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== Welcome to the Peyton Lab ==
== The Peyton Lab: Engineering Migration ''to the max'' ==


Our lab focuses on diseases of the human body that are critically impacted by improper cell migration.  We use polymeric biomaterials to create mimics of the natural migratory microenvironment and study how cues from the ECM can direct cell migration ''in vitro''.  The vast majority of tissues in the human body are comprised of cells surrounded by a complex network of proteins and polysaccharides called the ECM.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the ECM possesses several properties, such as mechanical integrity, adhesion specificity, and growth factor availability, which are all individually and collectively critical in dictating the local cell and tissue behavior.  
We are a lab in Chemical Engineering, and our goal is to find cures to disease through the use of novel engineered models to tissue.  We use polymeric biomaterials to create small ''model tissues'', that trick cells into thinking they are actually in the body, and then study how cells move and respond to the physical and chemical properties of their surrounding tissue.  Certain diseases of the human body, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, are particularly dangerous because of how cells migrate in the diseased tissue. <br>


The mission of the Peyton lab is to learn how a variety of different cell types are able to process information from biochemical and biophysical cues from the ECM and make decisions about migration and phenotype.  To do this, our lab uses both 2D and 3D biomaterial model systems, which can be engineered from the ground-up to instruct cells via both biochemical and biophysical signaling pathways.  This broader mission will be focused onto different research avenues with applications toward: cardiovascular disease, where tissue homeostasis is normally maintained in a mechanically dynamic ECM; stem-cell therapeutics, where rational scaffold design may be the key to directing appropriate progenitor cell migration and differentiation for tissue regeneration; and cancer, where disruptions in the local ECM microenvironment may cause drastic changes in individual cell motility and phenotype.
We are several women and men, all engineers, and our mission is to learn how a variety of different cell types are able to process information from chemical and physical cues from the surrounding tissue and make decisions about migration.  This broader mission is focused onto specific applications toward: cardiovascular disease, where plaque formation in arteries causes smooth muscle cells to migrate and further block blood flow, causing heart attacks and stroke; cancer, cell migration out of the primary tumor is the cause for 9 out of every 10 cancer deaths, and stem cell engineering, where we are trying to create novel scaffolds that will carry stem cells in them to treat wounded soldiers. <br>


[[Image:Website_flow.jpg|center|500px]]
Here's us from the summer of 2011, taking a well-deserved break and enjoying the music and scenery of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.
 
[[Image:peyton_tanglewood.jpg|center|500px]]


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Thanks to our funding sources!!!
Thanks to our funding sources - you support our students and help us make this research happen!


[[Image:MRSEC_UMass.jpg|left|100px]]
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| [[Image:MRSEC_UMass.jpg|left|100px]]  
| [[Image:Umass_logo.jpg|center|100px]]  
| [[Image:ICE_logo.jpg|right|100px]]
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Members of the Peyton lab participate in three outstanding collaborative institutes at UMass-Amherst. Follow the links for more information!
Members of the Peyton lab participate in three outstanding collaborative institutes at UMass-Amherst. Follow the links for more information.


[http://www.pse.umass.edu/mrsec/ The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center]
[http://www.pse.umass.edu/mrsec/ The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center]

Revision as of 13:48, 16 November 2012

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The Peyton Lab: Engineering Migration to the max

We are a lab in Chemical Engineering, and our goal is to find cures to disease through the use of novel engineered models to tissue. We use polymeric biomaterials to create small model tissues, that trick cells into thinking they are actually in the body, and then study how cells move and respond to the physical and chemical properties of their surrounding tissue. Certain diseases of the human body, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, are particularly dangerous because of how cells migrate in the diseased tissue.

We are several women and men, all engineers, and our mission is to learn how a variety of different cell types are able to process information from chemical and physical cues from the surrounding tissue and make decisions about migration. This broader mission is focused onto specific applications toward: cardiovascular disease, where plaque formation in arteries causes smooth muscle cells to migrate and further block blood flow, causing heart attacks and stroke; cancer, cell migration out of the primary tumor is the cause for 9 out of every 10 cancer deaths, and stem cell engineering, where we are trying to create novel scaffolds that will carry stem cells in them to treat wounded soldiers.

Here's us from the summer of 2011, taking a well-deserved break and enjoying the music and scenery of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

Thanks to our funding sources - you support our students and help us make this research happen!


Members of the Peyton lab participate in three outstanding collaborative institutes at UMass-Amherst. Follow the links for more information.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

The Chemistry-Biology Interface

The Institute for Cellular Engineering

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