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Jaewon Lee

University of Texas at Austin

Mentor: Dr. Hyun Jung Kim

"Human gut inflammation-on-a-chip for replacement of animal models."

Graduate student Jaewon Lee, in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, has received a fellowship for her project which aims to study intestinal inflammation using the human gut-on-a-chip microphysiological system. Dozens of animal models of gut inflammation exist but have limitations including expense, time, ineffectiveness, and ethical challenges that can be overcome with this sophisticated, human-relevant model. In this proposal, Jaewon plans to co-culture intestinal cells, gut microbes and immune cells in a sophisticated human intestinal microphysiological system and examine the effect of probiotic and prebiotic therapies after inflammation is induced, in an effort to reduce and replace animal use in this area.