Welcome Dr. Esak Lee from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

" Microphysiological Systems for Vascular and Cancer Research "

Abstract:  Blood and lymphatic vessels are crucial for human body function. My overall research goals are to understand blood and lymphatic vessel morphogenesis, homeostasis, and disease pathogenesis by employing novel microphysiological systems (“organ-on-chip”) and in vivo models to inform new and better treatments for blood and lymphatic vascular disorders and related disease conditions, such as cancer.

In the first part of my talk, I will present some of my postdoctoral work on “lymphatics-on-chip” to recapitulate native lymphatic vessel structure and function and to understand mechanisms of lymphedema. Lymphedema is the most common lymphatic disease, affecting more than 150 million individuals worldwide, featured by poor lymphatic drainage and swollen arms or legs. Currently, there is no clinically available drug for treating lymphedema patients. One major obstacle to better understanding and curing the disease is a lack of efficient experimental models for assessing lymphatic drainage. I will present how the “lymphatics-on-chip” enabled our study of lymphatic biology and revealed new therapeutic targets for treating lymphedema, which has been validated in a relevant mouse lymphedema model.

Secondly, I will present some of my doctoral work focusing on lymphatic vessel interactions to breast cancer cells in metastasis, given that more than 60% of breast cancer patients exhibit lymph node metastases. I will describe a new mechanism of breast tumor conditioning of lymphatic vessels in pre-metastatic organs, such as lymph nodes to promote metastasis. I will also propose new strategies to defeat breast cancer metastasis via “drug repurposing”, new use applications of pre-existing, FDA-approved drugs.

Lastly, I will present my recent work on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)-on-chip to exemplify how 3D tumor-on-chips and mouse tumor models can synergize in investigation of fundamental cancer biology. The PDAC-on-chip revealed a new mode of tumor-vessel interaction (“PDAC-vessel replacement”) and the mechanism.

In summary, my research experiences and scientific contributions have built a foundation for my long-term research goal of building new microphysiological systems for investigating the effects of biochemical and physical cues on endothelial and cancer cell/tissue biology with the eventual goal of informing new treatments for blood and lymphatic vascular diseases and cancer.

Bio: Dr. Lee's research focus has been in Biomimetic Microsystems with specific research interests in the areas of Organ-on-chips, angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, cancer and vascular diseases.  He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Johns Hopkins University.  In 2016, he received a LE&RN research fellowship.