Jiho Park | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Jiho Park
Title: Modeling the Impact of Cellular Senescence on Wound Healing in Lung Alveolar Epithelial Tissue
Major: Biology
Minors: Computer Science; Mathematics
Advisors: Erzsébet Regan; Sharon Lynn

Aging is one of the main contributors to chronic diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. Among the biological changes that come with aging, cellular senescence, a state in which cells permanently stop dividing, plays a key role in tissue deterioration. What excites me about this project is the opportunity to explore how aging at the cellular level can shape tissue repair and function over time, especially in the lungs.

For my Independent Study, we developed a computational model to simulate wound healing in lung alveolar tissue using Python. This simulation captures how individual cells behave (dividing, migrating, or becoming senescent) on a two-dimensional grid. We designed four different models, including one that integrates cellular senescence accumulation dynamics. The results showed that as the probability of senescence increases, wound healing delays, and tissue permeability increases. Cellular senescence accumulation dynamics model reveals a threshold beyond which tissue fails to regenerate, mimicking wound healing of aging tissue.

There are several limitations in our models. Some biological parameters such as probability of EMT are unknown. Also, models lack molecular mechanisms. I hope to integrate genetic regulatory networks and validate this model with experimental data. This project has helped me see the potential of personalized simulations in predicting how aging impacts tissue recovery, and how computational biology can aid in diagnosing and treating age-related diseases like IPF.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.