Islet Immunoengineering Lab
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​Congrats Teresa on your PhD defense!

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Dr. Tomei's recent presentations

  • American Diabetes Association 82nd Scientific Sessions, the largest international meeting on diabetes. Session: Emerging Approaches to Beta Cell Replacement for Type 1 Diabetes
  • JDRF/NIH workshop to highlight remaining translational gaps and ways to accelerate bringing cell-based therapies to patients with type-1 diabetes. Session Six: Transplant Site Considerations and Strategies to Protect the Cells
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Congrats Flavia on your PhD defense!

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PhD student recruitment day

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Amazing team work to translate out technology 

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Dr. Tomei has become a standing member of NIH BMBI study section!

public.era.nih.gov/pubroster/roster.era?CID=102341

Interesting prospective on beta cell replacement for T1D with a spotlight on our approach

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01842-x

​Congrats Aaron for your PhD in Biomedical Engineering!

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Congrats Freddy for your PhD in Biomedical Engineering!

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INTRODUCE A GIRL TO ENGINEERING DAY!

Teresa and Grisell designed hands-on experiments for this event of the UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS helping young girls foster their passion for STEM.

Happy Birthday Grisell & Aaron!!!

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TERMIS-AM 2019 Meeting


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Congrats Flavia for being awarded the Scientific Excellence Award!


Flavia Zisi Tegou presents 'Immunoengineered Hydrogel Platform to Induce Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes'
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Freddy Gonzalez-Badillo presents 'Tissue-Engineered Stromal Reticulum to Study Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cell Networks in Autoimmune Diabetes'
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Dr. Tomei gives a keynote entitled 'Tissue-engineered platforms for beta cell replacement in type-1 diabetes'
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World Diabetes Day: Our team is working very hard to find a cure for T1D

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Team working to promote our Translational Medicine approach


Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Meeting 2019, Seattle (April 3-6, 2019)

  1. De Toni T (Presenter), Stock AA, Safley SA, Weber C, Alcazar O, Buchwald P, Tomei AA, Parallel Evaluation of Two Promising Immunoisolation Strategies for Beta Cell Replacement: Conformal Coating versus Double Alginate Encapsulation
  2. Stock AA (Presenter), Pagliuca F, Velluto D; Tomei AA, Conformal coating process refinement and materials optimization improves the insulin secretion of encapsulated islets
  3. Velluto D (Presenter), De Toni T, Tomei AA, Development of a Nanomaterial Based Localized Immunomodulatory and Anti-inflammatory Regimento Improve Pancreatic Islets Transplantation

nPOD Meeting 2019, Ft Lauderdale, FL
​February 19-22, 2019

1. Zisi Tegou F (Presenter), ZhangV, Abreu MM, Velluto V, Gonzalez Badillo F, Tomei AA, Development of an Immunoengineered Hydrogel Platform to Deliver CCL21 and Induce Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes, poster presentation

2. Gonzalez Badillo F (Presenter), Wright S, DeAngelis N, Scully M, Zisi Tegou F, Tomei AA, Tissue-Engineered Stromal Reticulum to Study Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cell Networks in Autoimmune Diabetes, poster presentation

Merry Christmas Tomei Lab!

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Dr. Tomei receives the Alexander Orr Jt. Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Engineering
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-tJHdgWrg

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2018 Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Atlanta, GA (October 17-20)

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Dr. Tomei presents 'Challenges in the Development and Translation of Insulin-Secreting Cell Replacement Products for Autoimmune Diabetes' as 30-min invited oral presentation in the Translational Biomedical Engineering track - Tissue Biofabrication and Cell Therapies session

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Freddy Gonzalez-Badillo (PhD student) presents 'Tissue-Engineered Stromal Reticulum to Study The Role of Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cell Networks in Autoimmune Diabetes', poster presentation, Immunoengineering session


Happy Birthday Dr. Tomei...one more reason for a lab celebration


Congrats Freddy for the Best Poster Award at the 2018 CoE Research Day

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Welcome to the lab Flavia and Teresa!


Dr. Tomei organizes the 2018 BME PhD Research Day
​Congrats Freddy and Aaron's for an awesome job!

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Goodbye and Good Luck Laura, Molly, Shane, Nick, Joe, Mackenzie! We will miss you!

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2018 NanoWorld Conference - April 23-25, San Francisco, CA

  1. Velluto D (Presenter), De ToniT, Tomei AA.. Nanomaterial Based Drug Delivery Systems for Local Immunomodulation in Pancreatic Cells Transplantation. NanoWorld Conference, oral presentation, San Francisco, CA (April 23-25, 2018)

2018 Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) - April 11-14, Atlanta, GA

  1. Stock A (Presenter), Abreu M, Velluto D, Zustiak S, Zhang V., Tomei AA. Design of degradable PEG hydrogels to deliver CCL21 and β cell autoantigens for the induction of peripheral tolerance in type 1 diabetes. 2018 Meeting of the Society For Biomaterials (SFB), oral presentation, Atlanta, GA (April 11-13, 2018)
  2. VellutoD, De ToniT, ManzoliV, Stock A (Presenter),Tomei AA.Local Delivery of Immunomodulatory Drugs to Improve the Outcome of Islets Transplantation in Type 1 Diabetes. 2018 Meeting of the Society For Biomaterials (SFB), poster presentation, Atlanta, GA (April 11-13, 2018)

2018 Research, Creativity and Innovation Forum - Great job Tomeilab Undergrads!

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Correlating Contractility of Lymph Node Derived Fibroblastic Reticular Cells to Podoplanin Expression
Nicholas De Angelis, Riccardo Masina, Freddy Gonzalez Badillo, Alice A. Tomei

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Quantification of Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cell Networks in
Healthy and Diseased Mouse Models

Mackenzie A. Scully,  Shane Wright, Nicholas De Angelis, Freddy Gonzalez, Alice Tomei


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Morphological and Functional Characterization of MIN6 Cell Clusters as a Pancreatic Islet Model
Sofia Vignolo, Aaron Stock, Alice Tomei

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Evaluating Long-Term Stability and Drug Release Kinetics of Hydrogels for Islet Encapsulation
Joshua Sussman, Laura Morales, Diana Velluto, Alice Tomei

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Recapitulating Fibroblastic Reticular Cell Networks In Vitro Using Collagen Scaffolds
Shane Wright, Freddy Gonzalez, Nick De Angelis, Riccardo Masina, Alice Tomei


Goodbye Marco and Alessandro and good luck with your thesis defense in Milan!

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Dr. Tomei gave a short-talk at the Keystone Meeting 'Frontiers in Islet Biology and Diabetes'
​Organizer(s) Matthias Hebrok, Seung K. Kim, Felicia Pagliuca and Anil Bhushan
February 4—8, 2018
Keystone Resort • Keystone, Colorado USA

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Summary of Meeting:
Diabetes mellitus is a pandemic disease rooted in defects of multiple organs. Autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islet beta cells (type 1 diabetes) or relentless deterioration in beta cell function from excessive systemic insulin demand (type 2 diabetes) culminates in severe or lethal metabolic derangement. Inter-organ signaling has emerged as a crucial mechanism for achieving metabolic balance, including responses by peripheral insulin-target organs that, in turn, remotely regulate islet activity. This meeting will focus on crucial aspects of beta cell biology, including islet development, pancreas cellular plasticity, beta cell surrogate generation from stem cells, novel gene editing technologies, and immune-islet interactions, as well as translation of basic discoveries into novel therapeutic trials for diabetic patients. This meeting aims to encourage the presentation of novel concepts, foster useful interactions between participants from academia and industry, and accelerate interdisciplinary approaches in diabetes research.


Vita's Farewell

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Goodbye Vita!
We wish you the best for your new adventure in California!
You will be truly missed by Tomei's lab.



Dr. Tomei was invited to be a panel moderator at the NIDDK:

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Inauguration of the UM College of Engineering – Johnson & Johnson 3D Printing Center of Excellence Collaborative Laboratory

www.coe.miami.edu/resources/collaborativelaboratory/

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This Collaborative Laboratory will allow the realization of cooperative educational and research opportunities for students, as well as faculty researchers in multiple disciplines. The approximately 5,850-square-foot laboratory is a centerpiece of the College’s strategic initiatives in both research and education. It is housed in the College’s McArthur Engineering Building, along with state-of-the-art labs and high-tech additive manufacturing equipment, which is rarely found at other top research universities. The facility provides access to a wide variety of advanced 3-D printers and fabricating equipment, and will have a full-time engineer/scientist available for training purposes. This will allow for the development of joint research and grant proposals, along with student capstone projects and firsthand experiential learning (for both undergraduate and graduate students) that will be an advantage in their post-academic careers. Representatives from Johnson & Johnson Services will collaborate with UM students and faculty to support research in the areas of materials development and advanced process development for medical applications.

BMES 2017 - Phoenix
​Tomei lab rocked with 6 posters from graduate and undergraduate students and lots of networking


Dr. Tomei is invited to talk about conformal casting encapsulation at the Mayo Clinic seminar:
 Accelerating Pathways to Clinical Trials: An International Conference on Islet Regeneration and Replacement, Rochester (MN), Sept 29-30 2017

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The lab is growing...Welcome Rachel Smith!

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Summer '17 in the lab... Science never stops


​Health and Innovation: Nanotechnology for Medicine – Initiatives and perspectives

Dr. Tomei participates to the Health and Innovation: Nanotechnology for Medicine – Initiatives and perspectives which was held at the University of Miami on Wednesday June 14th 2017. 
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Tomei Lab End of Spring '17 Semester GET TOGETHER

Goodbye and good luck to Connor and Divya!
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ISCT (International Society for Cellular Therapy - Workshop on ADVANCEMENTS ON CELLULAR THERAPIES AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE IN DIGESTIVE DISEASES
London, May 3rd 2017
Dr. Tomei is invited to present 'Conformal Coating for Transplantation of Microencapsulated Insulin-Secreting Cell Products in Confined and Vascularized Sites'


Team work for scaling-up our conformal coating platform

Lorena, Giuseppe and Alessandra are doing their BS thesis on designing parts for the scale-up version of the conformal coating encapsulation device under the supervision of Mike Lupp.

2017 Eureka Institute Training in Translational Medicine
Congrats to Dr. Tomei for being selected to participate to the Course Certificate in Translational Medicine organized by the Eureka Institute for Translational medicine and thanks to the MIAMI CTSI for sponsoring Dr. Tomei's training.
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2017 Research, Creativity and Innovation Forum (RCIF)
Congrats to our super undergraduate students Divya Sha, Connor Verheyen and Joe Reda, who won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the RCIF forum for undergraduate research in  engineering! Congrats also to Laura Morales for doing an excellent presentation, Aaron Stock for participating as a judge, and Vita Manzoli, Dr. Diana Velluto, Freddy Gonzalez, and Dr. Tomei for mentoring the students.

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2017 Diabetes Miami Winter Symposium



Dr. Velluto presents 'Novel PEG-OES Nano-fibers For Local Drug Delivery in the Transplantation of Pancreatic Islets’
Vita Manzoli presents ’Translation of conformal islet encapsulation and implementation of nanocarriers-based refinements’
Freddy Gonzalez presents ‘Isolation and 3D Culture of Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cells to Restore Self-Tolerance’
Aaron Stock presents ‘Design of degradable PEG hydrogels to deliver CCL21 and beta cell autoantigens for the induction of peripheral tolerance in type 1 diabetes’


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January 20th 2017 - Dr. Tomei delivers an oral presentation at the 2017 Immunology of Diabetes Society meeting in San Francisco, CA entitled  ‘CCL21 Expression in Beta Cells Induces Lymph Node Mimicry in the Pancreas and Prevents Autoimmune Diabetes’


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Dr. Tomei receives the University of Miami College of Engineering 2016 Eliahu I. Jury Early Career Research Award for obtaining major research grants
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8FenF7yzg


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Dr. Diana Velluto delivers an oral presentation at TERMIS 2016, San Diego entitled '​Novel PEG-OES Nano-fibers For Local Immunomodulation of Conformal Coated Pancreatic Islet Grafts for Type-1 Diabetes’


Mary Beggs presents at the 2016 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) ‘Engineering MIN6 Spheroids as Models for pancreatic Islets for the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes’

Tomei's Lab goes to BMES 2016, Minneapolis
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Vita Manzoli delivers an oral presentation on ‘Conformal Coating of Islets of Langerhans: Translation of Base Platform and Implementation of Nanocarriers-Based Refinements for Type 1 Diabetes’
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Freddy Gonzalez presents 'A Tissue-Engineered Platform to Restore Self-Tolerance in Autoimmune Diseases: Optimization of Isolation and 3D Culture of Lymph Node Fibroblastic Reticular Cells'
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Connor Verheyen presents '‘Construction of Pancreatic Islet-Mimetics by Optimizing Three-Dimensional MIN6 Cell Culture’
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Connor Walsh presents 'Novel PEG-OES Nanocarriers for Local Immunomodulation in Pancreatic Islet Grafts’

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September 18-20, 2016 - Dr. Tomei presents the lab encapsulation efforts as invited speaker at the
Key Opinion Leaders Meeting on Stem Cell Derived Beta Cells
at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA


May 2016 - Dr. Velluto presents ‘Development and evaluation of self-assembled biomaterials to maximise the function of conformal encapsulation of pancreatic islets in type 1 diabetes’ at the 10th World Biomaterials Congress (WBC) 2016, Montreal, QC Canada

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Diabetes Research Institute Press Release - featuring Drs. Diana Velluto and Alice Tomei, DRI Scientists Fine Tune Encapsulation Techniques to Protect Transplanted Islets_



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DRI Scientist Dr. Diana Velluto Talks About Protecting Transplanted Islet Cells
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFrh82X04dU


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April 21, 2016 - Connor Verheyen presents a poster entitled 'Building Pancreatic Islet-Mimetics by Optimizing Growth and Viability of MIN6 Cell Spheroids' at the RCIF (Research, Creativity, and Innovation Forum) 2016 and is awarded 2nd place. Congrats Connor!


July 2016 - Dr. Tomei receives an R56 bridge funding award form the National Institute of Health (NIH) to allow regeneration of feasibility data for translation of conformal coating encapsulation encapsulation to clinical settings, mechanistic studies on graft survival and nano medicine approaches for platform refinements 

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September 2016 - A half million dollar grant had been awarded to Dr. Alice Tomei (BME Assistant Professor) and her co-PI Dr. Allison Bayer (Research Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology) from the International Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in support of their continued research in developing  novel therapeutic hydrogel with CCL21 and beta  cell autoantigens.


June 2016 - Dr. Tomei receives the 2016 Provost’s Research Award

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May 2016 - Dr. Tomei receives the prestigious JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) career development award (CDA) to support clinical translation of conformal coating encapsulation for 5 years.


February 2015 - Dr. Tomei delivers an oral presentation on ‘CCL21 Expression in Beta Cells Induces Lymph Node Mimicry in the Pancreas and Prevents Autoimmune Diabetes’, at the Keystone Conference on Stromal Cells in Immunity 2016, Keystone, CO 

November 2, 2015 - Dr. Tomei invites Dr. Jeffrey Hubbell as College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker
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BMES 2015 - Tampa
Vita and Dr. Tomei give three oral presentations on the encapsulation and immunomodulation project. Diana presents two posters on nanomaterials application for transdermal delivery and encapsulation. Maria presents a poster on the effects of CCL21 on islet infiltrates in T1D. Connor and Kalina presents two posters on mechanical characterization of PEG ALGINATE hybrid capsules.
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August 2015
Connor Verheyen obtains the Honors Summer Research Award for his summer work in the lab
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June 2015
We finally received our rheometer for characterization of hydrogels for encapsulation and local delivery


June 6-8, 2015
Dr. Tomei, Maria, Vita, and Diana attend the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 75th scientific session 2015 in Boston, US and present three posters and two guided audio tours
  


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