Presenter

Claudia Loebel, PhD

Assistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Dr. Loebel and her group develop biomaterials and engineer technologies to improve the understanding of how cells interact with their extracellular microenvironment to model tissue morphogenesis and disease. Their goal is to to use these engineered systems to develop and translate more effective therapeutic treatments for diseases such as fibrotic, inflammatory, and congenital disorders. Her work currently focuses on developing engineered lung alveolar organoids, aiming to build models of acute and chronic pulmonary diseases and for personalized medicine.

Dr. Loebel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Her international training and career in bioengineering is studded with numerous distinguished awards that add to her credentials and expertise in this field. In this webinar Dr. Loebel with present her latest research on engineered hydrogels with focus on the unique technology she is developing to study alveolar epithelial organoids and the application of both in the study of pulmonary diseases.

Link to Dr. Loebel’s lab: https://mse.engin.umich.edu/people/fac/loebelcl

Introduction by:

Katya Nikolov, MD (Protein Fluidics, Inc.)

Senior Application Scientist

Dr. Nikolov is a Physician-Scientist with 10+ years of academic and industrial experience in cancer biology and cell imaging. Her background has been in solid tumor models, tumor micro-environment and immunotherapy. Her experience includes assay development and T cell-based platform for drug screens in senescence research. In her current role at Protein Fluidics, Dr. Nikolov leads the projects on 3D cell-based assay development and assay optimization. Her work involves innovating 3D cell-based applications with the Pu·MA System, in depth high-content imaging and metabolomic analyses.

Dr. Nikolov will present a brief introduction to the Pu·MA System and the 3D assay technology showcasing the capabilities of automating 3D cell-based assays with various hydrogels