Title: “Hydrogels and Microgels as Building Blocks of Bioengineered Tissues”
Abstract: Our lab specializes in the design, synthesis, and characterization of synthetic and natural hydrogel biomaterials for soft tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. More recently, we have focused on the biotherapeutic field by designing physiologically relevant drug screening platforms as well as injectable and degradable biotherapeutic delivery devices. In this talk I will present hydrogel, microgel and cryogel scaffolds for cell encapsulation, devices/techniques for microgel fabrication as well as microfluidic devices to introduce perfusion to bioengineered tissues that our lab has developed. In our work we have prioritized mild chemistries which allow in situ cell encapsulation as well as approaches amenable to semi high-throughput processing and data analysis to enable drug screening applications. As a specific example application, I will discuss hydrogel-based in vitro models for studying glioblastoma spheroid growth and chemotherapeutic responses at interfaces of varying stiffness and biochemical composition. 
Biography: Silviya Petrova Zustiak, Ph.D. has a diverse academic background with a bachelor’s degree in bioelectrical engineering, a doctoral degree in biochemical engineering and a postdoctoral training in biophysics. She is currently a Professor and Associate Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Saint Louis University, St Louis, MO, where she also co-directs two large institutes: the Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation and the Institute for Translational Neuroscience. Dr. Zustiak has editorial roles in several journals, including Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Scientific Reports, Tissue Engineering and npj Biomedical Innovations and is an active member of several professional societies, including the Society for Biomaterials and the Biomedical Engineering Society. Dr. Zustiak has received multiple professional awards, including the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence during her postdoctoral fellowship and Outstanding Parks Graduate Faculty Award, Scholarly Works Award, and Woman of the Year Award at Saint Louis University. Dr. Zustiak’s research is focused on developing hydrogel biomaterials as cell scaffolds, drug screening platforms and drug delivery devices and is highly multidisciplinary. Her work has been funded by various government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, private foundations, and industry and has resulted in over 70 peer-reviewed publications, over 250 conference presentations, 4 awarded patents and multiple pending patent applications.