Isabel passaging her cells after vesicle harvest

Author: Isabel Powers | Major: Biomedical Engineering | Semester: Fall 2022

I am a Senior biomedical engineering major working on the second semester of this research project. I am researching this topic with guidance from Dr. Young Hye Song in the Biomedical Engineering Department. I also work closely with Emory Gregory, a biomedical engineering PhD candidate in this lab. After graduation in May 2023, I hope to work in the biotechnology consulting industry.

My research is focused on the role of pancreatic tumor-derived extracellular vesicles on Schwann cell activation. Pancreatic cancer is an incredibly aggressive disease with less than 10% 5-year survival rate. Part of the reason this cancer is so deadly is because the tumors can invade the nervous system in an event called perineural invasion, which might be linked to extracellular vesicles. My hypothesis is that pancreatic tumor-derived vesicles can carry chemical signals (cytokines) that are activating nearby Schwann cells and aiding in perineural invasion.

This project initially caught my eye because it relies on biomimicry (recreating the body). We use three-dimensional (3D) engineered tissues to see if the vesicle treatments are linked to Schwann cell activation. These tissues are created by removing the cells from a pig sciatic nerve and leaving only the structural components that we can then add our own cells into. This helps recreate the environment that the Schwann cells are used to in the human body. In the future, engineered tissues can hopefully replace animal studies in disease modeling. Dr. Song’s lab focuses on this form of biomimetic engineering, so I was excited at the chance to join. I also really like the mentorship style she provides. We meet weekly to discuss the project and this lets us troubleshoot any issues.

I was also able to present my work at the annual Biomedical Engineering Society conference this semester. It was amazing being able to see the other research projects in this field. I also had a lot of fun talking to others working with extracellular vesicles and answering questions on the topic. This is a growing area in biomedical research, so I felt like my work really mattered.

A big roadblock for me this semester was my Schwann cells growing slowly. It is normal for nervous system cells to grow slower than cancer cells, but my Schwann cells were growing so slow to the point I worried they had stopped. Because a large part of my project was using these cells it got to the point where I had to pivot into just working with the extracellular vesicle production. After my pivot, I was able to run multiple experiments on the best lysis method of the vesicles and get some good data. Luckily, Emory Gregory discovered that the Schwann cell media might need less of one supplement and more of another so once those were altered the cells started growing normally. She was also able to set up the 3D cultures needed to test the vesicle and Schwann cell interactions. This allowed us to see if the hypothesis could be viable (outside of literature reviews). Now that the Schwann cells are growing normally, we can start cytokine inhibitor studies next semester.

I am excited to see the results of this project. We are hoping to publish this work to a preprint server at the end of January and eventually to a peer reviewed journal. I am especially interested to see if the cytokines that I have chosen to look at are responsible for any of the changes we’ve seen. If it isn’t those cytokines, this still adds a puzzle piece to the world of extracellular vesicles in pancreatic cancer and I am proud to have been a part of that.