Abstract:
Mechanical loads are key regulators of cell function in many disease conditions, including tissue fibrosis – a growth and remodeling process characterized by excessive matrix accumulation. Controlling fibrotic remodeling offers broad and significant therapeutic opportunities for pathologies such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, pulmonary fibrosis, wound healing, and others; however, this control will require understanding a complex system of cell and matrix processes including proliferation, differentiation, orientation, migration, matrix deposition, matrix degradation, and matrix reorganization, all of which can be highly mechanosensitive and interact non-intuitively. In this talk, I will discuss how fibrosis-related cell and matrix behaviors are being integrated into computational models of myocardial infarct remodeling in order to screen signaling perturbations for identifying novel, mechano-adaptive pharmacologic therapies.
Biography:
Dr. Will Richardson earned a B.S. in Biological Engineering from the University of Arkansas in 2007, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2012 where he worked with Dr. Jimmy Moore to develop novel devices for subjecting cells to non-uniform mechanical strains. After graduate work, Dr. Richardson was awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Dr. Jeff Holmes and Dr. Jeff Saucerman at the University of Virginia where he helped develop computational models of cell-matrix mechanobiology in order to understand processes regulating myocardial infarct scar structure. In 2016, he joined Clemson University’s Department of Bioengineering and started the Systems Mechanobiology Lab. The lab’s expertise is matrix systems mechanobiology, focusing on the use of computational models to identify cell and matrix processes dominating collagen structure regulation, conducted alongside high-throughput cell-stretching experiments to test model predictions. Integrating models and experiments, the lab pursues a multi-scale, systems-level understanding of tissue fibrosis in order to engineer novel technologies for controlling fibrotic remodeling involved in various diseases. He has received several honors including an AHA Scientist Development Grant, the ASME Richard Skalak Award, and the University of Arkansas College of Engineering Early Career Award. Dr. Richardson loves exploring the wonders of nature outside the lab as well, especially hiking and camping with his wife and 3 children.