Shilpa Sant, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy   

Research Interests

The central research theme is to develop physiologically relevant three-dimensional microenvironments with the goal to elucidate how microenvironmental factors drive cellular behaviors in disease progression as well as in repair/regeneration. Our research interests are driven by a desire to develop effective therapies to halt disease progression or harness normal repair/regeneration by instructing the patient’s own cells. We utilize interdisciplinary biomaterial-, molecular/cell biology- and micro/nanotechnology-based approaches to achieve our research goals.

Current projects in the lab include: 1) Role of tumor-intrinsic hypoxia in emergence of migratory phenotype, with specific focus on collective migration and partial/hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal transition; 2) Role of ectopic calcification in breast cancer progression; 3) Development of bioinspired biomaterials for regenerative medicine with focus on hard tissues like bone and teeth and disease modeling; 4) Development of brain organoids to study HIV neuropathogenesis.

Technique Expertise or Resources to share

Three-dimensional co-culture models, biomaterials/hydrogel fabrication, brain organoids, mechanical testing

Keywords

Biomaterials, Engineered disease models, cell-cell interaction, cell-ECM interaction, Breast cancer, nanomaterials, Hydrogels, Brain organoids