How it Works
A research collaboration co-led by James Ankrum and Ed Sander is expanding the understanding of the role fat tissue plays in healing wounds and may help to uncover and develop fat-related wound healing treatments. The key finding in this research project, aided by Al Klingelhutz, professor of biology and microbiology, was that fat cells differentially regulate the behavior of fibroblasts, a cell type involved in tissue repair. Interactions between fibroblasts and secreted factors from two components of fat, pre-adipocytes and adipocytes, differentially secrete factors that regulate fibroblast behavior.
Mariam El-Hattab, PhD researcher in the 3MT Laboratory, pursued an angle of this research for her thesis.
Behind the Research:
Edward Sander, PhD
Director, 3MT Laboratory
Associate Professor, Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering
Email: edward-sander@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 384-2862
https://sanderlab.lab.uiowa.edu
Edward Sander directs the Multi-scale Mechanics, Mechanobiology, and Tissue Engineering Laboratory (3MT). The 3MT Lab aims to understand the dynamic and multi-scale mechanical interplay between cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in forming and remodeling tissues.
James Ankrum, PhD
Director, Ankrum Lab
Associate Professor, Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering
Email: james-ankrum@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319)335-7512
https://ankrum.lab.uiowa.edu/
James Ankrum is the director of the Ankrum Lab. His current research interests include cell based therapies, microenvironmental control of cell phenotype, and pancreatic beta cell therapy.