[Stephen Riffle]

Also, forgot to mention that last week I stumbled onto this paper while putting together a research roundup: Check it out and lmk if it prompts any thoughts, scientific or otherwise.

Small tissue chips with big opportunities for space medicine

[Stephen Riffle]

Forgot to add this one:

• Impact of Non-Muscle Cells on Excitation-Contraction Coupling in the Heart and the Importance of In Vitro Models

[Stephen Riffle]

Hi Barbara,

Any chance you know what the status is for the Humane Research and Testing Act as of June of 2022? Curious if there’s been any movement on it and what the path to passage looks like. Any light you can shed would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Stephen Riffle]

@Tamara – Any chance you’ve heard any updates on how likely it is that the bill will be reconciled by the August 1st target? And any insight on what would happen to the bill if it was delayed past the Sept. 30th deadline?

[Stephen Riffle]

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for sharing, that’s a really interesting paper. In retrospect, it seems obvious that the material/mechanical properties of the ECM would influence cell signaling/behavior. But that aspect of the cell’s microenvironmental niche really escaped my notice. I wonder how ECM stiffening or relaxing may encourage or discourage pathological angiogenesis (in the tumor or retinopathy settings, for example). And, for that matter, how ECM material properties do or do not influence developmental processes like tubulogenesis. Just a fascinating aspect of the cellular niche!

[Stephen Riffle]

@Chris — That makes a lot of sense. Is there any benchmark for determining what minimum criteria the model should meet? For example, if the Gut-Chip shows signature cytokine and permeability responses, but is lacking a cell-surface biomarker, would the model be invalidated or just caveated? Not sure if that example makes complete sense, but I’m more diving in on how much similarity with in vivo conditions is enough, and how much dissimilarity is too much?

My guess is that there’s no hard cut off. But do you think there’s the potential to work towards an IBD checklist/grading scale, so to speak, to allow for the same minimal validation criteria to be met across laboratories?