Episode 7: Tunable biomimetic hydrogel informs cell behavior

In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin’s Stephen Riffle interviews Samuel Herberg from SUNY upstate medical university in Syracuse, New York about a new tool to study cell behavior. According to Herberg, culturing cells in an environment that reflects the materials properties of the human body can help reveal new insights into cell biology and mechanisms of disease. To do that, his research team has created a hydrogel using natural polymers. Through UV and chemically induced crosslinking, Herberg’s team is able to finely tune their hydrogel’s stiffness, which enables them to study diseases like primary open angle glaucoma, the world’s leading cause of vision loss. Their study is published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.844342).