Blatchley Lab for Engineering Dynamic Tissue Microenvironments

We seek to CHARACTERIZE tissues and organs in order to CONSTRUCT better models of human development and disease

Our key tools and technologies

We use engineering tools to understand how the role of the extracellular matrix in tissue homeostasis and regeneration, as well as in development and disease.

Designer cell niches

We use existing data and new characterization methods to define the key properties of tissue-specific niches and re-build them ourselves.

Light-guided tissue engineering

We spatiotemporally tune the properties of the engineered microenvironment to deterministically guide tissue morphogenesis.

Advanced imaging techniques

We co-opt and refine analytical methods to understand cell behavior in 4D.

What we’ve done so far

O2-controllable materials for vasculogenesis

Stiffness controlled materials for organoids

What we’ve done so far

Photo-tunable materials to guide intestinal organoid morphometrics

What we’ve done so far

Photoexpansion microscopy (PhotoExM)

Metabolic labeling of organoid-secreted nascent proteins

What we’re doing now

Building healthy and diseased intestinal niches

Optimizing intestinal developmental niches

What we’re doing now

Studying the role of spatiotemporally variable matrix properties on intestinal development and tissue maturation

What we’re doing now

Live imaging of organoid morphogenesis

Understanding ECM dynamics

News

What’s going on with us?

Dom joins the lab as a Research Technician!

7/15/24

  • Dom comes in with organoid experience, having worked with Jason Spence and Michael Dame at the University of Michigan in the Translational Tissue Modeling Laboratory
  • He’ll continue work with intestinal organoids and play a major role in getting the lab up and running!

The Blatchley Lab Opens!

4/1/24

  • The lab officially opened on 4/1/24 (not a joke!)
  • Excitement is palpable (see photo).
  • Paperwork was filled out. Emails were sent.

R00 is officially approved for funding!

3/22/24

  • We’ll continue our work on iPSC-derived intestinal organoids in phototunable materials.
  • Abstract here