BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Jordanna Payne (L. Solorio advisor) Title: Development and characterization of a subcutaneous porcine ex-vivo tissue culture model Please note this prelim is open only to those who have signed the Lilly NDA. Date: April 26, 2022 Time: 3:00pm EST Location: BRK 1001 Advisory Committee: Luis Solorio, Chair Douglas Brubaker Sherry L. Harbin Michael Wendt Abstract: The subcutaneous route of drug delivery is desirable due to patient comfort and ease of administration. One of the biggest challenges in studying drug delivery in the subcutaneous space is the lack of in-depth knowledge about the composition of the space. Because of this, several drugs encounter difficulty being delivered via this route presenting challenges during clinical trials. Currently, drugs are tested in vitro and in vivo. In vitro experiments are more cost effective but lack the ability to provide information about drug uptake by tissue and other interactions or toxicities. In vivo experiments can provide this information but are costly. There is a need for a platform that can be used to study subcutaneous injection of drugs ex-vivo. This work details the development and validation of a model of ex-vivo subcutaneous porcine tissue culture for up to one week utilizing three distinct anatomical locations from Yucatan mini pigs. Tissue specimens of 12mm in diameter from behind the ear, the breast, and the belly were cultured for seven days with average viability greater than 85%. Next, Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) was utilized to track changes in the subcutaneous proteome as a result of time in culture. Next, LC-MS will be utilized to track changes in the subcutaneous proteome of a commercially available ex-vivo human tissue model to compare to the porcine model. Finally, parameters for scaling of the model for high throughput will be determined.