bio-printed fibroblast-containing fibrin gel model for the detection of cellular senescence. This fibrin microgel model closely mimics the early stages of wound healing, where clot formation occurs, and is subsequently degraded by a process known as fibrinolysis. First, we sought to establish reproducibility in the system. Gel parameters were studied to determine their relationship with an established readout of fibrinolysis time, and ways to reduce variability in the system were investigated. Second, different methods of senescence were tested to determine sensitivity of the fibrin gel model to cellular senescence. Comparing the effects of multiple forms of senescence in the model is necessary due to different pathways of senescence activation and potential differences in senescence associated secretory phenotypes (SASPs). Overall, the work accomplished in this thesis could help establish a novel marker for rapid cellular senescence detection and a tool for senolytic drug discovery and screening.