Abstract
In the last decade, organoid technology has emerged as a powerful tool to study human diseases in 3D. In the oral mucosa, genetic changes can prompt extracellular matrix remodelling, leading to epithelial mesenchymal transition and cancer, but it’s not clear how these signals are regulated. Advances in biomaterials, especially the development of hydrogels with tuneable physiochemical properties, offer the opportunity to model the native extracellular matrix microenvironment. This project aims to use fully synthetic hydrogels incorporating a FRET-based sensor of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity combined with 3D oral mucosal organoid models to quantitatively analyse how extracellular matrix remodelling is driven by specific genetic changes. Our aim is to understand how the oral mucosa regulates extracellular matrix degradation and contributes epithelial mesenchymal transition.
References
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