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Welcome to my site! For the past three years, I have been inspired by the advent of tissue engineering. Although tissue engineering has the potential to offer whole scale replacement of damaged organs, the kidney is particularly difficult to engineer due to its biological and structural complexity.
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While on the FDA's clinical trial website, I read about mesenchymal stem cell therapy which can be used for kidneys faces several challenges including retention of cells. Through my research, I sought to develop a hydrogel that could be used to improve mesenchymal stem cell retention but also has stiffness and nanofibrous architecture that can facilitate differentiation.
I discovered that a tea waste product (derived from the popular, probiotic kombucha drink) and gelatin could be crosslinked to achieve physiologically relevant stiffnesses.
- Angelin Mathew :)
Hypothesis:
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If polymerization solutions with differing gelatin (monomer) concentrations were crosslinked with microbial transglutaminase, the resulting hydrogels would display a range of physiologically relevant stiffnesses from ~1.0 kPa-5kPa (12).
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If gelatin monomer concentration is increased, the storage moduli and complex moduli of the resulting gels would also increase.
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If Kombucha derived cellulose is added to gelatin-mTg solutions during polymerization, the resulting composite will still display higher storage modulus and lower loss modulus characteristic of hydrogels.
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