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Mitragotri, Samir Wang, Li-Wen Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology 2023-03-31T14:44:32Z 2023-03-31T14:44:32Z 2023-02 2023-03-10T15:13:26.762Z https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150276 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0297-9553 Cell therapies represent a major paradigm shift of biotechnology in medicine due to its transformative potential in treating previously incurable diseases. A variety of cells have been applied for cell therapies, including stem cells, tissue-specific cells, and hematopoietic cells. Particularly, immune cells, a subset of blood cells, have gained significant attention owing to their inflammation-homing ability as well as inherently critical roles in disease progression and tissue regeneration. The prosperity of immune cell-based therapies in the clinic has fueled the efforts in immune cell engineering. Several approaches have been taken to functionalize immune cells, among which biomaterial-assisted cellular platforms, marrying the strengths of biomaterials and leukocytes, become a new pillar of immune cell engineering. In my thesis work, I provide a brief overview on the cell therapies in the clinic, followed by introducing two projects of biomaterial-assisted cellular platforms, where anisotropic microparticles and macrophage, a type of innate immune cells, were employed. Specifically, I developed and engineered discoidal microparticles that can hitchhike on the macrophage surface but resist phagocytosis due to their anisotropic morphology. This approach takes advantage of inflammation-homing capability of macrophages and enables stable loading of therapeutic and imaging agents in the extracellular space for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ Macrophage-hitchhiking Anisotropic Microparticles for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Applications Thesis application/pdf Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy Publication unknown unknown <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="806ab619-c5f5-4353-bfb9-76ceac82540b"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Title>Macrophage-hitchhiking Anisotropic Microparticles for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Applications</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2023-02</PublicationDate> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Wang, Li-Wen</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <DisplayName>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DisplayName> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <License>https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/</License> <Abstract>Cell therapies represent a major paradigm shift of biotechnology in medicine due to its transformative potential in treating previously incurable diseases. A variety of cells have been applied for cell therapies, including stem cells, tissue-specific cells, and hematopoietic cells. Particularly, immune cells, a subset of blood cells, have gained significant attention owing to their inflammation-homing ability as well as inherently critical roles in disease progression and tissue regeneration. The prosperity of immune cell-based therapies in the clinic has fueled the efforts in immune cell engineering. Several approaches have been taken to functionalize immune cells, among which biomaterial-assisted cellular platforms, marrying the strengths of biomaterials and leukocytes, become a new pillar of immune cell engineering. In my thesis work, I provide a brief overview on the cell therapies in the clinic, followed by introducing two projects of biomaterial-assisted cellular platforms, where anisotropic microparticles and macrophage, a type of innate immune cells, were employed. Specifically, I developed and engineered discoidal microparticles that can hitchhike on the macrophage surface but resist phagocytosis due to their anisotropic morphology. This approach takes advantage of inflammation-homing capability of macrophages and enables stable loading of therapeutic and imaging agents in the extracellular space for therapeutic and diagnostic applications.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>