Speaker
Description
Hydrogels are ideal materials for mimicking the properties of natural tissues such as lymph nodes. Hydrogel interactions with cells and biomolecules can be well understood using appropriate simulation techniques, allowing a rational design of these materials for specific biomedical applications involving ex-vivo procedures. For example, we have recently proposed hydrogels for cancer immunotherapy specifically designed for enhanced CAR T-cell expression and expansion [1,2]. In optimizing the hydrogels, we found that their performance in cell culture has a nontrivial dependence on the mechanical properties of the hydrogels which has no obvious explanation. In this talk, I’ll argue that this crucial dependence of cell culture on the hydrogel mechanical properties is related to active wetting phenomena of cells on complex substrates.
[1] M. Castellote-Borrell, M. Domingo, F. Merlina, H. Lu, S. Colell, M. Bachiller, M. Juan, S. Guedan, J. Faraudo and J. Guasch “Lymph-Node Inspired Hydrogels Enhance CAR Expression and Proliferation of CAR T Cells”, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2025, 17, 11, 16548–16560.
[2] J. Guasch, M. Castellote, F. Merlina, J. Faraudo, M. Domingo, “Inverse opal hydrogel and its use in immunotherapy”, European Patent EP24382629, priority date 11 June 2024. International Publication number WO/2025/257179.A1.
