Publications by Alice Anna Tomei

Ccr7 ligand delivery and co-delivery in immunotherapy

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Iraklis Kourtis

Chemokines may be administered to a patient for immunotolerization. Chemokines include CCL19 and CCL21. Materials and methods for accomplishing tolerization and described. ...

2017

Fibrin gels engineered with pro-angiogenic growth factors promote engraftment of pancreatic islets in extrahepatic sites in mice

Mikaël Martino, Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Alice Anna Tomei

With a view toward reduction of graft loss, we explored pancreatic islet transplantation within fibrin matrices rendered pro-angiogenic by incorporation of minimal doses of vascular endothelial growth factor-A165 and platelet-derived growth factor-BB prese ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Device design and materials optimization of conformal coating for islets of Langerhans

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Alice Anna Tomei

Encapsulation of islets of Langerhans may represent a way to transplant islets in the absence of immunosuppression. Traditional methods for encapsulation lead to diffusional limitations imposed by the size of the capsules (600-1,000 m in diameter), which r ...

National Academy of Sciences2014

Conformal Coating of Islets of Langerhans: a Microfluidic Approach for Transplantation Without Immunosuppression

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Alice Anna Tomei

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc2014

Nano-sized drug-loaded micelles deliver payload to lymph node immune cells and prolong allograft survival

Jeffrey Alan Hubbell, Melody Swartz, Conlin O'Neil, Alice Anna Tomei, Jackson Eby, Karen Dane

By delivering immunomodulatory drugs in vivo directly to lymph nodes draining an injection site, an opportunity exists to increase drug bioavailability to local immune cells. Importantly, particles smaller than 100 nm are efficiently transported through ly ...

Elsevier2011

Induction of lymphoidlike stroma and immune escape by tumors that express the chemokine CCL21

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Iraklis Kourtis

Tumor manipulation of host immunity is important for tumor survival and invasion. Many cancers secrete CCL21, a chemoattractant for various leukocytes and lymphoid tissue inducer cells, which drive lymphoid neogenesis. CCL21 expression by melanoma tumors i ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2010

Fluid flow regulates stromal cell organization and CCL21 expression in a tissue-engineered lymph node microenvironment

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei

In the paracortex of the lymph node (LN), T zone fibroblastic reticular cells (TRCs) orchestrate an immune response by guiding lymphocyte migration both physically, by creating three-dimensional (3D) cell networks, and chemically, by secreting the chemokin ...

American Association of Immunologists ; Oxford University Press2009

3D collagen cultures under well-defined dynamic strain: A novel strain device with a porous elastomeric support

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Federica Boschetti

The field of mechanobiology has grown tremendously in the past few decades, and it is now well accepted that dynamic stresses and strains can impact cell and tissue organization, cell-cell and cell-matrix communication, matrix remodeling, cell proliferatio ...

Wiley-Blackwell2009

Effects of dynamic compression on lentiviral transduction in an in vitro airway wall model

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei

Asthmatic patients are more susceptible to viral infection, and we asked whether dynamic strain on the airway wall (such as that associated with bronchoconstriction) would influence the rate of viral infection of the epithelial and subepithelial cells. To ...

2008

Tissue engineering complex and mechanically active microenvironments for studies in asthma and cancer

Alice Anna Tomei

The goals of tissue engineering include recapitulating specific tissue functions for regenerative medicine and developing in vitro models of human tissues to study human physiology and pathophysiology and for testing and screening drugs before expensive cl ...

EPFL2008

Design, fabrication, and characterization of a composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Melody Swartz, Alice Anna Tomei, Federica Boschetti

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds have been successfully used in bone tissue engineering, with or without hydroxyapatite (HA) and with a macroporosity given either by simple PLGA sphere packaging and/or by leaching out NaCI. The objective of this ...

Wichtig Editore2008

Autologous chemotaxis as a mechanism of tumor cell homing to lymphatics via interstitial flow and autocrine CCR7 signaling

Melody Swartz, Carolyn Yong Pullin, Mark Fleury, Alice Anna Tomei

CCR7 is implicated in lymph node metastasis of cancer, but its role is obscure. We report a mechanism explaining how interstitial flow caused by lymphatic drainage directs tumor cell migration by autocrine CCR7 signaling. Under static conditions, lymphatic ...

Elsevier2007