CBE Seminar (Zoom): Decoding Morphogenic Instruction in Human Microphysiological Systems
Assistant Professor
Department of Cell and Tissue Biology
University of California, San Francisco
Non-UCI people, please use this registration link: https://forms.gle/Mph5rFn3uxxCLWhR6
Abstract: The Kutys Lab investigates how intersections of chemical and mechanical signals at cellular adhesive interfaces function across time and length scales to orchestrate human 3D tissue morphogenesis and regulatory signaling. To do so, we develop and apply biomimetic human microphysiological culture systems that incorporate 3D organotypic architectures and permit the study of diverse tissue morphogenic processes associated with human development, regeneration and pathogenesis with high resolution and biological control. Combining these platforms with new molecular and microscopy-based methods, we have gained fundamental insight into diverse tissue morphogenic events ranging from the genesis and progression of human Mycobacterium tuberculosis granulomas to the coordinated assembly and maintenance of human microvascular networks. In this talk, I will highlight these recent advances and describe our recent work establishing a previously unappreciated function for the highly conserved Notch1 receptor, which links adhesive and cytoskeletal processes to transcriptional regulation of cell fate, in vascular homeostasis and disease, and tumor suppression.
Bio: Matthew L. Kutys is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a member of the UCSF/UC Berkeley Bioengineering Graduate Program, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Cardiovascular Research Institute. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University and earned his doctorate in cell and developmental biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institutes of Health, under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Yamada. He completed training as a Hartwell Foundation postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Christopher Chen of Boston University and Harvard’s Wyss Institute. The Kutys Lab leverages this multidisciplinary training to span the boundaries between cell biology and engineering and investigate tissue morphogenic processes associated with human development, regeneration and disease with unprecedent resolution and biological control. Kutys is the recipient of an NCI Pathway to Independence Award and a UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research Award.
Host: Assistant Professor Quinton Smith
