PhD | Penn State University.Physical Chemistry.1984
BS | Providence College.Chemistry.1979
Research
The DeLouise Bio-nanomaterials lab focuses on investigating the interactions of environmental insults on the skin and developing novel approaches to probe these interactions at the single cell and tissue levels which is also important for high content drug discovery.
Skin & the Environment...
The DeLouise Bio-nanomaterials lab focuses on investigating the interactions of environmental insults on the skin and developing novel approaches to probe these interactions at the single cell and tissue levels which is also important for high content drug discovery.
Skin & the Environment Skin is the largest organ of the body by mass and is a main route to contact dermatitis sensitization. A particular interest in the lab is to elucidate the mechanisms by which nano and microscale particulates can alter skin immune responses in the context of skin allergy. Nano and microscale particles are ubiquitous in the environment. They are derived from numerous sources including air pollution, cigarette smoke and the degradation of plastic waste, which lead to unintentional skin contact. Due to their unique optical, physiochemical and mechanical properties, nanomaterials they are increasingly exploited in industrial applications and are formulated into consumer products including cosmetic lotions thus increasing the probability skin exposure. Our studies find that skin exposure to nanoparticles can exacerbate and in some cases mitigate skin allergic symptoms. What is interesting is that heathy interfollicular skin is a formidable barrier that hinders nanoparticle penetration. Conditions that disrupt the skin barrier function, such as ultraviolet radiation induced sunburn, can enhance penetration, the free diffusion of nanoparticles into the skin does not occur. Rather nanoparticles tend to collect in the stratum corneum layers, skin furrows and hair follicles. This means that the profound impact that nanoparticles exert on skin immune responses likely results from signaling cascades derived in outermost layers of the epidermis. Our on-going studies seek to discover these mechanisms and the specific molecular and cellular signals that shift immune responses from proinflammatory to immunosuppressive. Specific focuses areas seek to understand the direct and indirect effect that nanomaterials have on mast cells and dendritic cells, which are key player in skin allergic responses. The goal is to develop novel strategies to induce tolerance to antigenic compound that induce skin allergy and to understand how nanomaterials may effect polarization of immune cells and their trafficking into the skin.
Technologies for Dissecting Single Cell Heterogeneity & Tissue Chip Drug Discovery Tissue samples are comprised of heterogeneous cell populations and analysis of a bulk sample yields an average response where important information about a small but potentially relevant cell subpopulations is diluted out. High-throughput single cell screening technologies can facilitate the discovery of these rare cells. The DeLouise lab invented microbubble array technology and Nidus MB Technologies was founded to commercialize their use in high throughput single cell and tissue screening applications. Microphysiological tissue chips have been developed for drug screening. MBs are nanoliter (0.5 to >100 nL) spherical cavities molded into arrays containing 500 to >4000 MBs/cm2. The unique architecture of the MB provides a microenvironmental niche that cells can rapidly condition which favors single cell survival, proliferation and concentration of cell secreted factors. Assays have been developed to screen B cells to discover antigen specific antibodies and drug resistant cancer cells. Current efforts seek to develop a salivary gland tissue chip for screening radio protective drugs and develop an antigen agnostic assays to functionally discover neutralizing antibodies. High content image base detection methods are routinely used in these assays which requires development of sophisticated machine learning approaches for MB detection and analysis of the contents in each valid MB in the array over time. Ongoing efforts seek to develop user friendly graphical interfaces, powerful data analytics and to automate the cell/tissue retrieval process from selected MBs.
Patents
Hybrid Target Analyte Responsive Polymer Sensor with Optical Amplification
Issue date: September 23, 2014
Patent #: 8,841,137
Country: United States
Inventors: Lisa Bonanno, Lisa A DeLouise
Microfluidic Device and Method of Manufacturing the Microfluidic Device
Issue date: May 24, 2016
Patent #: 9,346,197
Country: United States
Inventors: Lisa A DeLouise
Microfluidic Device and Method of Manufacturing the Microfluidic Device
Issue date: October 04, 2016
Patent #: 9,457,497
Country: United States
Inventors: Lisa A DeLouise
Method of Enriching Stem and/or Progenitor Cells
Issue date: June 17, 2014
Patent #: 8,753,880
Country: United States
Inventors: Siddarth Chandrasekaran, Lisa A DeLouise