Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series

Megan L. McCain, Ph.D.

Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering University of Southern California (USC)

SEMINAR: Engineering Microphysiological Systems to Decode Mechanobiological Drivers of Cardiac and Uterine Disorders

The heart and the uterus are both muscular organs, and their physiological function depends on their ability to dynamically sense and adapt to mechanical forces. In many diseases and disorders, maladaptive responses to mechanical forces contribute to pathological remodeling and tissue dysfunction. Microphysiological systems are powerful platforms for systematically investigating how mechanical forces regulate human tissue physiology and pathophysiology. In this talk, I will describe how we use microphysiological systems to identify the effects of mechanical stretch on human cardiac and uterine muscle in disease-relevant contexts. We found that cardiomyocytes derived from patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a congenital heart defect, exhibit pathological responses to cyclic stretch, a stimulus that normally promotes cardiomyocyte maturation. We also found that static stretch, a defining feature of late stages of pregnancy, modulates the oxytocin sensitivity of human uterine smooth muscle cells, with implications for understanding mechanisms of preterm labor. Together, these studies demonstrate how microphysiological systems can reveal mechanobiological drivers of disease progression in the heart and uterus, which can inspire new therapeutic strategies..

BIOSKETCH:

Megan L. McCain, Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering. She also serves as Director of the Keck-Viterbi Center for Stem Cell Engineering and Associate Chair of Biomedical Engineering. Her research focuses on engineering human tissue and organ-on-chip models to investigate cardiac, skeletal muscle, and other physiological systems, with applications in disease modeling and regenerative medicine. Dr. McCain earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Her honors include election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), an NSF CAREER Award, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as one of its 35 Innovators Under 35.