Thsti - Translational Health Science and Technology Institute

B.V.Sc. (D.V.M), Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai, India
M.Tech. (Medical Biotechnology), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India
PhD (Biotechnology), IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Areas of Interest:

Biological medical devices using animal tissues and polymeric scaffolds, Medical device regulatory, Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), Medical device biocompatibility and toxicity evaluation, Pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived organoids, Product Design, Machine Learning

Present Research Interest:

1) Development of tissue based (biological) medical devices

The use of heart valves, patches, or valved conduits in cardiovascular surgery, particularly in paediatric cardiac surgery, is a widely accepted surgical technique for repair or reconstruction of cardiovascular anatomical deficiencies. Homografts, xenografts, or synthetic or mechanical prosthetic devices are commonly implanted during these surgical procedures. These grafts, however, suffer from disadvantages such as lack of growth potential, have limited durability, and are associated with an increased incidence of repeated surgeries. My laboratory focuses on how these drawbacks can probably be addressed and overcome through the development of living, biologic tissue-engineered valves, patches, and conduits. The purpose of this study is not only to focus solely on methods by which biomaterials are processed but also to assess the ability of such techniques to produce mechanically and biologically suitable tissue surrogates.

2) Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Organoid (Hepatic, Neural and Cardiac) Engineering

Human pluripotent cells such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) share the essential properties of self-renewal and pluripotency o differentiate into all possible cell types of the adult body. My laboratory focuses on developing a 3-Dimensional organoid (hepatic, neural and cardiac) system using hiPSCs and biomaterials for drug discovery, disease modelling and toxicology studies.

3) Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in vitro and in vivo modeling.

The worldwide prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has drastically increased in line with the epidemic of obesity. The currently acknowledged theory is the "multiple-hit model," which postulates that genetic, dietary, and environmental factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to the etiopathogenesis of NAFLD. Currently, available preclinical models, be they in vivo or in vitro, do not fully represent critical aspects of the human disease state. To create novel prevention or therapeutic methods, we are developing the right combination of a suitable diet, matched control diet, appropriate rodent model, and in vitro hiPSCs-hepatocytes model.

4) Machine Learning tools/AI tools to achieve biocompatibility of medical device endpoints

The US-FDA, EU-MDR and Indian-FDA and other competent regulatory authorities have released new regulations and guidelines in order to decrease the burden of getting market access for innovative medical devices and reprocessing for medical devices. The project aims to develop a tool which functions as a guide for both researchers and engineers to improve their medical device design and development process concerning biocompatibility using documents such as ISO 10993, US-FDA Guidance, EU-MDR Guidance and ISO 14971. Focus areas include:

Machine learning (ML) algorithms to some toxicology related endpoints
To integrate deep learning techniques into in vitro/in vivo/in silico analysis workflows and new developments in the area of deep learning for computational assessment of toxicology

DR.SANTOSH S. MATHAPATI

Ph.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Publication