Event Information:

• Fri

  06

  Mar

  2020

  Seminar "The GUT CHIP: Engineering the Intestinal Environment"

  4:30 AMAula Magna, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació, Campus Diagonal

  Rebecca Carrier, Professor and Associate Chair for Research, Chemical Engineering,  Northeastern University, Boston, USA

  Abstract

  The intestinal mucosal barrier is Transport phenomena in the intestine are highly significant to effective oral drug delivery, nutrient absorption, and interactions between microbes and intestinal tissue. Our in vitro models. Interactions between intestinal lumen contents, including food and microbes, with underlying tissues are currently studied in animal models or simple in vitro culture systems that are limited in their representation of phenomena occurring in the human gut. Thus, we are developing in vitro human gut models that incorporate the microbiome and key cell types (e.g., immune cells) as well as appropriate physical stimuli (e.g., fluid flow). One aspect of permeation through the intestinal membrane, transport through mucus, is being investigated in detail. Results to date highlight the dependence of mucosal permeation on physical and chemical properties of penetrating material (drug, particle, microbe) as well as the significance of intestinal lumen contents in altering the mucus barrier. Our findings suggest that mild stimuli, such as those presented by food, can modulate the intestinal mucosal barrier, for example to impact oral drug delivery or microbial invasion, as occurs in infection and intestinal inflammation