Ex-vivo bioengineered technology to unravel dysfunction due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

SUPPLEMENT SPECIFIC ABSTRACT This submission is in response to the Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (PA-23-189) and is aimed at developing the scientific skills and career development of the candidate. The supplement is requested for grant R01DK132873 “Ex-vivo bioengineered technology to unravel dysfunction due

to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)”. The parent research project grant centers on the disease NASH that is the progressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and leads to liver fibrosis by creating an inflammatory milieu that predisposes to liver cancer in the later stages of the disease. The goal of this Research Supplement

is to provide high quality mentoring to the candidate along with an invigorating research plan that models liver fibrosis in the laboratory and assess its influence on molecular signaling pathways within iPSC-hepatocytes from patients with and without NASH. Together, this Research Supplement is closely related to the goals of the parent

project through the use of already available, de-identified, disease-specific cells and tunable matrix environments. The Research Plan also provides an extension, with an additional line of experimentation to enable the candidate to develop a distinct but related research focus that will become the subject of a future

individual training grant. The mentors have a longstanding track record of collaboration in liver research, successful joint mentorship of a trainee and experience with developing the research career of young scientific investigators. The candidate will receive structured mentorship and practical scientific skill development to carry

out this hypothesis-driven research that altogether aims to develop a scientific identity for the candidate and maintain trajectory toward a career in academic research. This is enabled by the Research Supplement that provides a pathway for both scientific and career development that is delineated in the Research Plan and

Training Plan. While pursuing these research-related end-points, the candidate will receive guidance from the mentoring team on career development objectives that center on: 1) honing scientific communication, both written and oral, 2) professional networking at scientific meetings to expand a cadre of scientific collaborators,

and 3) limited classroom education that complements the Research Plan to augment an armamentarium of investigative tools and techniques. Together, this Research Supplement will provide a solid foundation that will launch the candidate’s graduate research trajectory and fortify a strong position for a successful transition into

an individual training award as a senior graduate student.