Research Summary
The Kutys Lab spans disciplinary boundaries between cell biology and engineering to investigate tissue morphogenic processes associated with human development, regeneration and disease. Ultimately, we are interested in uncovering fundamental molecular and mechanical mechanisms that conspire across time and length scales to organize and shape human tissues. To do so, we develop microfluidic, biomimetic human tissue models that recapitulate 3D in vivo architectures, microenvironments, cellular heterogeneity, and morphogenic behaviors that can be examined mechanistically by biochemical and cell biological approaches. Combined with advanced microscopy, cellular and molecular engineering, and 'omic' technologies, our multidisciplinary approach allows us to model, control, and dissect complex multicellular behaviors at a level previously only accessible in vivo. Our lab broadly investigates how biochemical and mechanical signals at cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesions are coordinated across biological scales (molecules to cells to tissues) to maintain normal tissue structure or drive pathology.
Research Funding
July 20, 2023 - June 30, 2028 - Decoding cortical Notch signaling and morphogenic instruction at cell-cell interfaces , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R35GM150987
December 1, 2023 - October 31, 2025 - 3D biomimetic human tuberculosis granulomas to identify novel host-pathogen interactions , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21AI176234
April 15, 2021 - March 31, 2023 - Notch1 and APP signaling in cerebral microvascular dysfunction , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21AG072232
February 1, 2020 - January 31, 2023 - Non-canonical Notch1 regulation of proliferation and adherens junctions in breast cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R00CA226366
September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2020 - Non-canonical Notch1 regulation of proliferation and adherens junctions in breast cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K99CA226366
Education
Pennsylvania State University, BS, 2009, Bioengineering
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, PhD, 2014, Cell and Developmental Biology
Boston University, Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020, Biomedical Engineering