Favour O
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Expertise
Tissue engineering, cancer immuno-engineering , drug delivery.
Bio
Favour is a PhD candidate in the lab of Professor David Mooney at Harvard. He is in the Harvard-MIT medical engineering and medical physics program. Favour loves tackling problems that significantly impact the quality of human life. Whenever Favour is outside of lab, he enjoys working out, reading, hiking, playing the guitar, and hanging out with friends.Project ideas
Modulation of the Osteoarthritic Niche
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide, leading to joint pain, stiffness, and decreased mobility. Despite being a prevalent disease affecting millions of individuals, the current treatments are limited and often involve invasive surgery. The key underlying factor that contributes to OA progression is the imbalance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory immune cells. Specifically, the presence of elevated levels of IL-17, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, is associated with joint degradation and cartilage loss. There remains a significant unmet need for effective therapies that address the underlying causes of OA and support joint repair and regeneration. We can think through ways of trying to control the types of cytokines that are present in osteoarthritis.
Improved Bone Screws for Fracture Fixation
Bone screws for fracture fixation are typically fabricated from rigid or elastic materials such as metal alloys, which offer limited flexibility. However, bone tissue is a nonlinear viscoelastic material that can undergo significant mechanical deformation during movement or weight-bearing activities. The use of traditional metal screws may cause damage to the surrounding bone tissue and limit the potential for healing. Furthermore, bone screws are often repurposed for vastly different types of fractures, rather than being optimized for specific applications. By first characterizing the fracture site and surrounding tissue, and then designing a technology tailored to the particular injury, bone screws may be more adaptable and offer better support to the fracture site.
Improving T-cell Function in the Setting of Cancer
Multiple approaches have been developed to enhance the efficacy of T cells against cancer: including therapeutic cancer vaccination and adoptive T cell therapy. These approaches aim to generate host T cell responses against cancer antigens, and reinfuse ex vivo manipulated T cells into patients, respectively. The adoptive T cell therapy is approach has been successful in blood-based tumors and melanomas, while solid tumors like pancreatic ductal carcinoma, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer have not been helped by the new therapies. It has been shown that murine and human derived T-cells activated in an hypoxic state are better effectors compared to T-cells activated in a normal oxygen environment. The findings, however, also reveal increased T-cell death and limited proliferation, which are areas needing optimization for an effective adoptive transfer therapy. Can sequential hypoxic training of these T-cells prior to interaction with the tumor microenvironment improve T-cell survival? What factors can be optimized to improve T-cell function in cancer?