Dr. Lauren Flynn

What are you currently working on?

“My research lab is focused on developing cell therapies to treat a variety of conditions, including chronic wounds, peripheral vascular disease, and soft tissue damage, where there is a need forstrategies to promote new blood vessel formation.In particular, we use a regenerative cell population called adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) sourced from fat. ASCs are similar to the mesenchymal stromal cell population that's found in the bone marrow, but offer advantages of being more accessible, expendable and abundant (most people would have a sample of fatto donate), as well as having some differences in their capacity to stimulate regeneration. One of the things that the field is now discovering is that these cells primarily function in the body by secreting factors that help establish a more pro-regenerative environment, rather than functioning by differentiating to form tissues. We call this cell empowerment. ASCs have the remarkable ability to stimulate new blood vessel formation and modulate the inflammatory response to create a more permissive environment for healing. So, we're developing strategies to be able to harness this cell empowerment ability more effectively. My background is in bioengineering. Building from this, one of our strategies involves designing biomaterial platforms that can promote cell survival and help guide cell function, including injectable materials and larger scaffolds tuned for different applications. If you think about a human chronic wound, it's a very hostile environment – we need to shift that to support the regenerative cells so that they can function much more effectively.”

What are some of your future goals?

Professor (Joint Appointment with Chemical & Biochemical Engineering)

More about her research https://bit.ly/FlynnInfo

Contact Info lauren.flynn@uwo.ca (519) 611-2111 ext. 87226

“My long-term goal is to see our technologies translated to the clinic.We do a lot of preclinical work in our lab, including cell culture studies, as well as validation in small animal models. Recently I submitted a grant where we're proposing to move into a large animal model to test a novel wound submitted a CIHR grant yesterday where we're proposing to move healing therapy, which is an exciting transition towards clinical application. I was fortunate to into pig studies. I think that that's an exciting sort of transition, have great mentors when I started as a professor, who encouraged me to bemoving from a small model to a larger animal model. I think also I mindful of whether there is intellectual property related to our therapeutic approaches that could be patented. Promisingly, we was fortunate to benefit from good mentors when I started at as a havehadseveral patents issued on our scaffolding platforms. I'm also working with WORLDiscoveries professor, and they were very mindful of encouraging me to think to connect withindustrial partners who might be interested in commercializing our technologies.about whether I have intellectual property that could be patented. I'm very excited about fundamental research and understanding what's happening in terms of the cell That's also something that I have been doing. We have several biology, but I also want to move forward on that translational aspect. patents in the lab on some of the scaffolds that we have Hopefully, we can get our technologies to the clinic where they could really help people.”developed. I'm also working with WORLDiscoveries to look for 22 potential industrial partners who might be interested in commercializing our technology. I'm very excited about fundamental research and understanding what's happening in terms of the cell biology, but I’m also trying to move forward on that

What were important steps you took to get to where you are now?

“I think thefirst research positionI hadduring my undergraduate studies allowed me to recognize that that I loved working in a lab and was passionate about research, and that an academic career focused on research wasa possibility. Iencourage all students to start early -be proactive and reach outto professors, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t find the right fit immediately. In research, you often need to create the opportunity for yourself and it’s important to try different things to gain experience and see what you really enjoy.”

I decided at the last minute to go into engineering.In high school, Iwas very much thinking about pursuing a degree related to cell biology. Then, I found out about the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto, which had a dedicated biomedical engineering program. The field of tissue engineering was just emerging at that time, and I thought that the concept of growing new tissues in the lab sounded amazing. I also liked the interdisciplinary nature of the program, and how it combined both theory and application. Starting in my third year, I began working in Dr. Molly Shoichet’slab developing biomaterial scaffolds forneural regeneration.I had an exceptional mentor who was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab and within a couple of months into my undergraduate thesis, I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I essentially fast tracked myself into an academic path because of my love of research, along with my strong interest in teaching. I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and secured my first faculty position at Queen’s before I even finished my PhD. As I’ve mentioned, I've been very fortunate to have great mentors along the way who've provided me with a supportive environment so that I could really focus my energies on research.”

What drove you to this area of research?

“Even though my training is in engineering, I feel so much at home here.”

What is your favourite thing about research?

“For me, my favourite thing is collaborating, whether that's with my students or with other scientists, engineers, and clinicians. Science is very much a team sport – I feel it’s important to bring together people with different expertise who can really look at problems in unique and different ways. For example, if you're trying to translate something to the clinic, having a clinical perspective is so important, because if a new technology doesn't meet a clinician’s requirements, all the development work is not worth it in the end. I feel that Western really stands out to me for its collaborative spirit, both within the anatomy and cell biology department and more broadly in Schulich. Even though my training is in engineering, I feel so much at home here.”