Using biofabrication and tissue engineering techniques we reconstruct miniaturized versions of human skeletal muscle tissue in a dish for drug discovery efforts and for fundamental studies of skeletal muscle biology. Project focus areas include aging, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, muscle endogenous repair (MEndR), muscle stem cell quiescence (IDLE), exercise, intensive care unit acquired weakness, and neuromuscular junction biology.  

Selected Publications

  1. Jacques E., Kuang Y., Kann A.P., Le Grand F., Krauss R.S., Gilbert P.M. (2022) The mini-IDLE 3D biomimetic culture assay enables interrogation of mechanisms governing muscle stem cell quiescence and niche repopulation. eLife, https://elifesciences.org/articles/81738

  2. Moyle L.A., Davoudi S., Gilbert P.M. (2022) Innovation in culture systems to study muscle complexity. Experimental Cell Research, 411(1): 112966.

  3. Davoudi S. (co-first author), Xu B. (co-first author), Jacques E. (co-second author), Cadavid J.L. (co-second author), McFee M., Chin C.-Y., Meysami A., Ebrahimi M., Bakooshli M.A., Tung K., Ahn H., Ginsberg H.J., McGuigan A.P. (co-senior author), Gilbert P.M. (co-senior author) (2021) MEndR: An in vitro functional assay to predict in vivo muscle stem cell mediated repair. Advanced Functional Materials, 32(2): 2106548.

  4. Lad H., Musgrave B., Ebrahimi M., Gilbert P.M. (2021) Assessing functional metrics of skeletal muscle health in human skeletal muscle microtissues. Journal of Visual Experimentation, DOI: 10.3791/62307.

  5. Moyle, M. A., Jacques, E., Gilbert, P. M. (2020). Engineering the next generation of human skeletal muscle models: from cellular complexity to disease modelling. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, in press.

  6. Afshar, M. E., Abraha, H. Y., Bakooshli, M. A., Davoudi, S., Thavandiran, N., Tung, K., Ahn, H., Ginsberg, H. J., Zandstra, P. W., & Gilbert, P. M. (2020). A 96-well culture platform enables longitudinal analyses of engineered human skeletal muscle microtissue strength. Scientific Reports, 10, 6918.

  7. Bakooshli, M. A., Lippmann, E. S., Mulcahy, B., Iyer, N., Nguyen, C. T., Tung, Kayee, T., Stewart, B. A., van den Dorpel, H., Fuehrmann, T., Shoichet, M., Bigot, A., Pegoraro, E., Ahn, H., Ginsberg, H., Zhen, M., Ashton, R. S., Gilbert, P. M. (2019) A 3D culture model of innervated human skeletal muscle enables studies of the adult neuromuscular junction and disease modeling. eLife, 8:e44530.

  8. Fusto, A., Moyle, L. A., Gilbert, P. M., & Pegoraro, E. (2019). Cored in the act: the use of models to understand core myopathies. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 12 (12).

  9. Bakooshli MA and Gilbert PM. (2015) Muscling in on the third dimension. eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.06430

  10.  Sengupta D, Gilbert PM, Johnson KL, Blau HM and Heilshorn SC (2012) Protein-engineered biomaterials to generate human skeletal muscle mimics. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 1(6):785-789.