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The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering presents its spring 2025 seminar series featuring guest speaker Elisa Budyn, professor of mechanical engineering at Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay at University Paris-Saclay, who will give a presentation on “Creating Human in Vitro Systems in the Framework of Animal-Free Research.” This seminar will take place on Wednesday, April 30, from 3:15–4:30 p.m. in room 131 of Perlstein Hall.

Abstract

Animals have been used in bioengineering for a very long time. While animal models make it possible to work with many individuals that are precisely characterized, the results are sometimes difficult to translate to humans. While developing in vivo human models include some challenges, human in vitro models offer a nice compromise.

When creating human models, the number of samples may be limited, specific legal regulations have to be respected, ensuring reliable supplies and implementing models in facilities approved for culturing human tissues. Compared to animal models, human in vitro models must also provide an environment as close as possible to in vivo conditions to encompass the limitation of not having a complete living organism.

Because human tissue morphologies are highly complex and human cell behavior is more complicated than many mammals, advanced 3D imaging techniques such as micro or nano CT, as well as fluorescent confocal microscopy are necessary to understand human tissues and organoid microstructures, and to accurately follow cell biology.

Complementary techniques such as nanoindentation or spectroscopies can measure and identify the different material components. The mechanical properties can also be measured by miniaturized mechanical tests. Because in vitro systems are alive, mechanical stimulations can drive human cells to their proper differentiation and biology, approaching in vivo conditions. Finally, cell biology can be verified by transcriptomics using qPCR to quantify the expressed mRNA which in turn can be correlated to the cell secretome.

This procedure using organ-on-chip techniques has been applied to study the effects of aging and pathologies on bone, or to study the effects of regenerative medicines in the intervertebral disc, or to evaluate the effect of the interaction between different implants and the hip capsule ligament.

Biography

Elisa Budyn is a professor of mechanical engineering at Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay at University Paris-Saclay. She earned her engineering diploma in civil engineering from Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics in 1998 and graduated her Master of Science and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1999 and 2004 in mechanical engineering/computational mechanics. Budyn then worked in material sciences at CNRS Laboratory LMSSM at Ecole Centrale Paris from 2004–2005 and joined the mechanical engineering department at the University of Illinois Chicago as an assistant professor and adjunct in bioengineering. In 2013 she became full professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay. Her research focuses on animal-free research and on developing human models based on organ-on-chip techniques for 3D co-cultures that are analyzed using live 3D advanced imaging, material spectroscopy, mechanical testing, and large 3D in silicon models of cells and tissues such as bone, disc, ligament, heart, skin, or liver. Her systems serve as test beds for patient-specific medicine screening or cells therapies. Her research has been funded by NSF, AFOSR, CNRS, ANR-RHU, Synchrotron SOLEIL, and the Farman Institute.