Melissa Pappas
Claudia Loebel, Reliance Industries Term Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, recently joined Penn Engineering’s faculty in January, but already supports multiple graduate students and collaborators in her lab at One UCity Square. With her growing team, she works on groundbreaking biomaterials research with the goal of improving disease treatment. But conducting science research was not something she ever imagined pursuing as a career when she was a student herself.
“I grew up in Germany in a family and culture with little to no background in science or medicine,” says Loebel. “But even so, I decided to go to medical school because it sounded appealing, and I had the grades to get in. In Germany, you have to complete a thesis to earn your medical degree, which introduced me to the world of research. I joined a cancer biology lab and quickly became fascinated by the work. I even took a semester off from medical school to focus on research, and by the time I finished, I realized I wanted to dive deeper.”
Loebel took her new love for the scientific process to the AO Foundation in Switzerland to start a Ph.D. in orthopedic research.
“During my Ph.D., I spent a semester at Penn working with Robert Mauck at the Perelman School of Medicine, where I learned that being a faculty member in science was a real possibility. After that experience, I made an overnight decision to transition from wanting to be a clinician scientist to pursuing a postdoc and becoming a researcher. That eventually led me to a faculty position at the University of Michigan, and I’ve been inspired by those around me ever since, following the paths they’ve shown me to get to where I am now.”
Now at Penn Engineering, Loebel is working on innovative biomaterials to solve questions in disease and regenerative medicine, and in her first month, has already been awarded a $2 million Maximizing Investigators Research Award for Early-Stage Investigators grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Her biomaterials of choice are hydrogels, water-swollen polymer networks. In her lab, hydrogels aren’t just materials, they’re tools for unlocking the mysteries of the extracellular matrix (ECM), the complex environment of proteins and other molecules that provide structural and biochemical support, and surround every cell in the body.
“We know that this matrix plays a critical role in cell behavior, tissue function and disease progression, but we want to better understand how it regulates normal cell function and the spread of diseases,” says Loebel. “It’s exciting to be doing this work because of the close connection Penn Engineering has with the medical school. I’m also really looking forward to working with old and new colleagues here, in the very place that inspired my research career.”
Observing How Cells Manipulate their Extracellular Matrix
By designing and fabricating hydrogels, Loebel and her lab can recreate various aspects of the ECM and study how cells respond to them. What they found is that cells, upon interacting with these engineered biomaterials, don’t just sit idly by, they actively manipulate their ECM.
When tissue grows or repairs, new cells are being made and the extracellular matrix that contains them is still “young,” or nascent, containing less organized proteins than those found in a mature ECM. As the tissue matures or heals, the nascent ECM gradually undergoes remodeling, with the deposition of more stable proteins and the reorganization of the matrix into a more defined, functional structure. This process is crucial for proper tissue repair, and it also changes the way cells perceive their environment.
“It’s like when you move into a room and start decorating it to make it your own,” Loebel explains. “When cells interact with these materials, they begin remodeling their surroundings in ways we hadn’t anticipated. This remodeling could have huge implications for how diseases, particularly cancer and fibrosis, progress.”
By studying these behaviors, Loebel is opening up new ways to think about disease. Cells that remodel their environments in unhealthy ways may be driving disease progression, and understanding this process could lead to therapeutic breakthroughs.
Using the Lung as a Focal Organ
To study the cellular behavior of diseases in the body, Loebel is focused on one particularly crucial area: lung fibrosis and repair.
“The lung’s mechanical properties, structure and ability to transition oxygen make it a fascinating organ to study,” says Loebel. “It was actually the lung that I studied while at Penn in graduate school, so it also makes sense to bring those questions back here and work with my former collaborators in the field.”
Loebel works with ex vivo tissue slices, thin sections of lung tissue that retain their architecture and can be manipulated in the lab. These models allow her to simulate fibrotic conditions and study how cells within the tissue interact with the extracellular matrix in these diseased states.
“We have found that in fibrotic regions of the lung, a specific type of cell, called a transitional cell, appears,” she says. “We believe these cells get stuck in a disease phenotype, and they respond to a diseased extracellular matrix in a way we hadn’t seen before.”
Creating hydrogels that mimic diseased lung tissue will allow Loebel to pull apart the mechanics of cell-ECM dynamics and determine how that understanding can lead to improved disease treatment in other systems and organs in the body.
Working with Future Collaborators and Students
Now, as the leader of her own lab, Loebel is learning to balance research with the essential task of mentorship.
“Building the vision for my lab is not just about the science. It’s about the people,” she reflects. “I’m still learning how to lead the team, integrate different perspectives and foster an environment where creativity can thrive.
“I want students to be curious and eager to learn, even if that means making mistakes along the way,” she continues. “It is so valuable to have mentors that encourage creative exploration in developing research questions and approaches to answering questions, and who help remove the fear of failing.”
Loebel is committed to advancing science, fostering collaboration and building a team that is innovative and passionate about the research they are doing, and invites students and potential collaborators interested in her work to reach out to discuss ways to work together.
Learn more about the Loebel Lab here.