ABOUT THE SEMINAR

Microphysiological Human Lymphatic System

The human lymphatic system, a network of lymphatic vessels and lymphoid organs plays a role in human health and disease. It maintains fluid homeostasis in tissues by draining excess interstitial fluid. Since the interstitial fluid may contain immune/cancer cells, and diverse biomolecules, impaired lymphatic function contributes to numerous human diseases, such as lymphedema, immune dysfunction, metabolic disease, cancers, and neurodegenerative disease. Though animal models have been widely used, it is often difficult to isolate the relative contributions of biological and biophysical factors in these models, so they have not been as helpful in identifying mechanisms of multifactorial disease. By contrast, traditional cell cultures in two-dimensional dishes are easy to control, but they do not recapitulate the three-dimensional in vivo organization of lymphatics. In this lecture, I will present microphysiological human lymphatic system that recapitulates the native structure and function of lymphatics to decipher the mechanisms of lymphatics-related human diseases.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Esak (Isaac) Lee, PhD, Assistant Professor of BME; Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investi gator in the Life Sciences atCornell University 

Esak (Isaac) Lee is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. His research focuses on creating microphysiological tissue chip models to recapitulate the human lymphatic system and better understand related diseases with NIH funding from NHLBI, NCI, and NIAID. He has published more than 35 articles in peer-reviewed journals and received awards including the Microcirculatory Society Award for Excellence in Lymphatic Research, Biomedical Engineering Society Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award, Cornell’s Meinig Family Investigatorship, and Lymphatic Education & Research Network Young Investigator Award.

ABOUT THE BME SEMINAR SERIES

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University is proud to host a distinguished lecture series on the latest developments and research in Biomedical Engineering. The series takes place on Thursday afternoons at 1:00 PM Eastern and includes a variety of renowned academics from top universities to talk about their specific research and experience. This is a hybrid event.