Melissa D. Krebs
Assistant Professor
Research Description
There is a critical need for replacement tissues due to organ failure and tissue loss. The field of tissue engineering seeks to regenerate diseased or damaged tissues by providing the necessary physical, biochemical, and cellular cues that promote tissue regeneration. These approaches typically use biomaterial scaffolds, often with incorporated bioactive factors to help induce the formation of the desired tissue within a defect site. Furthermore, cells can be incorporated into the biomaterial system to help repopulate the defect with the appropriate cell type. In the body, cells are influenced by a large host of factors, including soluble signals such as growth factors, insoluble signals that are components of the extracellular matrix surrounding the cells, and also the interaction of various populations of cells with each other.
Our group is interested in the development of biopolymer systems that will allow the study of cells’ interactions with their microenvironment and that can be used for both tissue regeneration and therapeutics. More specifically, we are investigating the controlled delivery of bioactive factors and therapeutics, the presentation of insoluble signals to cells, the effect of mechanical forces on cell behavior and tissue formation, and the influence that different cell populations have on one another. These advances will lead to improved biomaterial system design criteria. In addition to our tissue engineering research, we are also engineering biopolymer systems for controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules for the treatment of cancer. Ultimately, what we learn in our laboratory will help to improve patient therapies that are available in the clinic.
Selected Publications
Krebs MD, Alsberg E. Localized, Targeted and Sustained siRNA Delivery. Chemistry – A European Journal, 17, 3054-62, February 2011.
Jeong SI*, Krebs MD*, Bonino CA, Samorezov J, Khan SA, Alsberg E. Electrospun Chitosan-Alginate Nanofibers with In Situ Crosslinking for Use as Tissue Engineering Scaffolds. Tissue Engineering, 17(1-2), 59-70, January 2011.
Krebs MD, Salter E, Chen E, Sutter KA, Alsberg E. Calcium Phosphate – DNA Nanoparticle Gene Delivery from Alginate Hydrogels Induces in vivo Osteogenesis. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 92A(3), 1131-8, March 2010.
Krebs MD*, Sutter KA*, Alsberg E. Injectable Porous Solid Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering. Acta Biomaterialia, 5(8), 2847-59, October 2009.
Krebs MD, Jeon O, Alsberg E. Localized and Sustained Delivery of Silencing RNA from Macroscopic Biopolymer Hydrogels. JACS, 131(26), 9204-06, July 2009.
Krebs MD*, Erb RM*, Yellen BB, Samanta B, Rotello VM, Alsberg E. Formation of ordered cellular structures in suspension via label-free negative magnetophoresis. Nano Letters, 9(5), 1812-7, May 2009.