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Melody Swartz
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MISSION
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Cancer metastasis, adaptive immune response, lipid transport, and tissue fluid balance all depend on lymphatic transport, and are all tied to interstitial fluid balance and transport. The lymphatic system is both part of the circulation and part of the immune system. Its role in the circulation is to drain fluid, solutes, and macromolecules from the interstitial space and return them to the blood. In adaptive immunity; dendritic cells sense and enter lymphatic vessels after they become activated in order to travel to lymph nodes where they can mount an immune response. Cancer cells also utilize lymphatic vessels, and likely interstitial flow, to spread to distant sites throughout the body. Lymphedema occurs when lymphatic function is not optimal, and causes irreversible tissue remodeling that becomes exacerbated with time and for which there is no cure or treatment, other than massage and bandaging. Finally, since lymphatic vessels drain lipids (in the form of chylomicrons) from the gut, they play important roles in lipid trafficking and possibly metabolism. Despite its importance, the regulatory biology of lymphatic function is poorly understood. Furthermore, lymphatic drug delivery holds great potential because of localized targeting of lymph nodes, where one might target metastasized cancer cells, deliver imaging agents, or deliver immunomodulatory drugs to immune cells; this great potential is underexploited.
Our lab is focused on understanding the physiology and biology of lymphatic vessels and lymphatic transport: how lymphatic endothelium actively regulates flow, immune cell trafficking, and cancer metastasis; whether and how lymphatic vessels affect immunity and tolerance; and how lymphatics can be exploited for drug delivery. We aim to elucidate such functional biology by integrating in vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches. In doing so, we are both uncovering new fundamental mechanisms of lymphatic and interstitial flow “mechanobiology”, as well as describing new design principles for tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Key research activities in these areas (which all overlap):
*Tumor cell invasion and lymphatic metastasis
*Targeting lymphatics for immunomodulation and drug delivery (collaboration with Hubbell lab)
*Tissue engineering of functional blood and lymphatic capillaries
*Lymphangiogenesis, lymphedema, and lymphatic biology
*Mechanobiology of interstitial flow and “autologous chemotaxis”
*Mechanisms of cell entry into lymphatics (dendritic cells, tumor cells)
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BIOGRAPHY
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EDUCATION
1998 Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
1991 B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
POSITIONS AND EMPLOYMENT
2010-present: Full Professor, Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL
2007-2010: Associate Professor, Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL
2003-2006: Assistant Professor, Institute of Bioengineering, EPFL
1999-2003: Donald and June Brewer Assistant Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University
1998-1999: Postdoctoral Fellow (cellular biomechanics), Dept. Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T., and Pulmonary Div., Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
1992-1993: Research Technician, Department of Anesthesiology, Northwestern University
1991-1992: Environmental Engineer, Pohnpei and Yap State EPA, Federated States of Micronesia
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MAIN PUBLICATIONS
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Full Professor 