Ashleigh Cooper

• University of Washington

In vitro models that accurately mimic the microenvironment of invading glioblastoma multiform (GBM) cells will provide a high-throughput system for testing potential anti-invasion therapies. Here, we investigate the ability of chitosan-polycaprolactone polyblend nanofibers to promote a migratory phenotype in human GBM cells by altering the nanotopo...

Myogenic progenitor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can provide unlimited sources of cells in muscle regeneration but their clinical uses are largely hindered by the lack of efficient methods to induce differentiation of stem cells into myogenic cells. We present a novel approach to effectively enhance myogenic differentiation...

3D, uniaxially aligned, microtubular, porous chitosan scaffolds prepared via directional freeze-drying support the formation of large anisotropic myotubes. Myotubes of ∼550 μm long and ∼50 μm diameter are grown in the scaffolds after two weeks of culture. Porous chitosan scaffolds of varying pore architectures and mechanical properties can be readi...

Nanofibrous membranes have drawn considerable interest for filtration applications due to their ability to withstand high fluid flux while removing micro- and nano-sized particulates from solution. The desire to introduce an antibacterial function into water filter applications presents a challenge to widespread application of fibrous membranes bec...

Aligned nanofibers have drawn increasing interest for applications in biomedical engineering, electronics, and energy storage systems owing to the unique physicochemical properties provided by their anisotropy and high surface-to-volume ratio. Nevertheless, direct fabrication or assembly of aligned nanofibers into a 3-dimensional standalone constru...

Well-ordered one-dimensional nanostructures are enabling important new applications in textiles, energy, environment and bioengineering owing to their unique and anisotropic properties. However, the production of highly aligned nanofibers in a large area remains a significant challenge. Here we report a powerful, yet economical approach that integr...

Chitosan-based fibrous matrices are prepared to mimic the ECM architecture and elucidate substrate-mediated hESC differentiation due to topographical scale and anisotropy without exogenic morphogens. Fibrous matrices support fewer pluripotent hESCs than films but enable topography-mediated hESC differentiation. Matrices composed of 400 nm and 1.1 µ...

Self-assembled chitin nanofibers were applied as a biomimetic extracellular matrix for the attachment of primary neuronsin vitro. Chitin nanofiber surfaces were deacetylated to form 4 nm and 12 nm diameter chitosan nanofibers that were coupled with poly-D-lysine (PDL) to examine combinatory effects and structurally analyzed by atomic force microsco...

The ability to produce aligned sub-micron fibers may open new avenues for the development of scaffolds for application in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. An area of particular interest is functional restoration of damaged or diseased nerves where the aligned fibers serve to support cell adhesion and proliferation, and guide neurite ou...

We report a simple method to produce stable chitosan derivative nanofibers via electrospinning. A chitosan solution with lactate salt was electrospun to produce nanofibers, followed by thermal treatment to enhance fiber stability. Chemical and morphological analyses demonstrated that the resulting nanofibers were crosslinked via amidation between c...

A facile bottom-up strategy affords cytocompatible self-assembled biogenic chitin nanofibers with diameter control. Ultrafine (3 nm) nanofibers are easily obtained from drying a chitin/hexafluoro 2-propanol solution, and larger (10 nm) nanofibers are precipitated from LiCl/N, N-dimethylacetamide upon addition of water.

Tissue-engineered nanofibrous matrices can potentially serve as an implantable scaffold for the reconstruction of damaged or lost tissue by regulating cell proliferation, organization, and function. In this study, we developed a polyblend chitosan-polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous scaffold with unidirectional fiber orientation by electrospinning f...

The development and characterization of a natural-synthetic polymeric nanofiber comprised of well-blended chitosan and poly(caprolactone) (PCL) is discussed. The design combined the technological advancements in biocompatible polymers and nanotechnology to produce nanofibrous matrices with significantly improved mechanical and biological properties...

High cell density and uniformity in a tissue-engineered construct is essential to expedite the formation of a uniform extracellular matrix. In this study, we demonstrated an on-site gelation approach to increase cellular population and uniformity through porous scaffolds using alginate as gelling material. The on-site gelation was triggered during...

A series of glass treatments were investigated to develop a miniaturized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay microarray sensor with covalently immobilized antibody. Two glass compositions were photo-hydrolytically treated and functionalized with an amino- or mercapto-silane. Surface characterization was done using contact angle, X-ray photoelectron s...

IntroductionExperimentalResults and DiscussionConclusion Acknowledgements

Electrospinning is a simple and adaptable method for generating nanofibers. Due to the instability of the electrified polymer jet, polymer nanofibers are usually collected in random, tangled orientations. Alignment of nanofibers would have practical applications for use as cardiac tissue which have cells that grow in an aligned manner, as well as f...