Eben Alsberg, PhD

Zoom Link: https://uic.zoom.us/my/alsberg

Office Location: 7005 COMRB

Lab Location: 7120 COMRB

Lab Website: http://alsberg.lab.uic.edu

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=thaz6kcAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Interests: Prof. Alsberg’s research is focused on innovative biomaterials, microenvironments and bioactive factor delivery vehicles for functional tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and disease therapeutics; developmental engineering; control of stem cell fate decision; precise temporal and spatial presentation of signals to regulate cell function; 4D systems; biofabrication and bioprinting; mechanotransduction and the influence of mechanics on cell behavior and tissue formation; organoids and organogenesis; therapeutic angiogenesis; and cell-cell interactions.

Lee YB, Jeon O, Lee SJ, Ding A, Wells D, Alsberg E. Induction of 4D spatiotemporal geometric transformations in high cell density tissues via shape changing hydrogels. Advanced Functional Materials (in press, 2021).

Ding A, Jeon O, Tang R, Lee YB, Lee SJ, Alsberg E. Cell-laden multiple-step and reversible 4D hydrogel actuators to mimic dynamic tissue morphogenesis. Advanced Science (in press, 2021).

McMillan A, Nguyen MK, Huynh CT, Sarett SM, Ge P, Chetverikova M, Nguyen K, Grosh D, Duvall CL, Alsberg E. Hydrogel microspheres for spatiotemporally controlled delivery of RNA and silencing gene expression within scaffold-free tissue engineered constructs. Acta Biomaterialia (in press, 2021).

Herberg S, Varghai D, Alt D, Dang P, Park H, Cheng Y, Shin J-Y, Dinikia A, Boerckel J, Rolle M, Alsberg E. Scaffold-free human mesenchymal stem cell construct geometry regulates long bone regeneration. Communications Biology (in press, 2020).

Lee J, Jeon O, Kong M, Adbeen AA, Shin J-Y, Lee HN, Lee YB, Sun W, Bandaru P, Alt DS, Lee K, Kim H-J, Lee SJ, Chaterji S, Shin SR, Alsberg E*, Khademhosseini A*. Combinatorial screening of biochemical and physical signals for phenotypic regulation of stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering. Science Advances (in press, 2020). *Co-corresponding authors.

Jeon O, Lee YB, Jeong H, Lee SJ, Wells D, Alsberg E: Individual cell-only bioink and photocurable supporting medium for 3D printing and generation of engineering tissues with complex geometries. Materials Horizons, 6: 1625-1631, 2019.

McDermott AM, Herberg S, Mason DE, Collins JM, Pearson HB, Dawahare JH, Tang R, Patwa AN, Grinstaff MW, Kelly DJ, Alsberg E*, Boerckel JD*: Recapitulating bone development through engineered mesenchymal condensations and mechanical cues for tissue regeneration. Science Translational Medicine, 11(495), 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.

Nguyen MK, Huynh CT, Gilewski A, Wilner S, Maier K, Kwon N, Levy M*, Alsberg E*: Covalently tethering siRNA to hydrogels for localized, controlled release and gene silencing. Science Advances, 5(8): eaax0801, 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.

Herberg S, McDermott AM, Dang PN, Alt DS, Tang R, Dawahare JH, Varghai D, Shin J-Y, McMillan A, Dikina AD, He F, Lee Y, Cheng Y, Umemori K, Wong PC, Park H, Boerckel JD*, Alsberg E*: Combinatorial morphogenetic and mechanical cues to mimic bone development for defect repair. Science Advances, 5(8): eaax2476, 2019. *Co-corresponding authors.

Jeon O, Lee YB, Hinton TJ, Feinberg AW, Alsberg E: Cryopreserved cell-laden alginate microgel bioink for 3D bioprinting of living tissues. Materials Today Chemistry, 12:61-70, 2019.

Huynh CT, Liu F, Cheng Y, Coughlin KA, Alsberg E: Thiol-epoxy “click” chemistry to engineer cytocompatible PEG-based hydrogel for siRNA-mediated osteogenesis of hMSCs. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 10(31): 25936-25942, 2018.

Nguyen MK, Jeon O, Dang PN, Huynh CT, Varghai D, Riazi H, McMillan A, Herberg S, Alsberg E: RNA interfering molecule delivery from in situ forming biodegradable hydrogels for enhancement of bone formation in rat calvarial bone defects. Acta Biomaterialia, 75:105-114, 2018

Jeon O, Lee K, Alsberg E: Spatial Micropatterning of Growth Factors in 3D Hydrogels for Location–Specific Regulation of Cellular Behaviors. Small, 14(25):e1800579, 2018.

Herberg S, Varghai D, Cheng Y, Dikina AD, Dang PN, Rolle MW, Alsberg E: High-density human mesenchymal stem cell rings with spatiotemporally-controlled morphogen presentation as building blocks for engineering bone diaphyseal tissue. Nanotheranostics, 2(2):128-143, 2018.

Seo J, Shin JY, Leijten J, Jeon O, Bal ÖA, Rouwkema J, Li Y, Shin S, Hajiali H, Alsberg E*, Khademhosseini E*: Interconnectable Dynamic Compression Bioreactors for Combinatorial Screening of Cell Mechanobiology in Three-dimensions. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(16): 13293-13303, 2018. *Co-corresponding authors.

McMillan A, Nguyen MK, Gonzalez-Fernandez T, Ge P, Yu X, Murphy WL, Kelly DJ, Alsberg E: Dual non-viral gene delivery from microparticles within 3D high-density stem cell constructs for enhanced bone tissue engineering. Biomaterials, 161: 240-255, 2018.

Dikina AD, Alt DS, Herberg S, McMillan A, Strobel HA, Zheng Z, Cao M, Lai BP, Jeon O, Petsinger VI, Cotton CU, Rolle MW, Alsberg E: A modular strategy to engineer complex tissues and organs. Advanced Science, 5(5): 1700402, 2018.

Jeon O, Shin JY, Marks R, Hopkins M, Kim TH, Park H, Alsberg E: Highly elastic and tough interpenetrating polymer network-structured hybrid hydrogels for cyclic mechanical loading-enhanced tissue engineering. Chemistry of Materials, 29(19): 8425-8432, 2017.

Dang PN, Herberg S, Varghai D, Riazi H, Varghai D, McMillan A, Awadallah A, Phillips LM, Jeon O, Nguyen MK, Dwivedi N, Yu X, Murphy WL, Alsberg E: Endochondral ossification in critical-sized bone defects via readily implantable scaffold-free stem cell constructs. Stem Cells Translational Medicine, 6(7): 1644-1659, 2017.

Postdoc, Harvard Medical School, 2005
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2002
M.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1998
M.S.E., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1998
B.S.E., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 1994
B.S.E., Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, 1994